Literary Cubism - Geography & Plays - Selected Works of Gertrude Stein - Softcover

Stein, Gertrude

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1934255769 ISBN 13: 9781934255766

Publisher: Traveling Press, 2011

Synopsis

Gertrude Stein was at heart an artist’s writer. She became well-known to the literary mainstream with "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas," and was at her most accessible with her speech and autobiographical writing of her later years. It is with collections such as "Geography and Plays," however, that Stein showcased the possibilities of the English language to transcend beyond literature into the realm of modern art. The page was her canvas, and as the Cubist painters of her time treated their subjects, Stein re-assembled words in an abstracted form to present them in a greater context, a context un-tethered by a singular viewpoint. This modern edition contains a massive collection of over 50 different works by Gertrude Stein. In addition to the daring and cheeky "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene," this revitalized edition contains many of her most radical and influential works. There is "Ada," one of Stein’s many word portraits of famous personages, this one written of Alice B. Toklas. There is "Every Afternoon: A Dialogue," a conversation between two unnamed people highlighting the writer’s playful, often humorous style. Also included is "Sacred Emily," in which the reader finds Stein’s most often quoted line, “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose," a line that employs her trademark use of repetitive language to express that things are what they are, but at the same time, so much more. In Stein’s view, the simple naming of a thing already invokes the imagery and emotions associated with it—the writer does not need to manipulate the word any further.

About this title

About the Author:

Gertrude Stein, born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, in 1874, is a renowned American writer, poet, and art collector. The author of more than a dozen books and countless works of criticism, Stein died in France in 1946.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

She came to be happier than anybody else who was living then. It is easy to believe this thing. She was telling some one, who was loving every story that was charming. Some one who was living was almost always listening. Some one who was loving was almost always listening. That one who was loving was almost always listening. That one who was loving was telling about being one then listening. That one being loving was then telling stories having a beginning and a middle and an ending. That one was then one always completely listening.

Ada was then one and all her living then one completely telling stories that were charming, completely listening to stories having a beginning and a middle and an ending. Trembling was all living, living was all loving, some one was then the other one. Certainly this one was loving this Ada then. And certainly Ada all her living then was happier in living than any one else who ever could, who was, who is, who ever will be living." --from "Ada".

About this edition

• Publisher: Traveling Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1934255769
• ISBN 13: 9781934255766
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 520
• Editor: Bonds Laura, Conners Shawn
• Illustrator: Gris Juan