by Edward Burns
Love.
Carlo
1. Articles about Stein by Lutz appeared in the Richmond News-Leader on 7, 8, and 9 February 1935. It is impossible to determine which article is being referred to.
To Carl Van Vechten
[Postcard: Sweet Briar House, Sweet Briar, Va.]
[postmark: 12 February 1935] [Chapel Hill, North Carolina]
Dearest P. W.
They were all so sorry that you were not with us and the sorriest were we, it is a lovely place and mighty pretty everything is inside and out, and now here we are in Chapel Hill and I took out my speedometer [i.e., pedometer] for xcercise and it and I wanted to come back and tell you about it but no Papa W. no Papa W. our only consolation is that Fania has you, best and best love to you and best love to Fania
B. W. and M. W. and very very lonesome very xxxxx.
[Gertrude Stein]
To Carl Van Vechten
[Telegram]
14 February 1935 Charleston, South Carolina
CHARLESTON LOVELY BUT HIDEOUSLY LONESOME WITHOUT PAPA WOOJUMS LOVING FELICITATIONS FANIAS SUCCESS1
THE WOOJUMS
1. Marinoff was rehearsing the role of Susanne Pentland in the play Times Have Changed, by the French writer Edouard Bourdet. The play was adapted by Louis Bromfield. It opened at the National Theatre, New York, on 25 February 1935 and ran for thirty-two performances.
To Carl Van Vechten
14 February [19]35 Villa Margherita
Charleston, S. C.
Dearest Papa Woojums,
It is a lovely Charleston but very lonesome, all your friends have been so sweet to us considering that they almost feel we didn’t bring you, they don’t see that we are the ones who suffer the most. Miss [Josephine] Pinckney was charming and intriguing and a little mysterious, the Dubose Hey-wards even more charming, so little mysterious that one felt that one had known them always and so loved them at once,1 and the unknown Mr. Ben Kittredge Jr. sat next [to] me at lunch at Oxford in 75 or 76 and he has a beautiful car but a marvellous garden, the famous cypress garden and we rode on boats on the swamp for hours this afternoon.2 This I tell you so that you may know what you are missing. Do come to New Orleans next Sunday evening, Roosevelt Hotel. Yes? Yes.
And now why Marvin Chauncy Ross made an engagement one night at Charlottesville and the next night at Amherst. Two miles from Sweetbriar and about twenty from Charlottesville there is an Amherst, not the Amherst but an Amherst just the same. On the whole Sweetbriar was not quite as much so at home in Sweetbriar as in the train, there were half a dozen who were fairly faisandée, the others not half so good looking as Vassar.
Dearest Carl, come to New Orleans, do or we won’t know what to do.
Do say a thousand things to Fania about how lovely she will be in the new role and how thrilling we will find it when we get back in April.3 A Mrs. Clem Little, who wrote Dust in my shoes, says Fania was perfect the only time she saw her and she lives to see her again.
All my love and à bientot,
Mama Woojums
1. DuBose Heyward (1885–1940), the writer, and his wife, Dorothy (1890–1961).
2. Benjamin Kittredge, Jr. (1900–1981), and his wife Carola de Peyster Kip, lived on a former plantation, Cypress Gardens.
3. See Stein to Van Vechten, 14 February 1935, note 1.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 14 February 1935] Villa Margherita
Charleston, S.C.
My dearest Carl
Everybody says where [is] Carl and we have to say with a tear in the eye no Carl, it is a sweet Carl but we do not no we do not like to have to say there is no Carl here no we do not. The lectures in Charleston went off well, and Chapel Hill is lovely I wish you had been at Chapel Hill and so do they all, it is one of the nicest places and the pig eater was sweet and Spanish and careful and we liked him but he did not replace Papa,1 nothing replaces Papa say the Woojums ladies with a tear in each eye. Love to Fania and everything is beautiful that she is acting that we are sure of
Gertrude
Address Hotel Roosevelt, New Orleans.
1. This letter and Toklas’ of 14 February were mailed together. The “pig eater” of this letter and the “Salvation Figeater” of Van Vechten to Stein and Toklas [February? 1935], are the same, but which spelling is correct is impossible to determine. The reference is to someone Van Vechten had spoken about whom Stein would probably meet while in Charleston, South Carolina.
To Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas
[February? 1935]
Tuesday [150 West Fifty-fifth Street New York]
Dear Ladies Woojums, Mama and Baby!
I have been worried about you ever since you went off with Salvation Figeater: you must tell me all about him. I’m sure he was fascinating and made you swerve (slightly) from your allegiance to Papa Woojums!1 Anyway, here I am back in NY anxiously awaiting news of the dear ladies. And how was Sweet Briar and did the filles strike any more Alma Tadema attitudes? Well, please write me right away!2
Love to both and Fania and Edith send love too!
Carlo!!
Rehearsals are going badly: but they always do.
I am forwarding a letter from Mabel [Dodge].3
If you are not sending a copy of Lectures in America to Miss Ellen Glasgow, 1 West Main Street, Richmond, Virginia, please let me know. But I believe you are!
1. See Stein to Van Vechten [14 February 1935], note 1.
2. Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema (1836–1912), an English painter known primarily for his paintings of Greek and Roman set pieces.
3. Dodge had written Stein, beginning 9 October [1934], urging her to come to Taos, New Mexico, where Dodge lived. Subsequent letters of Dodge to Stein in 1934–35 urged Stein to meet her in either Taos or Carmel, California. Stein steadfastly refused to meet Dodge during her American tour.
To Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas
[16 February 1935]
Saturday 150 West Fifty-fifth Street
New York City
Dear Mes! dames Woojums (Baby and Mama)
Your New Orleans address for tomorrow couldn’t possibly reach you (I just got it today) and so I am sending this to the Algonquin. . Ed Wynn, a comic, who performs on the radio had it the other night that his aunt’s phonograph got stuck on a record of a song and it went on repeating “a rose is a rose is a rose.” She was enraptured, thinking it was Gertrude Stein. . I have entreated Mark [Lutz] to send you a poem a bright (?) Richmond boy wrote to one of the papers there on this subject.1 He says that like Lee you will always be remembered in those parts and frequently spoken of. . I am not so sorry about Sweet Briar after your report, but think of [Marvin] Ross being right about Amherst! Maybe we have been harsh with this Baltimore beauty. . Charleston and its dismal swamps sounds most appealing, and I am sure New Orleans will be all fanlights, magnolias, and soft-stepping, sweet-voiced blacks. DO MEET HUEY LONG! . .2 Be kind to Republicans everywhere, but I think if you would run on the ticket (Baby Woojums for President) it would pull through. Mabel [Dodge] writes she is getting out another book of Memoirs,3 and Baby Paul Robeson (age 8) came to see me with his distinguished grandmother yesterday. F[ania] M[arinoff] has gone to Philadelphia and opens Monday at the Garrick there.4 She will be all right. I have another niece here who asks questions about you and so does the superb actress Judith Anderson, who is also dying to meet you. I think I shall give a garden party for you (in some apple orchard) in April. So get out your organdies. New York will be hot as hot in that sweet month. You have forgotten how hot! . I don’t need to remind you, dear Mama, to wear your rubbers any more. This sweet tour is drawing to a close. I shall cry for days when you sail!
love, love, love!
Carlo (Papa Woojums!)
the Virginia pictures are mostly developed but not printed. You will like ’em.
1. The poem was quoted in the Richmond News-Leader, 1 January 1935, p. 1.
2. Huey Long (1893–1935), lawyer and politician, was governor of L
ouisiana from 1928 to 1931 and United States senator from Louisiana from 1931 to 1935. Stein never met Long, although an article in the New York Sun, 22 February 1935, (YCAL) has the headline “Gertrude Stein for Huey Long,” which indicates that she had read about him.
3. Dodge to Van Vechten, 9 February [1935], YCAL.
4. See Stein to Van Vechten, 14 February 1935, note 1.
To Carl Van Vechten
17 February [19]35 Tutwiler Hotel
Birmingham, Ala.
Dearest Papa Woojums,
Why, oh why didn’t you come to Birmingham. It’s a S C R Ε Α Μ! IMPAYABLE! UNBELIEVABLE! Why didn’t you come, how can I laugh tears without you? And it can’t ever quite be told and when WHEN I ASK YOU ARE WE GOING TO SEE YOU? And if we don’t soon what is the use of, well anything.
