Gertrude Stein

Writings 1932–1946

Stanzas in Meditation • Lectures in America • The Geographical History of America • The World is Round • Ida • Brewsie and Willie • Other Works

This volume contains fifteen works written by Gertrude Stein between 1932 and 1946, seven of which were published after her death in 1946.

The complete text of "Stanzas in Meditation," written in 1932, was not published during Stein's lifetime, although it was excerpted in Orbes (no. 4, Winter 1932-33, with French translation on facing pages), Life and Letters Today (vol. XV, no. 6, Winter 1936-37), and Poetry (vol. LV, no. 5, February 1940). The complete text first appeared in Stanzas in Meditation and Other Poems 1929-1933 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950; edited by Donald Sutherland) as part of the Yale Edition of the Unpublished Writings of Gertrude Stein. This edition included revisions that Stein made to the typescript, apparently at Toklas's urging. The majority of the changes consist of the excision of almost all forms of the word may from the text, perhaps as a result of Stein's rediscovery in the spring of 1932 of Q.E.D., a fictional work based on Stein's relationship with May Bookstaver (see Ulla E. Dydo, "How to Read Gertrude Stein: The Manuscripts of 'Stanzas in Meditation' in Text, vol. I, 1981). Revisions include the frequent substitution of can or day for may and sometimes involve further recasting of the text; for example, "Just why they may count how may one mistaken" (16.6) becomes "Just why they can count how many are mistaken" and "month of May" (22.8) becomes "month to-day." The text printed here is that of the corrected typescript copy that bears the title "LXXXIII Stanzas" and that does not include the revisions to the word may; the manuscript is in the Beinecke Library, Yale University.

Written in 1932-1933, "Henry James" is one part of a study of four Americans, including also Wilbur Wright, Ulysses S. Grant, and George Washington, which Stein titled Four in America. The book first appeared in 1947 (edited by Donald Gallup) as part of the Yale Edition of the Unpublished Writings of Gertrude Stein; the text of the first edition was based on a collation of the holograph manuscript and the typescripts in the Beinecke Library. The text printed here is that of the first edition.

Lectures in America was first published in 1935 by Random House and includes the lectures Stein wrote in 1934 and read during her American lecture tour in 1934-35. No typescript is known to be extant. The text printed here is that of the first edition.

Written in 1935, "Narration: Lecture 3" is the third lecture of four that Stein read at a seminar at the University of Chicago. Narration: Four Lectures by Gertrude Stein was first published in 1935 by the University of Chicago Press. Collation of the typescript copies and the first edition suggests that the typescripts are late drafts, since the book contains revisions that are evidently authorial. The text printed here is that of the first edition.

"What Are Master-pieces and Why Are There So Few of Them" was written in 1935 and was first published in America by the Conference Press, California in 1940. Collation of the typescripts and the first edition reveals a number of minor differences in the first edition which appear to be authorial. The text printed here is that of the first edition.

The Geographical History of America or The Relation of Human Nature to the Human Mind was written in 1935 and first published by Random House in 1936. Although Stein corrected one set of proofs, her letters to Bennett Cerf, her publisher, express concern about the number of errors introduced into the text during typesetting. She was unable to correct a second set of proofs and urged Cerf to proofread the book carefully against her original typescript. Collation of the typescript and the first book edition reveals significant disparities, including differences of punctuation, capitalization, and spacing, and numerous handwritten corrections to the typescript that are not reproduced in the first edition. The text printed here is that of the corrected typescript in the Beinecke Library.

Written in 1936, "What Does She See When She Shuts Her Eyes: A Novel" was first printed in Mrs. Reynolds and Five Earlier Novelettes as part of the Yale Edition of the Unpublished Writings of Gertrude Stein in 1952. The text printed here is that of the typescript, from the Beinecke Library.

Picasso was originally written and published in French in 1938. Alice B. Toklas translated the work into English, and Stein then corrected the manuscript produced by Toklas. The English-language version was first published in London by B. T. Batsford Ltd., in October 1938, and then, in identical form, in the United States by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1939. Collation of two corrected typescript carbon copies and the first edition shows numerous changes in punctuation and occasional word changes. Attached to the 42-page typescript in the Beinecke Library is a note in Stein's hand that reads "On no account depart from punctuation etc. of actual typescript." The text printed here is that of the 42-page corrected typescript.

The World Is Round, a children's book, was written in 1939 and first appeared in Harper's Bazaar (June 1939). It was first published in book form in the United States in 1939 by William R. Scott, illustrated by Clement Hurd and printed on bright pink paper with white and blue type, and was published in London a few months later by B. T. Batsford, with illustrations by Francis Rose. Collation of the corrected typescript copy and the first edition reveals significant word and punctuation differences, including many which appear authorial. The text printed here is that of the first American edition.

"Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights" was written in 1938. The play was commissioned by Gerald Berners, who intended to score it himself; when he was unable to do so, Virgil Thomson composed the music. It was published posthumously in Last Operas and Plays (New York and Toronto: Rinehart & Co., 1949). Collation shows significant differences between the typescript carbon copies and the first book edition, including differences of punctuation and wording. Because the authority for these changes is unclear, the text printed here is that of the later corrected typescript copy in the Beinecke Library.

Ida was written between 1937 and 1940 and was first published by Random House in 1941. No typescript is known to be extant. The text printed here is that of the first edition.

"Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters" was written in 1944 and was first published in The First Reader (Dublin: Maurice Fridberg, 1946). No typescript is known to be extant. The first American printing, offset from the Dublin edition, was published in 1948 in Boston by Houghton Mifflin Co. The text printed here is that of the first book printing.

Brewsie and Willie was written in 1945 and was first published by Random House in 1946. The extant typescript has been marked up both by Stein and by a copy editor. Because it is not always possible to distinguish the two sets of markings, and because the identifiable revisions by Stein are incorporated into the first edition, the text printed here is that of the first edition.

"The Mother of Us All" was written in 1945-46, and a portion of it appeared in Harper's Bazaar (May 1947). The first book publication was in Last Operas and Plays. No typescript is known to be extant. The text printed here is that of the first book edition.

Written in 1945-46, "Reflection on the Atomic Bomb" may have been Stein's last piece of writing. The title was given to the piece by the editors of the Yale Poetry Review, where the piece appeared in no. 7, December 1947. The text printed here is that of the original typescript, from the Beinecke Library.

Although Stein's use of language and punctuation was unconventional, she employed standard spelling; therefore words inadvertently misspelled in the typescripts, as well as other obvious slips, have been corrected. However, Stein's omission of the apostrophe in some contractions ("its," "whats," for example) is fairly consistent and so has not been changed. Her British forms of several words such as "realise" and "recognise" have also been retained.

This volume presents the texts of the original printings chosen for inclusion here, but it does not attempt to reproduce features of their typographic design, such as display capitalization of chapter openings.

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