by Edward Burns
2. Stagg with Emily Clark and Mary Dallas Street was one of the editors of The Reviewer, a journal published in the 1920s in Richmond, Virginia. Stagg, who was traveling with his friend Montgomery Evans, had gone to see Stein at the suggestion of Van Vechten. The Reviewer printed Stein’s “An Indian Boy” (January 1924), 4(2):[104]-6. The Reviewer also printed Stein’s second portrait of Van Vechten, “Van or Twenty Years After” (April 1924), 4(3):[176]–77.
To Gertrude Stein
3 September 1923 [151 East 19th Street
New York]
Dear Gertrude,
What a wonderful letter to write me about my little Bow-Boy. I’m glad you liked him. He was fun to do. I’m glad you liked [Hunter] Stagg. He is a charming fellow and has talent. Edmund Wilson, Jr. has over a page about you in the September Vanity Fair. You will see this in Paris.1 Not a word yet about your book. Your promise to do another portrait of me “twenty years after” naturally delights me. I like your portraits. I like your work. I like you. Not a word from Mabel [Dodge]; this either means that Tony [Luhan] is interesting or uninteresting. D. H. Lawrence has been in New York, but I have not seen him.2
love,
Carlo Van Vechten3
1. Wilson’s “A Guide to Gertrude Stein,” in Vanity Fair (September 1923), 20(7):60, 80. Stein wrote Wilson about this article in a letter to him on 3 October 1923 (YCAL). The letter was important to Stein and she made two drafts for it. One draft is written in a manuscript notebook that contains her “Van or Twenty Years After,” “As A Wife Has A Cow A Love Story,” and her “Co[a]dy and Brenner.” The second draft is on torn sheets that have been clipped into the manuscript cahier. In her letter Stein wrote Wilson:
You are right, there do exist portraits and stories but although imitation may be the highest from [i.e., form] of flattery it isn’t continuation, and so as the world completes itself stories are not to be chosen they are to be refused likewise portraits, when you realise that to take the commonest example the bible lives not by its stories but by its texts you see how inevitably one wants neither harmony, pictures stories nor portraits. You have to do something else to continue. Do you see what I mean, to continue you have to be persistent and stories don’t persist they repeat and they vary, in a way a modern public knows this and so Van really succeeds because he doesn’t tell a story. References you see are association, one refers to one’s associates but not to oneself, and all literature is to me me, that isn’t as bad as it sounds. Some one complained that I always stopped while I was driving to read the sign posts even when I knew the road and all I could explain was that I am fond of reading, well I am, I like people and politics and painting but I am really fond of reading, there that’s all.
2. Lawrence had been in New York in August when Studies in Classic American Literature was published by Thomas Seltzer.
3. Stein used the verso of Van Vechten’s letter to draft a review of Ernest Hemingway’s Three Stories and Ten Poems (Paris: Contact Publishing Co., 1923). She also drafted a letter to W. Dawson Johnston, literary editor of Ex Libris, a monthly review published by the American Library in Paris. Ex Libris did not publish the review; it did, however, publish Stein’s “He and They, Hemingway: A Portrait,” Ex Libris (December 1923), 1(6):192. Stein was in Nice, where she had gone to visit Picasso.
Dear Dr. Johnson,
Am sending you a little review of Hemingway’s book for the x Libris. That and the portrait will I think do nicely together. We are resting happily on the shore. Haven’t begun to write yet but I will, this isn’t a threat but a promise. It’s very nice here, best regards to yourself Johnson and Mrs. Johnson and yourself
Sincerely
Gtde Stein
Stein’s review of Hemingway’s book appeared in the column “Recent Publications,” Chicago Tribune, Paris ed., 27 November 1923, p. 4. Except for an error in the title of the book, which was corrected in the printed version, this draft is what was printed in the Tribune.
Ten stories and three poems is very pleasantly said. So far so good, further than that, and as far as that, I may say of Ernest Hemingway that as he sticks to poetry and intelligence it is both poetry and intelligent. Rosevelt is genuinely felt as young as Hemingway and as old as Rosevelt. 1 should say that Hemingway should stick to poetry and intelligence and eschew the hotter emotions and the more turgid vision. Intelligence and a great deal of it is a good thing to use when you have it it’s all for the best.
