Questions and Answers

There are some events in life which can never be repeated or should only be repeated in the most pleasant of dreams.  Such an event, the memorial for Julian Samuel Stein, Jr., began at a few minutes after 4 PM, October 6^th, 2012 at the Maryland Historical Society one week ago today.

The Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore

The auditorium of the society was almost filled as Vishwa and I walked in. We were ready to join the SRO corps that would undoubtedly soon form.  It was like entering the Metropolitan Opera at the final performance of the most highly revered tenor in the world and all seats were taken.   Luckily we saw our friend Betsy, Julian’s partner, near the front of the auditorium and as we wanted to be sure to greet her with loving hugs before the program began, we pushed our way through the not yet seated crowd.

We found Betsy and hugged, all of us a bit teary-eyed.  She sensed we were looking for seats and there, three seats down from where she was sitting in the front row were four empty chairs next to two of her close friends.

“Are two of these taken?” I asked.  “No, “ replied Betsy’s friend.

Betsy and Julian…enough said !

There we were in the front row for the event of a lifetime to hear about the events of a lifetime!

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Some people who have blogs are  good about posting things a lot, sometimes even everyday (many of those folks are paid by the Wall Street Journal, NY Times or CNN, of course, so it’s part of their multi-million dollar job description!).

I on the other hand have become more and more lax, not because I don’t have things to write about, but just because LIFE ,(not the late-great magazine), just keeps getting in the way and I can’t seem to push away those pesky everyday tasks to just sit down to do it.

Flying saucers? Huh?

I’m not a good to-do list maker other than a Post-it here and there that’s tossed once the task is done.  (I had a colleague once who festooned the dashboard of her car with Post-its to remind herself of many a daily task. Luckily they weren’t plastered all over the windshield too.)

Sometimes I write two or three things on a Post-it and once I get all of them done,  it’s a real coup.  I know the I-thing this or I-thing that is engineered to make life more manageable, but I’m not there yet.  I’m just as far as getting excited about my iPad, quite sacrilegious for a book  collector!  But how can you not be thrilled when in seconds you can be reading the first few pages of that 50 Shades pulp porn and not even have to let the person sitting next to you on the plane know about your journey to S&M fantasyland?  (No, I don’t  have a copy of any of the 3 volumes, either paperback or i-Padized.)

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I have never understood it when after someone has died people often say ‘He (or she) had a full life,’ as if  a life lived can be measured in a Pyrex measuring cup.  As if once life reaches beyond the little red markings with the possibility of overflowing onto the Formica counter, it’s time to pass on.

...my cup runneth over

A few weeks ago, my friend Julian Stein, Jr. died in Baltimore.  At 93, I’m certain many will say he had a full life, but I am willing to bet that his family and many others including me, wish that the Great Filler of the Pyrex Cup in the Sky would have allowed him just a few more ounces above the red markings.

There are many who miss him so, so much already.

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“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

The above quote has been attributed to a number of people and is as good an excuse as any for me not posting to this blog in so many weeks!

But as a matter of fact, I ‘m writing this in Johannesburg, South Africa, a good 21 hours flying time from home in San Francisco (our first trip to this corner of the globe where it is now winter.)

Have been here about a week and have already ventured to Kruger National Park for a mini-safari with sightings of leopard, lion, giraffe, hippo, crocodile, impala, warthog, hyena, ostrich, and an abundance of birds.

As close as the pet next door!

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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 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.

Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap

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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