Duncan is one story, there are ten Duncans and we saw all of them most all the time yesterday and we are here until this afternoon when we fly to New Orleans where you may be (and would be if you weren’t busy with other Woojumses, you’re not taking them on permanently, just until I can get at them, it’s hateful to think of the possibilities)
Yes Birmingham is unique, and we wouldn’t have missed it for anything but we don’t want to come back. The intelligence of the Birmans (that’s what they called themselves in their newspaper yesterday) descends through their women and the men are weirdly bashful and gauche. And it’s a feministe who is telling you this.
Will you please write us at once Hotel Roosevelt, New Orleans to tell us everything, but especially about Fania’s play. Heaps of love to you both and millions of good wishes.
Your Mama
Woojums
To Gertrude Stein
[17 February 1935]
Sunday 150 West Fifty-fifth Street
[New York]
Dear Gertrude,
I heard from you yesterday, thank heaven, and you are having a sweet time as usual. Besides sweet Miss [Ellen] LaMotte wrote me about your photograph1 and the Cosmopolitan came out and I love your article.2 But the editor got very fresh and asks his readers to judge whether you are “genius or charlatan.” Does he mean all his authors are one or the other? He should be flipped on the nose for this! I am soon going into the darkroom to print your pictures. Shall I send a little one of the Three Woojums? I think I will. . Fania is back from Atlantic City and it is very cold. New England is the place to be on cold nights. Have they still got feather beds? You will not answer my questions about a Wrestling. Have you ever seen a wrestling? We must see a wrestling. A girl who has just married a man who believes in the devil and is going to raise goats (for milk) wants very much to meet you. Who doesn’t? The Bromfields are melodious in their appreciation of your triumphs. They fancy you will find Paris very meagre after all this.x
my love to Baby and Mama Woojums!
Carlo (Papa Woojums)
xas no doubt you will.
XXX right back at you!
1. LaMotte wrote to Van Vechten [10 January 1935] (YCAL), thanking him for the pictures of Stein and Toklas he had sent her.
2. Stein’s article, “I Came and Here I Am,” Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan (February 1935), 98(2):[18]–19.
To Alice Toklas
[18 February 1935]
Monday 150 West Fifty-fifth Street
New York City
Dear Alice,
What can I do, sweet Mama Woojums, but pass on Miss [Frances] Steloff’s letter to you?1 Do what you think best about it. . It is cold one day and warm the next but the apple blossoms will be out for your organdie party in April. Shall I ask Walter Winchell?
567 bright red dolphins with pretty ribbons in their
mouths to you both!
Papa Woojums!
1. Van Vechten enclosed a letter he had received from Frances Steloff, 16 February 1935 (YCAL). Steloff, owner of the Gotham Book Mart, New York, was disappointed that Stein, who had signed books at Brentano’s while she was in New York, had not arranged to do the same at the Gotham, where Steloff had been a longtime supporter of her writings. Steloff also wrote Van Vechten trying to clear up a misunderstanding about the prices being charged for copies of the Plain Edition volumes.
To Carl Van Vechten
21 February [19]35 The Roosevelt [Hotel]
New Orleans, Louisiana
Dearest Papa Woojums,
It was my hope and intention to write you a pretty letter to-day but instead I’m writing you a business letter. Baby W. however is writing you one full of love from herself and from her lesser parent.
Well, here goes for Miss F[rances]. Steloff. She used to order books of the Plain Edition and eventually payed for some of them. Any one who ordered books of P. E. had my eternal gratitude and I didn’t forget The Gotham Book Shop. So when we got to Ν. Y. I trotted our precious baby to the Gotham Book Shop, presented Miss Steloff and Baby W. took a violent and instant dislike to the nice lady and kicked and screamed and said it would go right back to the hotel. (I must say that the figures she quotes are correct, they were the price when she ordered them, naturally Random House had other arrangements) Which was accomplished. Later I hoped to go to see Gotham Book Shop and just say this, that is all but Baby W.’s reasonable enough prejudice. Now I am writing it to her and asking her, is [i.e., if] I can without saying it, why she behaves thusly when and where and how she shouldn’t in writing to our Papa W. who says one should be correct always, but smiles when Mama W. isn’t.
