Questions and Answers

The puppies were born yesterday and it’s time for thanks giving as the circle of life continues on this round, round world.

“…Alice suddenly appeared to announce dinner – I had by that time forgotten that it was Thanksgiving-and Gertrude put us to work setting the table.

I have never known such a Thanksgiving feast in my life. It must, I suppose, have been enhanced by the fact that it was completely unexpected, but the amount and quality of the food amounted to a spectacle. I was very moved when I learned that most of the traditional. American foods-including sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, marshmallows, cranberries, all unheard of in Paris had been specifically ordered from America for this dinner and for us.

In her usual direct, positive way, Gertrude said that she felt that American children needed to have an American Thanksgiving.” Fritz Peters from BOYHOOD WITH GURDJIEFF

Welcome to our world and thank you for coming! We too have never known such a Thanksgiving.

When I began writing this blog, I had no idea how personal some of what I’d write might be. This is an issue that  bloggers face.  I assumed that I would write relatively spontaneously about various things that came to mind about GertrudeandAlice and my relationship with them over a period of almost 25 years- personal insights, but not really personal.

About a week ago, however, we had to put our nine year old English Springer Spaniel Ollie to sleep after a very sudden and unexpected illness. So this post will be quite personal.

Dogs are family and the sadness and loss felt when they are gone and the tears shed for them are family tears.

The French poodles, Basket I and II and the two chihuahuas, Byron and Pépé were an integral part of GertrudeandAlice’s family.  The Springer Spaniel, Oliver, Ollie for short, was an integral part of ours.

Ollie, summer 2009

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In a few days, October 24th to be exact, marks the 75th anniversary of  GertrudeandAlice’s arrival in New York City for the beginning of their six-month U.S. lecture tour.  I’ve mentioned the tour several times in previous posts, so instead of rehashing some of the details again, I thought I’d present the tour in verse.

Though initially a Berlin-based, Baby Boomer, two of the icons of my Illinois childhood were Captain Kangaroo and Dr. Seuss.  I wanted to be Captain Kangaroo when I grew up and wanted to write books like Dr. Seuss.

One of the things that The Captain often did on his television show was to read a picture book, paging through the book as he read as if  you were on his lap and he was reading to you.  I don’t remember if Bunny Rabbit or Mr. Moose took part – certainly not Grandfather Clock who was undoubtedly asleep.

The Captain and Bunny Rabbit

So, several years ago I began a series of stories about GertrudeandAlice with an eye toward The Captain reading them and Dr. Seuss politely giving a nod of approval to my rhyming efforts.  Each story incorporates actual historic facts about their lives though liberties are taken with the rhyming scheme. (For anyone who remembers scanning poems in English class, the meter in some of these stanzas is not perfect.)

Let the tour begin!

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It’s fashion week in Paris with runway shows ablaze with the looks for Spring 2010.

Dressing well was an integral part of GertrudeandAlice’s life.  Of the two, being fashionable was Alice’s forte and once she met Gertrude she seems to have become Lovey’s stylist, though it’s hard to believe that Gertrude would have allowed anyone to tell her what to do, let alone what to wear.

When they first met in 1907, hems were still barely above the ankles and extravagant hats were a required accessory. In their honeymoon photo of 1908 in Venice, GertrudeandAlice posed among the pigeons in St. Mark’s square well-covered head to toe.

Pigeons in the piazza, alas! (Venice, 1908)

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One of the services offered by Google is the Google Alert. Signing up  for a Google Alert means that you will be e mailed a link whenever the subject you’ve registered appears online in an article, blog, book title, etc.

Several years ago I signed up with “Gertrude Stein” and  “Alice B. Toklas” as my Google Alert topics. Everyday I get between 15-20 Alerts containing references to GertrudeandAlice.

The most common  Gertrude Alert pertains to her quote about Oakland, California that  “There is no there there.”  (In one Alert someone had thought she had said it about Los Angeles!)

Oakland in the 1890's when the there was there

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A few years ago a friend mentioned that the editor of a small press that he knew refused to ever publish anything by or about Gertrude Stein or Alice B. Toklas because he felt that they had “become an industry” and he wanted nothing to do with it.

What had this editor seen over the years that had caused him to come to this conclusion?

For someone who had been drawn to GertrudeandAlice because of their place in popular culture, a place that Gertrude held from very early  in her career even though the number of books that she published and sold was quite small, this attack on GertrudeandAlice as an industry was puzzling.

Maybe the editor was set off after seeing the ceramic “Gertrude stein” from the mid 1970’s with a small knome-like figure on the handle which is supposed to be Alice?

Gertrude Stein stein, 1976

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“And she has and this is it” is the last line of THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS which was first published seventy-six years ago today.

That sentence ended Gertrude Stein’s first bestseller. The initial printing of 5,400 copies in 1933 was more than 10 times as many copies than her last book, MATISSE PICASSO AND GERTRUDE STEIN, which she and Alice had self-published earlier that year. The Literary Guild book club also featured the book as its September selection with an extensive write-up in its membership brochure. The Guild’s Oprah-like imprimatur also helped sales.

A Man Ray  photograph appeared on the dust jacket of the first edition showing Gertrude at her writing table and Alice entering the room, but no where on the dust jacket  or cover page of the book is the author’s name.  And on the back page of the dust jacket, the publisher continues the literary joke by stating:

dust jacket of the 1933 U.S. first edition

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As I discovered last week, it is impossible to come to Paris and not encounter something that relates to GertrudeandAlice, even if you’re not specifically looking for something pertaining to them.

We had made plans about a month ago to end our around the world trip with seven days in a rented apartment in Paris. We’d rented apartments in the city before and our primary criterion this time as it was August, was to find a place that had air conditioning. It was a smart decision as the temperatures during our stay were in the upper 80s, low 90s.  We found a rental on rue de Seine.

rue de Seine, August 2009

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Sixty three years ago today Gertrude Stein died at the age of  72.  Alice would live alone for another twenty one years.

Several years ago I wrote a short piece called “Alice: A Reverie, July 27, 1946.”  On this anniversary of Gertrude’s death, I include it here.

GertrudeandAlice's grave, Père Lachaise Cemetery Paris

Alice: A Reverie, July 27, 1946

“Then the whole afternoon was troubled, confused and very uncertain, and later in the afternoon they took her away on a wheeled stretcher to the operating room and I never saw her again.” – the final sentence of  Alice’s 1963 memoir, WHAT IS REMEMBERED

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In the previous blog I wrote about well-known people who had met GertrudeandAlice. One American icon that I forgot was T.V. news great Walter Cronkite, who died last week. He met them when he was a student at the University of Texas-Austin.

COPYRIGHT HANS GALLAS ©2009

Walter Cronkite and JFK

He wrote about that meeting in the university newspaper and it was re-posted this week:

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/walter-cronkite/daily-texan-talks-great-depression-with-author-1.1775552