Gertrude Stein
The misspelling of the poem “Roosevelt” is in both the manuscript and the printed version. The draft of the letter is the only manuscript of this work. There is no typescript in YCAL.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 26 September 1923] Hôtel Suisse, Nice
My dear Van,
We are here for a few weeks but continue to address 27 rue de Fleurus because that follows. I am glad you like my letter, I am inclosing the second portrait1 I wonder if you will like it, I think it piles up rather well, if you do like it and Vanity Fair would like to print it, I would be very pleased. I saw an advertisement of Mabel [Dodge]’s Taos home in the New Republic, July, (some one sent it to me) a very modest and unpretentious statement, as an advertisement perhaps too much so.2 Lots of love. I hope you’ll like the portrait
Always yours
Gertrude.
1. Note by Van Vechten, January 1941: “This must have been Van or 20 Years After.” From Van Vechten’s reply to Stein of 22 October 1923 it would seem that it was this portrait and not the hitherto unpublished portrait that Stein sent to Van Vechten. The portrait, “Van or Twenty Years After; A Second Portrait of Carl Van Vechten” was first printed in The Reviewer (April 1924), 4(3):[176]-77.
2. On the back cover of The New Republic of 4 July 1923 there was an advertisement: “For Rent: From August first attractive five room furnished adobe house near Taos Pueblo. Communicate Mabel Sterne Luhan, Taos, New Mexico.
To Gertrude Stein
22 October 1923 151 East Nineteenth Street
New York City
Dear Gertrude,
Mabel [Dodge]’s letter about The Bow-Boy almost knocks me flat.1 She identifies herself with Campaspe, which, of course, she isn’t: says it’s the most perfect character in fiction: “showing the perfect equilibrium which results from a soul in utter conflict.” Not a word about the chief! and to this day I don’t know how to spell her FIFTH name.
The new portrait I liked very much, although as yet it is little but meter and rhythm to me. More will come later. It is a little difficult for me to ask Vanity Fair to publish it as it is about me but I thought, as occasion offers, I might show it to an editor or two and perhaps one of them might ask me for it. Would you mind if it were published elsewhere than Vanity Fair?
There is news about the History of a Family at last. [Alfred] Knopf thinks the best thing to do is to issue a circular, which he plans to do a little later, telling something about the book and inviting subscriptions. If he gets enough he will go ahead. I think this is an excellent plan. If he does the book he wants to do it beautifully and that will cost money: three or four volumes of large type, with possibly portraits of you by [Jo] Davidson, Picasso etc. as frontispieces. And signed by you. This will all cost money and it will probably be necessary to charge $25 for the set! Therefore, before plunging, it seems advisable to see how many copies he can sell in advance by subscription. The whole idea of publishing a novel of this length all at once is so novel, the book itself is so original, that I should not be surprised to find collectors leaping for it. Let him, however, take his time; if he does it he will do it better than anyone else. In the meantime I may inform you that another publisher has asked to see the book, and if Knopf decides against it in the end, which I hope he won’t, I’ll pass it on to him. Please have the other volumes ready to ship if they are demanded, but keep them until I ask for them. The first volume has so many misspelled words and is written in such dim ink that it is very difficult to read; this is unfortunate.2
with much love,
Carl Van Vechten
1. Dodge to Van Vechten, 28 September [1923], NYPL-MD.
2. Although Van Vechten tried valiantly to convince the Knopfs to publish Stein’s The Making of Americans his efforts failed. Even after the book was printed by Robert McAlmon in association with William Bird in the fall of 1925, Stein never gave up hope that a commerical publisher would issue the book. See Stein to Van Vechten [22 February 1925, note 1].