Now about Mrs. [Gertrude] Atherton, I’ve frankly not known what to do about the subject of the announcement that G[ertrude]. was visiting her. But her letter to you shows so sweetly that she considered it to be merely extraneous and unconnected. What she says about Alice Seckels confirms my final judgement of my namesake, she is honest but untruthful, perhaps not too dishonest, but honest enough. But she doesn’t know what is true and false and therefore to be watched. She has finally arranged as we wish four lectures, two in S[an]. F[rancisco]., one at Mills College and one at Stanford.
We will stay in S. F. more than four days, we certainly will be there for the ninth. That is half the reason of going west, to go to the P. Ε. Ν. dinner. It certainly was your and Mrs. Atherton’s arrangement that is giving us the trip west. BUT it was understood that Papa Woojums was to be there, now you didn’t come to Charleston (so Baby says it caught a cold there because it felt too lonesome), you didn’t come to New Orleans (so Baby said it couldn’t lose its cold but it was so furiously lonesome) SO YOU WILL COME TO S.F. PLEASE SAY YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT IT AND WILL TELL US THAT YOU WILL LET US KNOW SOON THAT YOU ARE DEFINITELY COMING. PLEASE SAY YES.
It was about the radio that I found Miss Seckels untruthful. She wrote me that she had said it could be arranged to the man who asked for it, because the Chronicle had had word that Miss Stein’s publisher said she would accept. It is all stupid and tiresome. But I answered Miss S[eckels]. that G[ertrude]. would arrange such matters herself if it suited her to do them.1
Now that leaves me only time to hope that we have news before leaving to-morrow morning by air (7.45 from the hotel a. m. and G. not pleased) for Saint-Louis, Hotel Park Plaza until Sunday at 2.30 P.M., that Fania had no cold, that she liked her role when it was given to an audience, and that they thought the role and play not too unworthy of Fania’s delicious, delicate, penetrating, poignant, interesting, intelligent gift God-given. Please lend us clippings my [i.e., by] registered post c/o Thornton Wilder Esquire, 6020 Drexel Avenue, Chicago where we will be Sunday evening.
There is something I am always about to write you and never quite do, something that comes over me to say to you but is a poor way of saying how dear you are to be dear to me.
Alice Mama Woojums
1. See Van Vechten to Toklas [19 January 1935], note 1. Alice Seckles had a gathering in the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, one Thursday morning each month. A commentator would speak on current events and books. Seckles also arranged lecture tours for certain authors. Atherton had written Van Vechten, 1
6 February [1935] (YCAL), confirming Seckles’ arrangements for Stein’s visit. Atherton also detailed her plans for entertaining Stein. Seckles’ letters to Toklas are not in YCAL.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 24 February 1935] The Roosevelt [Hotel]
New Orleans, Louisiana
My dearest papa Woojums
Here we are still in New Orleans, hot and delicious and the only thing missing is you, and you would make it hotter and deliciouser which would have been so nice, and we do like it, and have seen the levies and ferried across the Mississippi and have been given bulbs of a Mexican lily given to the first governor of New Orleans and the social register of the bawdy houses a charming little blue book with the simple advertisements of the ladies by themselves and we have eaten oyster a la Rockefeller and innumerable shrimps made in every way and all delicious and we were taken to visit the last of the Creoles in her original house unchanged for a hundred years and you would have enjoyed it, and all the time papa Woojums hundreds of miles away and he did say papa Woojums did say that he would not be hundreds of miles away and the moral of that is put no faith in papa Woojums, no not any. It is wonderful unblameable weather and the clouds go up and down, and it is all very lovely and very lively, oh and we have seen the most wonderfully large camellia trees growing with camellias, they were transplanted from old plantations a hundred years old and still cheerful, and we are coming back and buy a Ford and just run around, we have met up with Sherwood [Anderson] and now to-morrow we must leave all these joys behind us. We are so happy about Fania not that she is nervous but that [it] will be and has been alright and lots of love always and always
B. W. to her pa
To Carl Van Vechten
[Postcard: The Park Plaza Hotel, St. Louis, Mo.]
