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

The original proclamation urged people to visit the Jewish Heritage Month governmental web site  “to learn more about the heritage and contributions of Jewish Americans and to observe this month with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies.” It went on to state: “From Aaron Copland to Albert Einstein, Gertrude Stein to Justice Louis Brandeis, generations of Jewish Americans have brought to bear some of our country’s greatest achievements and forever enriched our national life.”

By the following day, someone on the White House staff may have gotten wind of the controversy that has been raging in New York City regarding Gertrude’s “Nazi” past and the STEINS COLLECT exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This tempest was prompted by an op ed piece in the New York Daily News on April 29^th with the headline: “A Nazi collaborator at the Met.”  (More on this later after we finish with the scramble in the West Wing.)

On May 2^nd, the White House issued a revised proclamation this time leaving out not only Stein’s name, but also Copeland’s, Einstein’s and Brandeis’!  Were the composer, scientist and  justice not afforded this recognition because they just happened to end up on an arbitrary list of important Jewish-Americans including a self-proclaimed genius whose name has been in the news a lot? Or did some people think that there are too many prominent Jewish-Americans to single out these four?  I’m not sure what happened here, but my first response to the situation was that Gertie’s loose lips sank some ships!

I usually try to keep this blog on the humorous side partly because that’s just me and partly because humor played a big part in the personalities of GertrudeandAlice.

But with this post, I need to exchange the comedy mask for the other one (maybe not so much tragedy as tragi-comedy,) because of some of the events of the last few days and the past year.

Whether the White House action relates to the incident surrounding the Metropolitan exhibition, I don’t know, but one thing is certain,  Gertrude Stein has not only become more famous in the last twelve months, if not infamous.

Yes, there are the facts, many of which have been around a long time, but have, in the last five years become more broadly known largely because of the success of Janet Malcolm’s book TWO LIVES  and Barbara Will’s book UNLIKELY COLLABORATION: Gertrude Stein, Bernard  Faÿ and the Vichy Dilemma, published last fall :

-       Gertrude Stein in a New York Times interview in 1934 did say  some very complimentary things about Hitler and what he was doing in Germany and did, many insist jokingly, nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize;

-       GertrudeandAlice, two American, lesbian Jews survived WWII in German- occupied France;

GertrudeandAlice arriving in Salzburg in 1945

-       Their collection of art was also not confiscated while many other Jews in Europe lost major works of art;

-       They were friends with Bernard Faÿ who was friends with persons in high places in the Vichy government. At the end of WW II, Fay was sent to prison because of his collaboration with the Germans;

-       Gertrude admired General Philippe Pétain a hero of WWI and Vichy government leader and did begin translating the speeches of General Pétain into English since she felt some of his politics were relevant to the U.S.

Do these actions make Gertrude Stein a  Nazi or Nazi sympathizer and less of a significant literary icon of the 20^th century or likable, motherly Woody Allen star?  I and many other Stein fans would say ‘no,’ though there are some who would strongly disagree with us.

That this becomes a very emotional issue is understandable considering the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust. People often either vehemently defend Gertrude’s actions or find them despicable and inexcusable.  For someone who has had GertrudeandAlice as part of his life for almost thirty years,  I must confess that whenever people have asked me about GertrudeandAlice’s survival during WW  II , I cringe for a moment. This question was posed to me once by a Holocaust survivor and my answer to him and others is grounded in my knowledge of some of the facts relating to their years in Vichy France. The facts as laid out and interpreted in Barbara Will’s book do present a more politically involved Stein than I was previously aware of and it will still take me some time to think about that Stein and possibly reconcile her actions with the Stein I’ve known all these years.

My friend Renate Stendhal has done an incredible job following the Stein controversy in the last year. Go to the following link to review the chronology of events which help to put many things into perspective:

http://www.triviavoices.com/gertrude-stein-hitler-and-vichy-france.html

The Metropolitan Museum has agreed to add additional wall text to clarify Stein’s  life in Vichy France and her relationship with  Faÿ. This was  prompted not only by the op ed piece, but also requests by Manhattan’s borough president and a local assemblyman.  The museum further said that other visitors to the exhibition had already wondered why more information had not been  included about Stein’s WW II years.  A museum spokesperson  tried to put the whole thing into perspective: “We have been talking about it here for days.  It’s not an unreasonable request.”

