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Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife
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About This Book
From the celebrated author of Square Haunting comes a biography as unconventional and surprising as the life it tells. 'Think of the Bible and Homer, think of Shakespeare and think of me,' wrote Gertrude Stein in 1936. Admirers called her a genius, sceptics a she remains one of the most confounding - and contested - writers of the twentieth century. In this literary detective story, Francesca Wade delves into the creation of the Stein myth. We see her posing for Picasso's portrait; at the centre of Bohemian Parisian life hosting the likes of Matisse and Hemingway; racing through the French countryside with her enigmatic companion Alice B. Toklas; dazzling American crowds on her sell-out tour for her sensational Autobiography - a veritable celebrity. Yet Stein hoped to be remembered not for her personality but for her work. From her deathbed, she charged her partner with securing her place in literary history. How would her legend shift once it was Toklas's turn to tell the stories - especially when uncomfortable aspects of their past emerged from the archive? Using astonishing never-before-seen material, Wade uncovers the origins of Stein's radical writing, and reveals new depths to the storied relationship which made it possible. This is Gertrude Stein as she was when nobody was captivating, complex and human.
Reviews
"Exhaustively researched and beautifully written...a masterpiece of biography."
"Highly recommended to researchers, but Wade provides a wealth of material for general readers too."
"It is not until page 204, following Stein's death from cancer in 1946, that Wade embarks on the more interesting and original aspects of her investigation ..."
"There is too much uncertainty, not only about facts but about the meaning of those facts."
"The revelations in Gertrude Stein are exciting, but perhaps even more gripping are the characters the book brings so vividly to life."
"The first half, a vivid but condensed account of her life, doesn't break much new ground ..."
"As an experiment in biography, it is strikingly accomplished; as a tale of literary intrigue, it is utterly compelling ..."
"Less assured and less sonorously written; much of the ground that it covers is familiar, and some of the scholarly details she exhumes seem tiresome rather than revelatory ..."
"The full story of their love affair can only now be told, uncensored, in an afterlife that Wade captures so vividly here."
"Biographies have become more self-consciously literary and more wary of promising a complete picture of a life."
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