Questions and Answers

Up until now, the only time that Gertrude Stein was ever a presence at the White House, as far as I know, was on December 30, 1934 when she and Alice were invited to tea by Eleanor Roosevelt.  From what I’ve read, a good time was had by all.

Teatime with Eleanor, 1933

Not sure if Barack or Michelle are aware of Gertrude in recent days, but someone on the presidential staff  may have taken a major step backwards into the era of the Salem witch trials or more recently Joseph McCarthy’s un-American  activities committee, when they felt the necessity to re-issue the May 1^st proclamation announcing  the 7^th annual Jewish Heritage Month.

Once upon a time in Salem...

Joe Mc and friend, 1954

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Every year brings with it landmark events and 1877 was no different.

So today, the 135^th birthday of Alice B. Toklas, let’s take a look at some of the happenings of that year and how maybe, just maybe, they shaped the life of the infant born that day on O’Farrell Street in San Francisco.

The streets of San Francisco 1877

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One hundred and six years ago yesterday, San Francisco burned following the jolt of the 1906 Fire and Earthquake.

Gertrude Stein had been living in Paris for three years at the time of the quake, but Alice B. Toklas was in San Francisco living with her father on Clay Street.

The house on Clay Street.

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I’m not one to espouse any particular religious denomination, though our childhood was tinged with the beliefs of both good old-fashioned Missouri-Synod Lutheranism and Northern Baptist -Baptism with some Judaism thrown in for good measure (except during Nazi times) on my mother’s side of the family!

GertrudeandAlice’s families were also from what I’ve read quite secular Jews, but once Alice reached the ripe old age of  70, she decided that Roman Catholicism might be the best road to eternal, heavenly bliss and might, just might, allow her to see Gertrude again. (So she was told by the young priest who converted her. He was probably both cute and persuasive.)

A few Easters ago in one of my sacrilegious, creative moments (something which is most-unLent-like during Holy Week), I created a collaged card inspired by a “real” Easter card of the one and only Good Shepherd.

The Good Shepherd I grew up with at Immanuel Lutheran School

What does this have to do with GertrudeandAlice?  Very little except that I’m sure they celebrated the Jewish holidays with appropriate reverence and food. And once Alice “saw the light”, or at least hoped to, she was extra devote from Palm Sunday to Easter.

Not to mention that her cookbook, which was published three years before her “enlightenment,” contains eleven egg-specific recipes, from “Chinese Eggs” to “Omelette  in an Overcoat” and three lamb dishes!

In celebration of Passover and Easter, I now give you the “Good Eggherd” (hold the lightning bolt, please!):

Happy Holidays and a springy Spring to all!

I have often referred to the book CHARMED CIRCLE by James R. Mellow as it was the book that first got me interested in Gertrude Stein and her crowd.

Now I’m so happy to announce that the contemporary incarnation of an iconic institution that played a pivotal role in the lives of many members of Stein’s Charmed Circle  is now selling copies of my book GERTRUDE AND ALICE AND FRITZ AND TOM (GAAAFAT.*)

[*not to be confused with what many a gay man is trying to lose at Gold's Gym!]

That institution is Shakespeare and Company in Paris! The original bookstore sold and championed the works of Stein, Joyce, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald among many others.  Its modern counterpart has continued the tradition for more than sixty years.

James Joyce, Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier in the original Shakespeare & Co., 1920

The current Shakespeare and Company at 37, rue Bûcherie, one of the Parisian landmarks included in Woody Allen's hit movie "Midnight in Paris."

I must confess that copies of the book are already at another Shakespeare & Co., the beautiful, little English-language book shop in Vienna located on the poetically named street, Sterngasse (“star way“), which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. But having copies of the books in Paris within a catapult’s boulder throw from Notre Dame is such a thrill.

Not to mention that were Fritz and Tom to turn around in the illustration in the book in which they are on Notre Dame’s tower (within the watchful glare of a gargoyle), they would have a direct view across the Seine to where the current Shakespeare and Co. bookstore has been located since 1951. (The bookstore, founded by George Whitman was originally named Le Mistral, but was renamed in 1964 as a tribute to Sylvia Beach who died that year.)

