by Edward Burns
Always
Gertrude.
1. Note by Van Vechten, 22 January 1941:
Bradley, when I saw him was determined that G. S. should appear in America under the auspices of a regular lecture bureau. I was opposed to this idea—and so was G. S. but I thought it fair to put the pros & cons to her again. The ensuing tour had perhaps the most haphazard management & arrangement of any lecture [tour] ever undertaken, but it was a complete success & G. S. left America for France several thousand dollars the richer.
2. Elizabeth Fuller Goodspeed (later Chapman) (1893–1980) was known to her friends as Bobsy (or Bobsie). Mrs. Goodspeed was president from 1931 to 1941 of the Arts Club of Chicago, the innovative group that mounted many exhibitions of contemporary artists. Through her activities at the Arts Club, she became close friends with artists, writers, and composers. She was responsible for organizing the exhibition of modern sculpture and drawing for the Century of Progress exhibition at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. Her second husband was Gilbert W. Chapman.
3. Ewing’s Sonnets from the Paranomasian (New York: Blue Faun Bookshop, 1924). The title page announced that it was “Conceived with a bow to Mrs. Browning and Salaams to Donald Evans.” Ewing had probably read, through Van Vechten’s encouragement, Donald Evans’ Sonnets from the Patagonian: The Street of Little Hotels (New York: Claire Marie, 1912).
4. The succession of Indo-Chinese cooks is recounted by Toklas in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book (New York: Harper & Bros., 1954), pp. 186–93.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Blake—Satan Smiting Job]
17 July 1934 [150 West Fifty-fifth Street New York]
Dear St Gertrude:
I thought this would please you. You did see that frontispiece of Vanity Fair in which Picasso & I hovered in your background, didn’t you?1 The pictures, I think, are going to be grand! However they are not printed yet—only developed & even not all developed. But I think they’ll get printed & sent to you before August is over. . Did you get the pictures—including the one of moi même—from Bernard Faÿ? I hope so. . People are complaining that Marvin Ross isn’t answering letters promptly, but maybe he isn’t even working for you yet.
176 sticks of angelique to you both!
Carlo
1. Van Vechten enclosed a caricature of Stein, The Apotheosis of Miss Stein, 1934, by William Cotton, from Vanity Fair, May 1934, p. 20.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 21 July 1934] Bilignin par Belley
Ain
My dear Carl,
Well I guess it’s alright, Marvin Ross arrangement holds and the lectures go on.1 I’m writing the fifth now, and hoping I can go on not thinking about what comes next. On the other hand [William Aspenwall] Bradley and I have agreed to part,2 he got a little too insistent on the commercial side, of course it’s nice earning money but there are some things that a girl can’t do, so he is not acting as my agent any more, which I imagine from the standpoint of [Bennett] Cerf is all the better, it will be nicer if we do our business together. Sometime when you have time will you tell me if you like the birthday book, I mean will you read it and the Four in America. Golly it has been hot, poor little Pepe is very sad, and also Francis Rose is going to have a big show in Chicago, I am lending 13 of mine, he is awfully happy about it,3 otherwise there is no news, but America and Carl in it has never been so near, but the Carl in it is the comfort,
Always
Gertrude.
1. Note by Van Vechten, 22 January 1941:
Marvin Ross was a young American friend of Bernard Faÿ’s who was supposed to arrange the lecture tour. He succeeded in balling everything up completely by neglecting to answer queries from colleges etc. When G. S. and Alice arrived in this country they found affairs in such a tangle that Alice took over—and, altho[ugh] she had never done anything like this before and made many many serious mistakes; somehow it worked anyway. Once she lost her address book with all her dates for lectures. Marvin Ross subsequently became curator for some department of the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, a post for which, I hope, he had more aptitude.
2. Note by Van Vechten, 22 January 1941: “Bradley & Gertrude quarrelled irrevocably at this time.” Stein and Bradley were eventually reconciled, and after Bradley’s death his wife, Jenny, acted as literary agent for Stein. She continued to advise Toklas about Stein’s literary affairs after Stein’s death.
3. An exhibition of paintings by Sir Francis Rose was held at the Arts Club of Chicago, 9 to 30 November 1934. Fourteen paintings, including a portrait of Alice B. Toklas (now YCAL) and a portrait of Stein, were lent by Stein. The catalogue contained a foreword by Stein.
