One of the questions I am asked most frequently pertaining to GertrudeandAlice is how I became interested in them and what prompted me to begin collecting items relating to them. As I’ve told the story so many times over the years, certain phrases find their way into the narrative. With each telling, before I use a phrase, I often try to catch myself wondering if someone has heard me tell this before and should I therefore try to relate the circumstances in a different or more creative way. (So for those of you who have heard this before with those familiar phrases, my apologies.)
It all began almost 25 years ago after reading the book, CHARMED CIRCLE: Gertrude Stein and Company by James R. Mellow. I’d been interested for a long time in the art and artists of the period between the two World Wars and somehow Stein and the artists around her made it even more exciting for me. After finishing the book, I wondered if it was possibly to find first editions of Gertrude Stein’s works at an affordable price. I started looking for books in antiquarian bookstores (this was before eBay was around). I began finding some. I think the first one was in a bookstore in Santa Fe on a business trip. I don’t recall which book it was, but I believe it may have been the American edition of WARS I HAVE SEEN.
My searches continued and when eBay came along things began to get crazy. I began to find not only books, but letters and photographs. (One postcard I found is from 1908 written by Alice on one of her first vacations with Gertrude!)
Using Stein collector Robert A. Wilson’s comprehensive book GERTRUDE STEIN:A Bibliography as a guide, it soon became evident that there was lots of material out there to collect. Ultimately I found some rarer works such as The Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia from 1912 (currently there is one for sale online signed by Gertrude to Natalie Barney!) and first editions of THE MAKING OF AMERICANS, I also became very interested in magazines which featured Stein’s works and magazines which chronicled their 1934-35 U.S. visit.
But as all obsessed collectors soon discover, the usual things that can make up a collection must be supplemented with things that can be associated with the collection. Two items that I’ve added to my collection which would fall into this category are a Smith-Premier typewriter “like the one” on which Alice typed Gertrude’s early works and a Mixmaster mixer, “like the one” Samuel Steward sent to Alice just prior to WWII. (The mixer arrived with the bowl broken, which I assured the eBay seller was not a big deal, since Alice had also broken the bowl shortly after the mixer arrived!)
Mixmaster, circa 1941, like the one Alice owned!
My collection has now taken over one of the bedrooms in my home though many of the items in it have been seen in various exhibitions over the years.
More stories to follow…
COPYRIGHT HANS GALLAS©2009
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