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 5 November 1923] Hôtel Suisse, Nice
My dear Van
I am as pleased as can be with the news of the Family. I too think Knopf’s plan an xcellent one and I certainly would like him to do it. It is too bad about the first volume being in such bad shape but the good volume of it got lost once and never found and this was the old and original copy when type-writing was with us in its infancy. I can’t tell you what I feel about all you are doing for me. Well anyhow there it is. About your portrait no I don’t want it especially for Vanity Fair in fact I would be very pleased to have some one else use it. I have just read it over, it isn’t quite as full as I would like it to be but it does some of it pretty well.
No Mabel [Dodge] isn’t Campaspe, she Mabel is alright but perfect equilibrium isn’t as one might say it.1 Do tell me what people are saying about the Bow boy, I would so much like to know.
We are leading a peaceful life here and in between we go to see Juan Gris directing the scene painting of his schemes of decoration for the Russian ballet at Monte Carlo. It is mostly done by an Englishwoman who does it as if she were a lady gardener. He seems pleased, we are going back to Paris shortly.2
Always
Gertrude.
1. Note by Van Vechten, 18 January 1941: “One of the characters in the Blind Bow-Boy."
2. In the summer of 1923 Diaghilev had commissioned Juan Gris (1887–1927, born José Victoriano Gonzalez), to do the decor for La Colombe, an opera by Charles Gounod. In October Gris and his wife Josette arrived in Monte Carlo, where he supervised the excecution of his decor.
In a letter to Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, 20 October 1923, Gris wrote of meeting Stein: “Yesterday I was in Nice with Gertrude who kept us for dinner. I went to see Matisse to whom I had written in advance. He was very cold and could only spare us about half an hour on the pretext that he was working hard, etc. He won’t do anything for Diaghilev because he says he loses money when he’s not painting pictures. Altogether we didn’t get on well. He wouldn’t come and dine with Gertrude and myself when I invited him on Gertrude’s behalf” (see Letters of Juan Gris [1913–1927], collected by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, translated and edited by Douglas Cooper, letter CLXXXII, pp. 154–55 [incorrectly printed as 1932], London: Privately Printed, 1956).
To Carl Van Vechten
[Postcard: Le Thor (Vaucluse)—Le château]
[postmark: 21 December 1923] [27 rue de Fleurus Paris]
Back in Paris and Greetings to you both
Always
G. S.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 4 February 1924] 27 rue de Fleurus [Paris]
My dear Van,
How goes it and what is the news. Nothing very xciting over here, I am amusing myself with a Gertrude Stein birthday book, Picasso is going to make illustrations to go with it and that will be nice it’s going to be the kind you write your name in,1 and how is [Alfred] Knopf, any news and does he not want the other volumes they are all ready. And what are you doing, and did you get laurel leaves from Mill Valley and Mabel [Dodge] too.2
Always
Gertrude.
1. Stein’s “A Birthday Book” was published posthumously in her Alphabets “Birthdays. Stein wrote this book for Picasso’s son, Paulo, born 4 February 1921 (Stein’s birthday was 3 February). The book was originally planned to be part of the Editions Galerie Simon, published by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Although Stein repeatedly writes of Picasso’s working on the illustrations, there is no indication that he did so. In the introduction to Stein’s Painted Lace Kahnweiler writes:
Picasso’s “passive resistance"—a term which seems to me more apt than Gertrude’s “period of unreliability,” resistance which shows itself in him, perhaps unconsciously, when he is faced by any commission, any work not spontaneously born of his own spirit but brought to him from outside––caused the failure of our project. In 1926 it was necessary to face the facts and give up plans for a book of which I should have been proud. (p. xiv)
2. Dodge had taken a house in Mill Valley, California, for the winter of 1923–24.
To Gertrude Stein
5 March 1924 151 East Nineteenth Street
[New York]
Dear Gertrude,
I’ve not written you for such a long time because I’ve been so busy & I’ve had nothing to write you about your business—nor have I yet. [Alfred] Knopf has not spoken again. You see he has been moving--& getting out his new magazine, The American Mercury—and what not.1 Presently, I will speak to him again. If he doesn’t do The History of a Family somebody some day will: I feel sure of that. Don’t send the other volumes until I ask for them,—as for your wonderful portrait of me—[Frank] Crowninshield2 who has had it ever since you gave it to me at last decided that Vanity Fair had been publishing a good deal of your work & so he would lay off awhile—a stupid decision—But I have sent it elsewhere--& it will be published, I am sure. The Indian garçons in The Reviewer have created a sensation.3 I am sending one to Mabel [Dodge].
