43

A Piece of Coffee.

More of double.

A place in no new table.

A single image is not splendor. Dirty is yellow. A sign of more in not mentioned. A piece of coffee is not a detainer. The resemblance to yellow is dirtier and distinet. The clean mixture is whiter and not coal color, never more coal color than altogether.

The sight of a reason, the same sight slighter, the sight of a simpler negative answer, the same sore sounder, the intention to wishing, the same splendor, the same furniture.

The time to show a message is when too late and later there is no hanging in a blight.

A not torn rose-wood color. If it is not dangerous then a pleasure and more than any other if it is cheap is not cheaper. The amusing side is that the sooner there are no fewer the more certain is the necessity dwindled. Supposing that the case contained rose-wood and a color. Supposing that there was no reason for a distress and more likely for a number, supposing that there was no astonishment, is not necessary to single astonishment.

The settling of stationing cleaning is one way not to shatter scatter and scattering. The one way to use custom is to use soap concentrating the illusion and the illustration. The perfect way is to accustom the thing to have a lining and the shape of a ribbon and to be solid, quite solid in standing and to use heaviness in morning. It is light enough in that. It has that shape nicely. Very nicely may not be exaggerating. Very strongly may be sincerely fainting. May be strangely flattering. May not be strange in everything. May not be strange to.

MUTTON.

A letter which can wither, a learning which can suffer and an outrage
which is simultaneous is principal.

Student, students are merciful and recognised they chew something.

Hate rests that is solid and sparse and all in a shape and largely very
largely. Interleaved and successive and a sample of smell all this makes a
certainty a shade.

Light curls very light curls have no more curliness than soup. This is
not a subject.

Change a single stream of denting and chance it hurriedly, what does it
express, it expresses nausea. Like a very strange likeness and pink, like
that and not more like that than the same resemblance and not more like that
than no middle space in cutting.

An eye glass, what is an eye glass, it is water. A splendid specimen,
what is it when it is little and tender so that there are parts. A centre
can place and four are no more and two and two are not middle.

Melting and not minding, safety and powder, a particular recollection
and a sincere solitude all this makes a shunning so thorough and so unrepeated
and surely if there is anything left it is a bone. It is not solitary.

Any space is not quiet it is so likely to be shiny. Darkness very dark
darkness is sectional. There is a way to see in onion and surely very surely
rhubarb and a tomato, surely very surely there is that seeding. A little
thing in is a little thing.

Mud and water were not present and not any more of either. Silk and
stockings were not present and not any more of either. A receptacle and a
symbol and no monster were present and no more. This made a piece show and
was it a kindness, it can be asked was it a kindness to have it warmer, was
it a kindness and does gliding mean more. Does it.

Does it dirty a ceiling. It does not. Is it dainty, it is if prices are
sweet. Is it lamentable, it is not if there is no undertaker. Is it curious,
it is not when there is youth. All this makes a line, it even makes no
more. All this makes cherries. The reason that there is a suggestion in
variety is due to this that there is a burst of mixed music.

A temptation any temptation is an exclamation if there are misdeeds and
little bones. It is not astonishing that bones mingle as they vary not at
all and in any case why is a bone outstanding, it is so because the circumstance
that does not make a cake and character is so easily churned and cherished.

- 1 -

## Sugar.

A violent luck and a whole sample and even then quiet.

Water is squeezing, water is almost squeezing on lard. Water, water
is a mountain and it is selected and it is so practical that there is no
use in money. A mind under its exact and so it is necessary to have a mouth
and eye glasses.

A question of sudden rises and more time than awfulness is so easy and
shady. There is precisely that noise.

A peck a small piece not privately overseen, not at all not a slice,
not at all crestfallen and open, not at all mounting and chaining and evenly
surpassing, all the bidding comes to tea.

A separation is not tightly in worsted and sauce, it is so kept well
and sectionally.

Put it in the stew, put it to shame. A little slight shadow and a
solid fine furnace.

The teasing is tender and trying and thoughtful.

The line which sets sprinkling to be a remedy is beside the best cold.

A puzzle, a monster puzzle, a heavy choking, a neglected Tuesday.

Wet crossing and a likeness, any likeness, a likeness has blisters, it
has that and teeth, it has the staggering blindly and a little green, any
little green is ordinary.