Gertrude Stein was no saint, though Alice probably would be the first to call for her canonization so that the two could spend glory together! (The comedy mask is back.) But not many of us are saints and do and say things that we wish we hadn’t.  Gertrude was a strong-willed, independent, at times arrogant, industrious, creative artist.  And though I do not want or need to make excuses for her, anyone who comes to know her must try to understand her on many levels and then decide for themselves whether they would have wanted to join her in the salon for a cup of tea and some of Alice cake.

Gertrude at the height of her "sainthood" following the success of "4 Saints in 3 Acts."

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

The year began with Queen Victoria being declared the Empress of India. Alice’s cookbook does contain recipes for “Empress Rice” and “Lamb Curry.” So maybe, just maybe?

A Queen by any other name....

 By February 12^th, Lincoln’s birthday, the first news dispatch was sent by telephone from Boston to Salem, Mass. I have seen a San Francisco city directory from circa 1905 which lists a telephone number for Alice’s father. GertrudeandAlice too eventually got a telephone though in the 1938 “Americans in France Directory” published by the American Chamber of Commerce in France, the number is unlisted. Too many calls asking for invitations to the salon? So maybe, just maybe? [SMJM?]

Pa Bell's phone with a fine wood finish, circa 1870s

 About three weeks later, Rutherford B. Hayes was inaugurated as  the 19th US president. Hayes Street in San Francisco is about seven blocks from O’Farrell Street. SMJM?

Prez Hayes with the White House

When Easter rolled around that year, the first Easter egg roll was to be held on the White House lawn, but it was rained out. Alice was very fond of hats particularly ones with feathers, so there could have been an Easter bonnet influence here.  SMJM?

An Easter bonnet, 1898

Not to be outdone, by their American cousins in the arena of public spectacles (OK, I’m giving the Easter egg roll a lot of entertainment value!) ,  about a week later, the first human cannonball act was performed in London! Now this one, I will not touch with a ten foot fuse! SMJM?

As summer began, a group of artists got together to form the Society of American Artists. What may have been relatively well –known names back then have, for the most part, been lost in the annals of art history – names like  Walter Shirlaw, Robert Swain Gifford and John LaFarge. The most familiar of the lot is  designer and artist  Louis Comfort Tiffany who became famous for his lamps.  No need to say anything about Alice being surrounded by art and artists most of her life. SMJM?

A painting by Walter Shirlaw, 1889

 Closer to home three months after Alice’s birth a tragic event took place in San Francisco: a two day riot against the Chinese immigrants, who many, especially railway workers, felt they were driving wages lower.  The violence raged through Chinatown with four deaths and $100,000 worth of damage. Though GertrudeandAlice did employee Asian cooks, they were for the most part Vietnamese or as they were called in Alice’s cookbook “Indo-Chinese.” Alice was particularly fond of Trac who is the inspiration for Monique Truong’s amazing book about GertrudeandAlice, THE BOOK OF SALT. SMJM?

Chinese arriving in San Francisco circa 1870s

By the fall, the biggest news pertained to Thomas Edison’s invention of his “talking machine” which was to become the phonograph. By December the first sound recording was made.  Not sure if GertrudeandAlice had a phonograph, but Alice had studied classical music as a young girl and became quite an accomplished pianist.  Gertrude’s favorite song “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine” which was inspired by a popular novel from 1908 by the same name, became a best-selling recording. SMJM?  Here it is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d8S1bVNo0A

Gertrude belting out "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine!"

 In closing, who else was born in 1877:

Herman Hesse

Isadora Duncan

Isadora holding court

and Pancho Villa!

 And who else was born on April 30^th:

Eve Arden

The teacher's teacher, "Our Miss Brooks."

Cloris Leachman

Frau Blucher herself---looks a bit like Alice!

and Willie Nelson!

Birthday Girl triptych by Tom Hachtman

 Happy Birthday to one and all!

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.

She recalled the morning of April 18^th in her memoir WHAT IS REMEMBERED published in 1963:

“Life went on calmly until one morning we and our home were violently rocked by an earthquake.  Gas was escaping.  I hurried to my father’s bedroom, pulled up the shades, pulled back the curtains and opened the windows.  My  father was apparently asleep.  Do get up I said to him.  The city is on fire.  That, said he with his usual calm, will give us a black eye in the East.

 Our servant was heating water in the kitchen on an alcohol stove to make coffee.  The chimneys had fallen, the pipes were disrupted, there would be no baths.  I walked up the hill to the entrance of the Presidio, where in the early morning light General  Funston was marching his troops into the city where fires were commencing to burn.