To Gertrude Stein
27 July 1934 150 West Fifty-fifth Street
New York City
Dear Gertrude,
I think you are quite right in this matter and I have always thought you were right. Myself, I do not go for lecture bureaux. BUT, you told me to see [William Aspenwall] Bradley and as he has had experience in such matters and is your agent and seemed perturbed and anxious for you to have a Lecture Bureau, I considered it only fair to present to you his side of the case. I did not want, in any event, you to believe I was arguing against him, had you any disposition to take his advice… I’m glad you are coming over as a private citizen! I wrote you, I think, that Marvin Ross didn’t answer letters. It seems Mark [Lutz], who is trying to arrange something at the University of Virginia, wrote him and didn’t get a reply immediately. But he did get one later and Ross explained that he had been waiting until he heard that he was definitely your accredited agent.1 So that is all right. . And I’ve seen [Bennett] Cerf and we had a talk and I told him about your lectures and your Confessions and what not, and he is writing you and I think everything should be all right. His idea is to publish the lectures this fall. He also says he will handle the Plain Edition for you without commission. In other words any copies he sells you will get the price on. I told him why I was against remaindering them, and he agreed with me. Well, I never know how any one is going to act tomorrow, but he acted all right yesterday and I hope what he writes to you will be all right. And if it isn’t you just tell Uncle Carlo and he will see what he can do. In any case, you can talk (at length) to Cerf (or whomever) when you visit our shores this fall.
I hope [Bernard] Faÿ has brought you the pictures by now. I think the pictures I took this summer are going to be KNOCKOUTS, but they are not printed yet—only developed. To think, there is no longer a Trac! Anyway I took his picture.
Fania is going into a play, and I suppose there is going to be a new war.2 Will you drive a Ford in this one? Maybe I’d like to come too.
Much love to you both!
Carlo
Edith still show[s] a marked preference for the “Carlo—Rose is a Rose” plates.3
1. Ross answered Lutz on 18 July 1934 (YCAL). Ross explained that he had not answered Lutz’s letter because he was waiting for further information from Stein. Ross also emphasized that Stein preferred direct contact with the students and so Lutz’s idea of lecturing before student organizations sounded very promising.
2. Marinoff played the role of Madame Crevelli in Elmer Rice’s play Judgment Day. The play opened at the Belasco Theatre, New York, on 12 September 1934 and ran for ninety-three performances.
3. Edith Ramsey was the Van Vechtens’ cook.
To Carl Van Vechten
28 July 1934 Bilignin par Belley
Ain
My dear Carl,
Bernard [Faÿ] has not come yet he is not coming until next week and then we will have the photos, and we are very xcited about that and also about the new ones, we can’t wait to have them, it’s all right now I guess about [Marvin] Ross, he was confused by the confusion and beside had gotten a job in Baltimore,1 but now it is all straightened out and I guess everything will go well.2 I am slowly but steadily getting pleased about getting over there and so is Alice, we begin to talk about it quite now as if we were going and eve
n beginning to feel comfortable about it. When it is all really decided we will write to the Algonquin, and we will write to you all the time which is very necessary.3 Yes I liked the Vanity Fair frontispiece, I thought it was very good, and I like everything just now but mostly we all love you, but then that is an established and happy habit,
Lots of love
Gertrude.
1. Ross had signed a contract in June 1934 to begin work as a curator for the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, in September 1934 (see Ross to Stein, 8 July 1934, YCAL).
2. Note by Van Vechten, 22 January 1941: “It didn’t.”
3. Note by Van Vechten, 22 January 1941: “I suggested to them that they go to this hotel and they did and loved it.”
To Carl Van Vechten
3 August 1934 Bilignin par Belley
Ain
My dearest Carl,
Bernard Faÿ has just come and brought the photos and they are standing all about in Bilignin, there was one of St Ignatius that we had not had the one of the back of his head and I don’t know which I think is the finest. There is one of St Theresa that is much more stunning this size than the other size although when we got the other size we thought it was as fine as could be. I am terribly xcited about all the photos and Trac is very likely coming back so there would be one for him, he dreamed about it. Bernard says you took some xtraordinary ones of Max Jacob, although he did not entirely do what you wanted him to do. Anyway we are just waiting for them. I had a letter from [Bennett] Cerf saying just what you said he would say,1 but I don’t think the lectures should be printed until they have all been delivered, which would be in the early spring, and I do think that a book should be out when I get there, and one of the lectures I have just written is called Portraits and Repetition and I think it will be one of the most popular so I still think that he ought to do about 168 page volume of all my best portraits, and Harcourt would probably give me permission to reprint the second portrait of you and the first from Geography and Plays and Sherwood [Anderson], and Mabel [Dodge]’s which has never been printed in a book, and Matisse and Picasso likewise never printed in books, and this volume could be announced by [Marvin] Ross along with the lectures, and it seems to me a very good idea, then the lectures could be done in the early spring, what do you think, there is a good one portrait of Muriel Draper, of Hemingway and then there would be for the 168 pages about 50 portraits, Jean Cocteau, Fay, Virgil [Thomson] etc. Mme Clermont-Tonnerre which is very good and Max Jacob, and then the Gallery Lafayette that was printed in Rogue, I think you could do it very well, tell me what you think, I will just mention it in the letter I write to Cerf leaving you to really bring it about if that is what you think should be done.2 Everything is progressing nicely, Pepe and Basket are happy, and life is peaceful, and we look at your photo and it has just your eyes, and it is very nice and we love you and we would love it if it really turned into you one day, but it is very lovely in itself.