One, two and one, two, nine, second and five and that.

A blaze, a search in between, a cow, only any wet place, only this tune.

Cut a gas get uglier and then pierce in between the next and
negligence. Choose the rate to pay and pet pet very much. A collection of
all around, a signal poison, a lack of languor and more hurts at ease.

A white bird, a colored mine, a mixed orange, a dog.

Cuddling comes in continuing a change.

A piece of separate outstanding rushing is so blind with open delicacy.

A canoe is orderly. A period is solemn. A cow is accepted.

A nice old chain is widening, it is absent, it is laid by.

53

This is rather fine, looking at it dispassionately. "A violent luck
There is precisely that noise." I call that from my standpoint
a successful poem. "...slight shadow and a solid fine furnace." You see
a "little slight shadow" has poetical appeal but it is not quite successful.
poetry. "Water is squeezing, water is almost squeezing on lard." The
imagery of that is really a perfect example of realism, there is enough
there to a person looking at water that is realistic, there is enough use
that is outside the image before your eyes. "A mind under is exact and so
it is necessary to have a mouth and eyeglasses." That impresses any person,
so to speak it is part of the water and is therefore valid. It is supposed
to continue the actual realism of water, of a great body of water. You must
remember each time I took something, I said, I have got to satisfy each
realistic thing I feel about it. Looking at your shoe, for instance, I
would try to make a complete realistic picture of your shoe. It is devilish
difficult and needs perfect concentration, you have to refuse so much and
so much intrudes itself upon you that you do not want, it is exhausting work.

Eggs.

Kind height, kind in the right stomach with a little sudden mill.

Cuning shawl, cunning shawl to be steady.

In white in white handkerchiefs with little dots in a white belt all
shadows are singular they are singular and procured and relieved.

No that is not the cows shame and a precocious sound, it is a bite.

Cut up alone the paved way which is harm. Harm is old boat and a
likely dash.

*Yes Is for a Very Young Man*, originally *In Savoie*, a play about the Resistance, was started in 1944 and finished in 1945. One act was printed in the *Saturday Review of Literature* and the play was performed 13 March 1946 in Pasadena. (But it seems to me I read a reference to its being performed there early in February, 1946.) The first act was rewritten in the spring of 1945. Being published in England by Pushkin Press under original title.

*We Are Back in Paris*, 1945, published pp. 5-9 of *Transformation Three*, edited by Stefan Schimanski and Henry Treece, Lindsay Drummond Ltd., London. A French version was written for *Fontaine*. Also being used as introduction to edition deluxe of Dancy's work by Barantiere.

*Article on airplane trip to Germany written for and published in Life*, July 1945. Translated into French and published in a weekly, *Privilege*.

*The Sad Young Men*, written in the summer of 1945 and published in the *New York Times Supplement*. Also in *Confluence*, 1946.

*From Dark to Day*, an article on Pierre Balman in *Vogue*, 1945.

Two introductions:

*A la Recherche d'un Peintre* in French printed in *Fontaine*, 1945. *Jean Atlan*, "used in catalogue for his show", 1946.

*The Opera, Mother of Us All*, finished March 1946. Virgil Thomson to write the music for it, summer 1946.

*Brewsie and Willie*, begun just after returning from plane trip to Germany in summer of 1945 and finished in 1945. Being published in spring of 1946.

An introduction to a volume of poems by George John of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1945.

*Every Thing*, written for "some American architects in Paris, late 1945, for a review by them."

*The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and Three Lives* were published in Italian translation by Binasdi, Milan, 1938.

*Wars I Have Seen, Ida, Long Gay Book, and Lucy Church Amiably* are to be published in Italian translation by Montadori, Rome.

- 2 -

Rough notes on the early development of Gertrude Stein's literary reputation, developed from notations made 11 March 1946 while talking with Miss Stein in her apartment at 9 Rue Christine, Paris.