Sacramento Street looking towards downtown San Francisco

 My father, who had at last risen, walked down to the business quarter to see if the vaults of his bank were holding.   Convinced that they were, he returned with four hundred cigarettes, all he could find.  For * Nellie, for **Clare and for you, he explained.

 I sent the servant to buy such provisions as she could find and I went to see how Nellie had fared.  Her two Chinese servants were cooking on an improvised stove on the street.  Nellie, with some novels, was distracting her mind as usual in her darkened library.”

[* Eleanor Joseph a friend of **Clare Moore, a lifelong friend of Alice’s.]

Army officers on Van Ness Avenue, April 19, 1906

The house on Clay Street is still standing. Though it was apparently damaged during the quake according to Alice, it is several miles from Van Ness Avenue, which was where the fires from the quake stopped. Today many of San Francisco’s best preserved Victorian and Edwardian style houses, including several built and owned by Michael Stein, are east of Van Ness since they were unscathed by the events of the 1906 quake. The house Alice was born in and lived in for many years on O’Farrell Street was probably destroyed by the quake or the severe fires that followed.

Alice left San Francisco for Paris the following year and returned only once in 1935.

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!

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

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

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.

The second listing for the word on urbandictionary.com is:

pussy

1. Nice name for a cat

2.  Slang for women’s genitals

3. Cowardly

The first listing is X rated so you’ll have to check it out yourself.

I first heard concerns about the use of the word from a friend of the book’s illustrator Tom Hachtman who had just read the book, saw the word and asked: “Pussy? This book really isn’t for children, is it?” His reply with a laugh: “Children don’t have your dirty mind!”

Should I be concerned? What were the cat in the hat’s real intentions  or Miss Clavell’s when she turned out the lights? Not to mention all the goings on where the wild things are!

My first public reading of the book to a group of 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders in Oakland, CA was to happen a few weeks ago, but I had to postpone it temporarily.  However, I did get an e mail from the teacher who had invited me, asking me, at the request of the principal, if I would change “Pussy”  to “Pussycat” when I was reading the book to the children, “since the word now has developed a lot of negative connotations and our third graders are quite astute about picking up these things.” My, my the loss of innocence.

It’s not as if a form of the word hasn’t been used in a children’s story written more than 400 years ago. What the French called Le Maître Chat, or Le Chat Botté (Master Cat or The Booted Cat) , we know as Puss in Boots. But there must be incredible power in that “y” though Master and Booted Cat do sound a bit S&M.

Hey, GertrudeandAlice  had a rather steamy sexual relationship if their love notes to each other are any indication, not to mention some of Gertrude’s  works such as “Lifting Belly” which is not about a chef gingerly handling the evening’s pork appetizer! But did Alice’s nickname have sexual implications or was it truly just the feline diminutive which has been the name of thousands of cats in the English-speaking world:  lovable things that are warm and fuzzy?

Thank God Gertrude didn’t decide to use a diminutive version of the “C” word for her sweety!  Had she, this book really couldn’t have been published or shipped without a plain brown wrapper.  And the “lost generation” thought there were issues with Joyce’s Ulysses. Little did they know Gertrude and Alice and Fritz and Tom would appear on the literary horizon 80 years later!

Is this just a tempest in one of Alice’s fine china teapots or a real controversy that the One Million Moms will glom onto to rid America of things that may taint our young?  Or a headline in both the newsprint and online editions of a mid-sized town in Illinois: “School Librarian Removes Lesbian Couple Children’s Book Because of Feline Reference!”  Or an unexpected PR opportunity that will warrant an NPR and CNN appearance resulting in the sale of hundreds of books?

Maybe in the second edition “Pussy” will have to change to “Mama Woojums,” Alice’s nickname whenever letters were exchanged between GertrudeandAlice and their friend Carl Van Vechten. (He was Papa Woojums and Gertrude was Baby Woojums.) But then again, how would urbandictionary.com  define “Woojums?”

Baby, Papa and Mama Woojums

 woojums

1. That which is left after the Woo has been expelled.

2. Native-American term for orgasm.

3. A  feeling of depression when home-made jam does not gel properly.

Never mind. I’ll just leave the “P-word.”  Rose is a rose is a rose, after all.

PS (courtesy of Tom Hachtman):

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!

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.

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 !