Whitman died in December of last year at the age of 98.

Born in Baltimore, Sylvia Beach moved to Paris in the last years of  WWI and  opened Shakespeare and Company at 8, Rue Dupuytren  in 1919.  Two years later it moved to its famous location at 12, Rue de l’Odéon. The shop was a combination English-language bookstore and lending library replicating the French version of the store that had been started by Adrienne Monnier who would become Sylvia’s life partner . Gertrude and Alice were among the first holders of “library cards”.  In her autobiography, published in 1959 Beach recalls the “Two Customers from Rue de Fleurus”:

“Not long after I opened my bookshop, two women came walking down rue Dupuytre.  One of them, with a very fine face, was stout,wore a long robe, and on her head, a most becoming top of a basket.  She was accompanied by a slim, dark, whimsical woman: she reminded me of a gypsy.  They were Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

…Gertrude subscribed to my lending library, but complained that there were no amusing books in it.  Where, she asked indignantly, were those American masterpieces The Trail of the Lonesome Pine and The Girl of the Limberlost?

…To make up for her unjust criticism of Shakespeare and Company, she bestowed several of her works on us: quite rare items such as Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia and that thing with the terrifying title, Have They Attacked Mary: He giggled:A Political Caricature.”

A moment of intimate gossip between Sylvia Beach and Alice in Paris, 1959

Another connection between GAAAFAT and Sylvia Beach and Shakespeare and Co. is Joyce’s book ULYSSES.

Jane Heap  and Margaret Anderson, the guardians of Fritz and Tom, serialized the Joyce book in The Little Review  from 1918-1921. Publication of the book was halted when the U.S. government considered the material in the last installment obscene: it contained a masturbation scene.

Jane Heap and Margaret Anderson, mid-1920s

Heap and Anderson were tried and a portion of the book was declared obscene.  They were fined $50 each.  Sylvia Beach published ULYSSES in 1922, but it was banned in the U.S. until 1934 when it was judged “not pornographic, so it could not be obscene!” Only 1000 copies were printed and are among the most prized books by collectors of 20^th century first editions.

The amusing book at Shakespeare and Company, Paris 2012

On this date 45 years ago, Alice B. Toklas winged her way into the blue, hoping that once she arrived at the pearly gates, Gertrude would be waiting there in her white corduroy robe and a large bunch of roses!

So in remembrance of this historic reunion, I offer this lovely Victorian angel:

The following post is rated R ,”Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian!”

In the last few months there has been a controversy raging following the publishing of Barbara Will’s book Unlikely Collaboration: Gertrude Stein, Bernard Fay, and the Vichy Dilemma.  In her book, Will delves into one of the aspects of Gertrude’s life that is recounted every few years in various books and articles: how did she and Alice as lesbian, American Jews survive in Nazi-occupied France during WWII?  Gertrude’s close friendship with Fay, a Vichy government sympathizer, and his role in preventing GertrudeandAlice from being rounded up by the Nazis is not new information. However, it is Will’s contention that Stein too held strong pro-Vichy and pro-Nazi sentiments that has caused a firestorm in a large contingency of the Stein Fan Club.

But now there is a new, potential controversy brewing regarding my picture book Gertrude and Alice and Fritz and Tom.

The word “Pussy” is used four times in the book- pages 4, 13, 35, and 61 and is one of the many affectionate names GertrudeandAlice had for each other.

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It has often been said that as you get older time seems to pass more quickly, hence birthdays are here each year before we know it!

And today, once again Our Ms. Stein celebrates her 138^th birthday. (Just imagine how quickly time must pass once you’ve reached 138?!)

The year past has been most eventful for Steiniacs around the globe and I’m already beginning to hear about new Stein events in the new year: theatrical productions, workshops and literary conferences.  Just register with Google Alerts and enter “Gertrude Stein” if you’d like to be kept in the know. Also go to the “Quoting Gertrude Stein” link on the right, and Renate provides her Stein year in review.

The question of what to get for a 138 year old birthday “girl” would stump even the most gifted of personal shoppers.  I’m sure she had/has it all.  What more could one ask for than a roomful of Picassos and Matisses (and Alice) especially at today’s auction prices?  It could put Facebook’s pending IPO to shame – and then maybe not!