Her reputation was formed in her own miscellaneous and haphazardly-accumulated circle before anything was published. Her readers were "not a group, just an aggregation of personalities". She was writing constantly in those early days in Paris. Manuscripts were lying about on furniture and stuffed in drawers. Any one who came in might pick up a manuscript and "either be interested or not". Manuscripts that happened to interest people might be carried off and handed around, occasionally were read aloud by some one with a particular interest. The people who came to visit Miss Stein were, in her own words, "a funny lot. And you never knew why one person rather than another became interested." Of her own reaction at that time Miss Stein says: "I didn't talk about it. I was fairly silent. I didn't know much about what I was trying to do. And I was fairly silent."

Miss Stein kept copies of everything she wrote and began her struggles for publication. It took two years of persistent effort to get *Three Lives* printed. As Miss Stein puts it, "No one would publish."

Hutchens Hapgood gave *Three Lives* to an agent, who said it was worthless. "Sidgewick of the *Atlantic Monthly* used to flirt with the offer." Perhaps the first published review of her work was in the *Kansas City Star* when *Three Lives* came out.

Some of the people who used to go to Miss Stein's apartment and read and circulate her manuscripts were:

Mable Dodge

Jo Davidson (an early reader who disseminated a great deal)

Haweiss (an Englishman whose father "introduced Wagner")

Harry Gibb (an Englishman)

Watson, a novelist

Muriel Draper

Stieglitz

Henry McBride

Roger Frye

Mildred Aldrich

"The people who came to see Picasso"

Höchst

9 April 46

This is not a bibliographer's bibliography, but it is the best information one could obtain from Miss Stein and Miss Toklas without being obnoxious. Miss Stein got out her notebooks, in which she writes her manuscripts in pencil, and went through them, giving titles and information about time of writing and publishing. Miss Toklas sat by meanwhile, occasionally offering an addition or a correction or an attempted correction. Notes were taken on each item separately. Then the whole thing was read back to Miss Stein and Miss Toklas, and they directed a few changes and finally said that was all Miss Stein had written or started since 1940.

More than one of the bibliography items is not complete, because neither Miss Stein nor Miss Toklas could remember always all that might be desired, especially about French publications. One could do nothing but accept a statement like, "That was published in *Fontaine*, but I don't remember when." Consequently, this is just a start on a final coverage of the items written between 1940 and January 1946. But it does furnish a sound basis by listing all (according to the author) of her writings in that period, and it lists all the information Miss Stein and Miss Toklas felt able to give about them.

First Reader, started in 1939 and finished early in 1941, part of it, called Ballade, was printed in Confluence, 1943. (Confluence is said to have "published twelve numbers".) Being published, 1946, with illustrations by Francis Rose with three plays for children by Fridberg (?) in England.

To Do, written in 1940 after Mrs Reynolds.

Picabia, apparently written in 1940 ("associated with the attack on Norway").

La langue Francaise, written in 1940 and published perhaps same year in French in French publication which may be the first number of La Patrie. [nº 2, août 1941, p 36-37]

Winners Are Losers, originally Sundays and Tuesdays, written in 1940 and published (when?) in Atlantic Monthly.

The United States of America, written in 1940 and apparently unpublished, though it "may have been incorporated in Wars I Have Seen.

Wars I Have Seen, begun in 1942, sent to America in 1944, and printed in 1945.

A Poem About the End of the War, written in Culoz in 1943.

A Castle on a Wall, written in 1943 and described as "a short thing".

Three plays for children: In a Garden, a Tragedy in One Act, Trois Soeurs Qui Sont Pas Soeurs, Look and Long, a Play in Three Acts, written during the summer of 1943, being published in England in 1946 by Fridberg (spelling uncertain). Being published with the First Reader and illustrated by Francis Rose, 1946. The plays were put in by the children of the neighborhood where she lived when she wrote them.

Voi de l'Amerique, written upon being liberated late in August 1944 for the Coq Bugist, local newspaper, and published in the second number after Liberation, between 3-10 September 1944.

What a Day Is Today, a radio broadcast made from the station at Voirons in September 1944, six days after the liberation of Belley.

"L'Amerique est mon pays mais la France est mon chez moi" is the first line of an address delivered in French in Lyons, Belley, and Grenoble between October-November 1944.