My new book, The Tattooed Countess, is all done & the proofs read. It will appear in August. Now, I am getting together a book of musical papers--& I have two introductions to write to other people’s books.4
Of course I must have the Gertrude Stein birthday book as soon as it is out—I like Jo Davidson’s thing about you5 & so does most everybody else. It is, however, lacking in humour & I think of that as a very essential part of you but nobody else who writes about you seems to get this. Anyway you are a grand & noble person & I salute you!
Carl Van Vechten
1. The American Mercury was a monthly magazine founded in 1924. H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan were its editors.
2. Frank Crowninshield (1872–1947) was the editor of Vanity Fair from 1914 to 1935.
3. The Reviewer had printed Stein’s “An Indian Boy” (January 1924), 4(2):[104]-6. The piece generated a great deal of reader response—including a few subscription cancellations. The editors commented on this response in the column “Things in General,” in The Reviewer (April 1924), 4(3):233, and (October 1924), 4(5):[410]-11.
4. Van Vechten’s Red: Papers on Musical Subjects was published by Knopf on 9 January 1925. Van Vechten wrote an introduction, “An Icing for a Chocolate Eclair,” for Ronald Firbank’s Prancing Nigger (New York: Brentano’s Publishers, 1924). It was Van Vechten who suggested that Firbank’s “Drama in Sunlight” might better be titled Prancing Nigger. Firbank was delighted and wrote Van Vechten that “It never occurred to me, & any success the novel has will be due to you.” (See Miriam G. Benkovitz, Ronald Firbank: A Biography [London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970], pp. 250–52).
Van Vechten also wrote an introduction, “A Prolegomenon to be read, if ever, only after you have read The Lord of the Sea,” in M. P. Shiel’s The Lord of the Sea (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1924).
5. This may be a reference to Vanity Fair (February 1923), 19(6):48, 90, which published Stein’s “A Portrait of Jo Davidson.” The unsigned article, “An American Revolutionary of Prose Sets Down Her Impressions of an American Scupltor,” was illustrated by three photographs: Davidson working on his sculpture of Stein, the Jacques Lipschitz bust of Stein, and the Picasso Portrait of Gertrude Stein. It is possible that Davidson’s sculpture was being shown in New York in 1924.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 17 March 1924] 27 rue de Fleurus [Paris]
My dear Carl,
I think you will be pleased that the History of the F
amily is starting as a serial in the Transatlantic.1 It begins in the April number, beginning with 15 pages and the May number will have 20 odd pages and so on. Hueffer or Ford you know Ford Madox Hueffer the editor is moved he says it is magnificent and is terribly impressed with it having been done some odd 18 years ago, and as he is more or less the old guard it’s very good, and would it be too much trouble to ask [Alfred] Knopf to send back the III volume. I thought I had it all here in duplicate but that volume seems to be missing and I’ll have it copied and if he wants it again will send it back. You are pleased with its appearing aren’t you. The Transatlantic will have to go on for a long time to do it all which may be a comfort to them and they are paying me nicely which is also a comfort.
I am pleased with the Tattooed Countess going to be a story of Iowa. I have a weakness for Iowa. Iowa is entirely different from the others. It always is, it even was when it was a dough-boy, I have always felt that way about Iowa, even though I did not think of it as having an uplifting effect on American youth.
Oh and I met Mrs. Acton at a lunch yesterday do you remember the Actons of Florence and she was funny about Mabel [Dodge], she remembered all the times Mabel told her not to bother and she also said that in Florence Mabel is supposed to have done it again with a Mr. Wu. I imagine however that is only the aftermath of Mabel’s interview about the yellow races since you don’t seem to have heard it. Mrs. Acton did make Florence sound wonderfully just the same.2
