by Edward Burns
Always
B. W.
1. Toklas’ maternal grandfather, Louis Levinsky, was born in 1827 in the town of Exin, in Prussia. He emigrated to the United States, with his brothers John and Mark, in 1848. In 1854 he returned to Europe and there married his cousin Hanchen Lewig (his brother John married her sister Mathilda). Toklas’ grandparents returned to the United States in 1855, and it was there, in Brooklyn, New York, that Toklas’ mother, Emma Levinsky, was born. In 1856 the Levinskys left by boat for California. They settled in San Francisco in 1869
Very little is known about Toklas’ father’s origins. Ferdinand Toklas was twenty when he left Poland for the United States in 1865. After a few years in several eastern states, he traveled to San Francisco and there, in 1875, met and married Emma Levinsky. Alice Toklas was born on 30 April 1877 in her grandfather’s house, 922 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco.
2. “Rose Is a Gertrude,” Time (9 October 1939), 34:76.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 1 October 1939] Bilignin par Belley
Ain
My dearest Papa Woojums,
Well will we come or not, it is for you to say, [John] McCullough has suggested that we do, and really we might, life is very tranquil here but there is nothing to do to help, everything is so well organised that for the moment we are not needed and we might do good over there, well anyway, I cabled to McCullough that I would consider lecturing a little and reading the World is Round a lot,1 by the way I have just begun a new child’s story about war-time, it begins not badly,2 but of course we are up against the same proposition, I do not want a strenuous life, a nice quiet one like the last time we were over and I have to earn a good deal of money, because over here well you know it does not cost much and over there the two of us and perhaps this time the two dogs and would you talk to McCullough, and let us know you are our father and our mother and our sister and our brother and our cousins and our aunts dearest Papa Woojums and our protector,
Always
Gtrde B. W.
1. In his letter to Stein, 16 September 1939 (YCAL), McCullough had suggested that Stein consider leaving France and return to the United States for “a flying lecture tour.” Stein considered this possibility, but it was too late in the lecture season to arrange a tour.
2. “Helen Button A Story of War-Time” was begun as a separate children’s story and then incorporated into Stein’s Paris France, pp. 80–92 (in Haas and Gallup, A Catalogue, this story and Paris France are separate entries).
The story of Helen Button is based on Stein’s conversations with Hélène Bouton, a girl of seventeen who lived in the town of Céyzérieu, not far from Bilignin. On 12 September 1939 (YCAL) Bouton wrote Stein in reply to an ad for a servant girl that had appeared in Le Bugiste, a local paper. In spite of her age she was hired and remained with Stein and Toklas until they were forced to move from Bilignin to Culoz during the war. (In an interview in Paris, June 1982, Joan Chapman confirmed that the incidents Stein relates in Paris France about Helen Button were in fact stories that Hélène Bouton had told Stein.)
To Gertrude Stein
5 October 1939 [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dear Baby Woojums,
Thornton Wilder called up this morning and said he was worried about you. I told him I had just received a letter and that [John] McCullo[u]gh had had a cable, and he was much relieved. McCullo[u]gh called me yesterday and asked if he could come to talk to me about the proposed lecture tour. So he came up to see me yesterday afternoon and I told him a good deal about the last tour but said you might have entirely different ideas about this one and he had better ask you what your terms would be, how many and what kind of people would be invited to listen to you, how long it would take to prepare your lectures, how soon you could get over, etc. I said he had better find out some of these things before he went on making arrangements. So he said he would cable you again. However, he seemed to anticipate no trouble, and he is a nice young man, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised (and how happy!) to see you and Mama W walking down another gangplank! I believe Georges [Jacques] at the Algonquin would turn pink with pleasure!. I suggested a lecture on Picasso would be an idea and I should think you have the material for that in your book, and he seemed to think they would like to hear about the war.1. NO letters I have received from Paris have been censored or even opened yet, but for awhile no letters at all came through and naturally we were worried. You will get wedding cards from FM and CVV maybe in this same mail!
Lots of love to you both, in which Fania joins me!
Papa Woojums
1. McCullough wrote to Stein, 9 October 1939 (YCAL), reporting on his meeting with Van Vechten and Professor Russell Potter of Columbia University. Van Vechten, perhaps remembering Stein’s difficulty with lecture agents during her 1934–35 lecture tour, was negative about McCullough’s ideas of enlisting lecture agents. McCullough wrote Stein that because of this he was willing to consider doing the necessary work arranging a tour until she and Toklas would arrive. At that point, McCullough felt, perhaps echoing Van Vechten’s view, that Toklas would step in and run the tour.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 23 October 1939] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
Dear Papa Woojums,
War-time has just brought me this letter paper in Belley and I am writing on it to you,1 dear Papa Woojums do you think we ought to go to America, will you send us a cable to say what you think, we would feel better about it or perhaps you answered my letter about it by airplane and it will come, Please tell us, the country is cold but we saw wood and could we bring the dogs, with us, and are you and Fania well and happy and enjoying your birthdays
lots of love
Gtrde B. W.2
1. This letter was written on writing paper that had an embossed decorative border of flowers with a spray of lilies of the valley and roses pasted on the first page.