- 1 -

["*Yes Is for a Very Young Man*, originally *En Savoie*, a play about the Resistance, was started in 1944 and finished in 1945. One act was (or was to be) printed in the *Saturday Review* and was scheduled to be performed 1 March 1946 in Pasadena. (But it seems to me I read a reference to its being performed there early in February, 1946.) The first act was rewritten in the spring of 1945.", "*We Are Back in Paris, 1945*, published pp. 5-9 of *Transformation Three*, edited by Stefan Schimanski and Henry Treece, *Lindsay Drummond Ltd.*, London. A French version was written for Fontaine (which may be either a publisher, a magazine, or both).", "*Article on airplane trip to Germany written for and published in *Life*, July 1945.*", "Aug 6, 1945 (issued 9.17.41)\n\n*The Sad Young Man*, written in the summer of 1945 and published in the *Times Supplement*.", "*From Dark to Day*, an article on Pierre Balman in *Vogue*, 1945.", "Two introductions:\n\n*A la Recherche d'un Peintre*, in French printed in *Fontaine*, 1945.\n\n*Jean Atlan*, 'Used in catalogue for his show", 1946.", "*The Opera, Mother of Us All*, in progress 1945-6.", "*Brewsie and Willie*, begun just after returning from plane trip to Germany in summer of 1945 and finished in 1945. Being published in spring of 1946.", "*An introduction to a volume of poems by George John of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1945.*", "*Every Thing*, written for \"some American architects in Paris, late 1945, for a review by them\".", "- 2 -"]

Historical Section
Hq TSFET
APO 887
U. S. Army

30 September 1945

Dear Miss Stein:

The two conversations I have enjoyed having with you cause me to think
you are willing to listen to an idea. Accordingly, I am going to tell
you what is on my mind.

It is my desire to prepare a bibliographical guide to your work and to
secure for that enterprise the benefit of your approval and cooperation.
Basically it would be a complete list of all published work in all
editions with useful bibliographical data. If permissible, it would
include mention of unpublished manuscripts. Data concerning the cir-
cumstances under which each work was written and published, the purpose
for which it was intended, and its place in the larger scheme of your
artistic life would be strategically introduced. (Much information of
this type you have already given in your autobiographical works and
perhaps other places I do not know. But I am sure I should have many
questions.) As an appendage there would be a listing of important
writings helpful to the study and understanding of the character and
significance of your work.

If I may, I should like to present my reasons for proposing this under-
taking.

It is now beyond debate, as you know, that your writings are among the
most important produced in English in this century. Yet I believe it is
true that you and your writings are much more often discussed than under-
stood. In my own experience as a student and reader, I have found it
not at all easy to get a full view of what you have written. (I am in
the process of getting that view -- preparing this work would surely
give it to me.) I want to make such a view easily available to those
who seriously want to know about your writings. I tell you truthfully
as a serious student of literature in American universities in the past
decade that you are far better known as a person whose writings are
difficult (no, impossible) for the average person to read than as the
author of such books as *Three Lives, The Making of Americans*, and the
autobiographies. When I mention to some of my reasonably-well-educated
friends that I have seen you and had the pleasure of talking with you,
they very often say, "Does she talk the way she writes?" This is as
much as to ask if what you say is comprehensible. This is all because
most publicity has been given to those writings in which you have used
the language most experimentally. (The average American newspaper
reader is likely to know that "a rose is a rose" refers to a person
known as Gertrude Stein, perhaps a writer or something, but there are
graduate students in American literature who do not know the author
of *Tender Buttons*.) I think it high time something was done about this,
and I should deem it a rather high privilege and a definite pleasure
to be allowed to work on it.

1

You will conceivably remember me as a person who came to see you about Sherwood Anderson. I went a bit off the beaten path and did my university dissertation on him. I'm still working on him. I hope to have a career in teaching and writing. The war has taken three years away from me. I should like to get back to publish my work on Anderson. It would help me personally and professionally to be able to publish something on you, too.

Your work presents a considerable challenge to me. I do not pretend to comprehend all that it says and means. But I am willing to devote time and energy to that end. As a teacher of literature, which, for better or worse, I shall be again when I am allowed, I consider it important that I know your work thoroughly. Since I propose for myself a thorough study, it seems to me not unreasonable that I prepare as a by-product of that study a useful tool to facilitate a similar study by others.

My basic desire is that you consent to my discussing this matter more in detail with you and Miss Toklas.