The Wilmington morning star., 1946-07-28
GERTRUDE STEIN
SUCCUMBS AT z
Famed Literary Figure
Dies In American Hos
pital In Paris

PARIS, July q -R)-Gertrude
Stein, world-renoWned American
writer, died tonight in the Ameri-
can hospital at Neuilly, a Paris
suburb.
Officials at the hospital announc-
ed the death of Miss Stein, who
was Y.
A native of Allegheny, Pa, Miss
Stein had lived in Paris since the
beginning of the century. She NOV
ed to Bilignin in the foothills of
the French alps at the beginning
of World War II, and when she
at last decided to return to the
United States, it was too late and
all travel lanes for civilians had
closed.
Hospital officials declined to
state the nature of the authors i'll
ness or how long she had been con-
fined.
Miss STEMS death came only
a few days after the publication in
the United States of her latest
book, BreWsie and Willie.
A popular figure with American
soldiers, scores Of whom visited
and talked with her in Paris when
she returned to the capital after
the allies drove the Germans out,
Miss Stein used many of them as
characters in Brewsie and Willie,
a book devoted chiefly to the
thoughts and talk of GI's in France.
Literary writers said recently
that Miss Stein had planned to re-
turn to the United States this fall.
She was born in Allegheny, Pa,
now part of Pittsburgh. in 1874, on
the third of February, the month
when, as she once wrote, "were
born Washington, Lincoln and l."
The woman whose name is linked
inseparably with School of Paris
art, who was acquainted with near
ly all the important writers, paint
ers and sculptors of the last 40
years in Western Europe and
America, but whose writing even
her publisher admitted he could
not understand, sprang from an
upper middle-class family and a
sound cultural background.
She lived in Allegheny and then
in San Francisco, and stayed in
this country long enough to be
graduated from Radcliffe and to
come within one examination mark
of winning a degree from Johns
Hopkins Medical School. But from
the start of this century on. she
made her home in paris France"
title of one Of her last and most
popular books, a tribute to the city
she loved. She occupied a small
apartment at q Rue de Fleurus,
near the Luxembourg Gardens;
for more than a decade it was
Paris most famous literary adj
dress.
Her Personality
Little known people visited there
too, among them American soldiers
whom Miss Stein met in the last
war. They were captivated by her
fortnight and frank manner, her
booming voice, and her abandoned,
thunderous laugh, and fascinated
by the uncommon, strange figure
in sandals, a heavy full skirt and
a knitted vest. Her short, stocky
person gave the impression of
tremendous strength. She had a
handsome face with a broad fore
head and a w~eathered complexion,
and her hair was close-cropped.
She was a good listener, the soldiers
said, and a good talker. She was
also. they recall, a. good singer,
or a willing one, and her favorite
was ''The Trail of the Lonesome
Pine"
Curious Style
When Miss Toklas Joined Miss
Stein in 1907, Miss Stein was work
ing on THE Making of Americans"
a 1%OOO-page novel. Hemingway, to
whose first child Miss Stein and
Miss Toklas were godmothers,
helped Miss Toklas type the first
so pages of it for a magazine, but
it was not easy to find a publisher
for the entire 1000. That had to wait
until 1925. 1t was a job to write
Rose Is A Rose Is A Rose
The phrase Rose is a rose is a
rose" may be taken as a sample
of the manner of writing which
facinated ever more readers than
it Infatuated. Miss Stein explained
that she wrote not so much for the
ear as for the eye. She concentrat-
ed less on words than an sentences
her life long passion" Rose-is-a-
rose-is-a-rose, on first acquaintance
exasperated a reader; then it set
him to wondering; and before he
could help himself, it was fixed in
his mind. 1t became n of the
most quoted passages il modern
literature; it has even been para
-L-.-- -. w. floo- of Co~4ra,.