Lots and lots of love
Always
Gertrude.
1. Cerf to Stein, 26 July 1934 (YCAL), confirms the information in Van Vechten to Stein, 27 July 1934.
2. Stein to Cerf [postmark: 5 August 1934, Columbia-Random House], proposes the idea of a book of portraits. Cerf cabled Stein on 22 August 1934 (YCAL) accepting the idea and asked for the manuscript by 25 September. Stein cabled her acceptance on 24 August 1934 (Columbia-Random House).
To Gertrude Stein
5 August 1934
Sunday night 150 West Fifty-fifth Street
[New York]
Dear Gertrude,
[William Aspenwall] Bradley left me a package, saying, here are some books by Gertrude which she asked me to leave with you, but I didn’t open them until you told me to. I was waiting for instructions! There is no birthday book. One is called A Novel, toutsimple, just like that.1 I am reading in that and have found some pretty delicious bits. But the other, Four in America, I think must be one of your major works. I’ve just gone through it with the greatest interest and delight and will go through it again soon. My first preference is for the James chapter, with its discussion of subjective and objective writing, but there are parts of the Grant chapter I like equally well. There is no birthday book.
So you have left Bradley!
Has [Bennett] Cerf written you? One never knows. He agreed to send me a copy of the letter he was sending you. This he has not done: so I don’t know and, of course, I can’t ask him. So you tell me, please . . In the meantime, Harcourt Brace have announced they are printing your lectures! . .2
Have you got those BIG photographs from [Bernard] Faÿ yet. You have not mentioned them or him and yet he was to go to you early in July.
The photographs of Max Jacob are magnifique!
I embrace you both and Fania sends love,
Carlo
(I have just heard that if you eat an oyster on August 5 you get your wish, whatever it is. It seems a good way to commit suicide—very painful, too!)
1. Probably a reference to Stein’s A Novel of Thank You.
2. To mark Stein’s arrival in America, Harcourt Brace and Company published the condensed version of Stein’s The Making of Americans and Random House published her Portraits and Prayers. It was not until March 1935 that Random House published Stein’s Lectures In America.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 16 August 1934] Bilignin par Belley
Ain
My dearest Carl,
I cannot tell you how happy you have made me by liking the Four in America. I do think it is one of my major works,1 and now I want to tell you all about it. That is xtraordinary that [Alfred] Harcourt has announced my lectures because I refused his contract, and split with [William Aspen-wall] Bradley about all that. You see I insist that I will not give my lectures to anybody who will not print the Four in America and then later a portrait book and I broke with Bradley and I refused Harcourt on that issue and I do think I am right. Now [Bennett] Cerf is trying it on but I think if I hold out and with your aid that I will find somebody who will be enthusiastic about doing the three. I think the Four in America should be done this fall then the lectures and then the portraits at proper intervals. Harcourt said he would do lectures and another biography and I said another biography did not interest me and that I would not give him the lectures without the two other things and returned him the contracts unsigned, do find out and tell me what they are up to and where did Harcourt announce the lectures. My dearest Carl you do so much for me that I just hoggishly go on asking for more but then I always did like pigs, and you have so encouraged me in that. The Birthday book is in the hands of one Richard Jones who was much interested in doing designs for it, his address is 115 E. 26 Street, if you could see him it would be nice for me, he has interested Remington of the John Day publishing Co in it, is that alright, anyway I am so happy that you like the Four In America.2 I kind of felt I had done something in that, show it to anyone you want in any way you want, you know I and mine are all yours. I hope you like the envelope all this goes in it was brought us by the butcher boy,3 but yours and the stamp which was not brought by the butcher boy is very lovely, the photos are not alone our joy but the joy of the whole neighborhood, Mme Recamier’s descendants are all delighted with them and well they may be, we are breathlessly awaiting ours,
Lots of love Always Gertrude.
1. Stein’s Four In America was posthumously published by the Yale University Press in 1947.
2. Jones had the idea to print Stein’s “A Birthday Book” with decorations for each letter and the text to be in Stein’s hand. See Jones to Stein, 8 April and 16 April 1934, YCAL. Nothing came of this project.
3. The envelope is light green in color and is not unique.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Lord Byron—Drawing by C. H. Harlow]
19 August [1934] [150 West Fifty-fifth Street New York]
Dear Gertrude:—
Your pictures are divine & so are Alice’s & so are Pepe
’s and Basket’s. I am printing them now. If I ask you to wait a little longer for them you will understand why later … . I think you are right about the lectures. You spoke about the Portraits in Bilignin—but in talking to [Bennett] Cerf I forgot this. However, I think it is an excellent idea & if he calls me I will tell him so. I cannot call him—you can see that—without its appearing I am trying to manipulate him.
Love offers & bowls of emeralds to both of you!