So what I offer today as a gift to one and all is a drawing that Tom Hachtman did for me a number of years ago.  I think it is very appropriate as it shows GertrudeandAlice at one of their favorite activities – eating.

"Birthday Crockery!" copyright 2001, Tom Hachtman

What the concoction in the Crockpot is…I’ll let you all use your imaginations.  But whatever it is,  everyone gathered around the table seems to be very pleased and happy!  What more can we ask for on any birthday?

Life is too short.  Time passes too quickly. Grab that Crockpot from the back shelf of the kitchen cabinet and  concoct something that will make you happy too!

Happy Birthday, Gertrude Stein!

One Stein year has ended and in the best tradition of Steinian repetition a new one has begun.

The SEEING GERTRUDE STEIN exhibition will close at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC on January 22^nd and anyone who lives nearby or has a few frequent flier miles to burn and hasn’t seen it should still make an effort to go.

National Portrait Gallery aglow with Gertrude a few more weeks!

I had seen it more than 10 times in San Francisco and was still blown away by the installation in DC which gave the show a totally different feel. The various rooms in the NPG lent themselves perfectly to telling Stein’s five stories and the decision to hang some of the paintings salon style was genius as it transported viewers back to the rooms in rue de Fleurus, where art was hung floor to ceiling.

The other Stein exhibition in DC at Stanford University’s art gallery INSIGHT AND IDENTITY: CONTEMPORAY ARTISTS AND GERTRUDE STEIN has been extended until March 18th because of the excellent response. That exhibition features works by Australian artists Gisela Züchner-Mogall and Suzanne Bellamy; U.S. artists Laura Davidson, Tom Hachtman, Sally Schuh, and Katrina Rodabaugh; and German artist  Anne Büssow. First editions of the books that inspired the artists are also displayed.  Stop by the NPG and then the Stanford gallery and you’ll have a most satisfying day of Gertrude overload!

Installation shot: Katrina Rodabaugh "Dress Project" and Gisela Züchner-Mogall's hand-written MAKING OF AMERICANS!

There will also be a one-day Stein writers’ workshop in the gallery on February 4^th, one day after Gertrude’s 137^th birthday conducted by Karren Alenier.The 10 am to 5 pm session will take place at the Stanford in Washington Art Gallery,2661 Connecticut Ave NW Washington, DC. The program, which includes an overview of Stein and her work, a tour of the exhibition INSIGHT AND IDENTITY  by me, writing time, and an opportunity to share newly created work inspired by the exhibition.

The program is open to writers of all levels and genres. The cost is $50. Participants will  be able to buy Tom Hachtman and my book GERTRUDE AND ALICE AND FRITZ AND TOM for 25% off —what a deal! Visit http://wordworksbooks.org.

Also check out Karren’s promo video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqj-DZwWO6g

KARREN LaLONDE ALENIER, poet, librettist and innovator of educational programs, specializes in creative work related to Gertrude Stein. Since 2003, she has been writing The Steiny Road to Operadom, a monthly column on Gertrude Stein and opera for Scene4.com. She is author of five volumes of poetry, with a sixth—On a Bed of Gardenias: Jane & Paul Bowles—forthcoming January 2012. Her opera Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On premiered in New York in 2005 with a good review from the New York Times.

PS

And if that’s not enough of a sprint into the new Stein year, THE STEINS COLLECT exhibition returns from its journey to Paris and will be at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY from February 28th till June 3rd.

Wishing one and all the best of holidays and an oh so special 2012!

Some of you know that over the years I’ve often sent holiday cards with various stickers or other items collaged on them. This year greetings once again go out via this blog which I’m sure does not make the ailing postal service happy.

This year’s card is the cover of Tom Hachtman’s and my book with a couple of holly stickers afixed to add a festive touch.

The book sales are going well, but there are still plenty of copies if you haven’t gotten one yet. Books have found their way to Australia, Norway, Austria and Canada in addition to many corners of the U.S.

Also, in the new year watch for book events around the globe – the Artful Adventure Tour is just beginning!

Wishing you the happiest of holidays !