2. The envelope of this letter has the seal “Ouvert 6 Β 93 Par L’Autorité Miliaire Controle Postal Militare.” From this point until the end of the war, almost all of Stein’s letters were opened by the censors; in none, however, was any part of the text subjected to censorship. In subsequent notes I have not indicated the letters that were opened by the censors. It is impossible to say whether Van Vechten’s letters to Stein were opened, since Stein did not keep the envelopes.
To Gertrude Stein
24 October 1939 101 Central Park West
New York City
Dear Gertrude,
When I met the enclosed clip in the paper this morning I nearly died! Off it goes to Baby Woojums per once!1 And doubtless you’ve heard from hundreds of sources that you have a scene on the telephone with the character representing [Alexander] Woollcott in the new Kaufman-Hart play, The Man who Came to Dinner, in which you ring him (marooned in a small town in Ohio for Christmas eve) from Paris to let him listen to the bells of Notre Dame!!!2 You and Alice were the only people in the world we didn’t hear from on our silver wedding anniversity. . So I guess the war has held up your invitations.3 We hoped you’d come. . We had 36 people for a sit-down dinner and Fania wore my mother’s wedding dress! It was a most sentimental occasional, and a little tear-makingx. You ask about lecturing and I’ve already talked to [John] McCullo[u]gh and already written you and I’ve asked him to let me know what you finally decide.
sprigs of mignonnette to you both, and a bowl of pearls!
Carlo—Papa Woojums.
xFania made a wonderful spontaneous speech!
1. This clipping cannot be identified.
2. George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s play, The Man Who Came to Dinner, opened at the Music Box Theatre, New York, on 16 October 1939 and ran for 288 performances. The character of Sheridan Whiteside, played by Monty Wooley, was based on Alexander Woollcott.
3. An invitation to a dinner on 21 October, in celebration of their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, was enclosed with this letter.
&
nbsp; To Carl Van Vechten
MS. New York Public Library, Manuscripts Division
[postmark: 28? October 1939] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
Dearest Papa Woojums,
The invitation came just on the day, and we said we would come with pleasure and eat of the most xcellent dinner and kiss the most xcellent bride and groom and Darby and Joan1 and yet here we are being snowed on quite heavily to-day although the grapes are not yet all gathered nor the potatoes, nor the wheat, nobody has even asked it to snow heavily before all saints day but they cheer up because they say in the country here that St. Martin has to pasture his donkey yet which means Indian summer, and so as Henry Kahnweiler2 says to our great astonishment the days pass and pass, but we wish we had passed the silver anniversary with you, if by any chance we do come over will you have another one the way they here always have the fete of the Vogue and then the return of the Vogue lots and lots of love to you both
Gtrde B. W.
1. A jocose term for a deeply attached husband and wife.
2. The picture dealer and art historian.
To Carl Van Vechten
MS. New York Public Library, Manuscripts Division
[? October 1939] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
Very dearest Papa Woojums
Happy happy days to you and Fania, happy happy months and happy happy years dearest both of you we love you so much all of us, including the new Basket who has not seen you but has heard a lot about you and we loved the blurb, Alice said with a sigh, he does write so beautifully when he writes,1 she did not say she wished he would write more and neither did I because we know Papa Woojums knows best, but we did sigh, and we loved the blurb, and next time you must add sawing wood, that is what I do every day, it’s nice to saw wood nice big chunks of wood and pile them up. The last letter was all about possibly going over to America, since then there has been no news xcept that the American Embassy suggests that I could undoubtedly get over2 but could I get back, and I do not suppose I could earn enough money to come back in clipper ships I would like to do that, did not you get us up there and wouldn’t it be fun to go up there all of us just wouldn’t it, otherwise there is no news, we are just patiently waiting, when the sun shines we are a little more uncomfortable because it means fighting and when it rains and it does a lot we are a little uncomfortable because it is cold not here because we have lots of coal and wood but out there, your phrase of the war being all fought sub-rosa is wonderful, and everybody is pleased that you say even frenchman [i.e., frenchmen] always win, and so once more the silver wedding bells and all our love all all
always
Gtde Baby Woojums.
1. A reference to the statement about The World Is Round that Van Vechten had sent Stein in his letter of 13 September 1939.
2. On 24 August 1939 William C. Bullitt, the American ambassador to France, published the following: “In view of the situation prevailing in Europe it is considered advisable to recommend the American Citizens who have no compelling reason to continue their sojurn here arrange to return to the United States” (YCAL). This statement was reissued on 14 May 1940, with the advisement that American citizens should congregate in the Bordeaux area in order to return to the United States.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Fania Marinoff in Carl Van Vechten’s mothers wedding dress. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten]
7 November [1939] [101 Central Park West
New York
Dear Baby Woojums,
Almost the moment after I wrote you that we hadn’t heard from you at the Anniversary your wonderful letter came. Here is FM in my mother’s Wedding dress (circa 1861) which FM wore at the Silver Wedding. I am also happy you like the Blurb. It is quite possible I may do a book next year. [John] McCullo[u]gh telephones if you lecture it will probably not be till the fall of 1940.1 I myself think it would be pretty late to arrange anything now for THIS year. Besides, you’d have to stay here for the duration of the War, once you came.
Lots of love to you both
Papa W!
1. McCullough wrote to Stein, 5 November 1939 (YCAL), his advice that a lecture tour be postponed until the 1940–41 season.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Swimmers at the Aquacade, New York Worlds Fair, 1939. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten]
15 November [1939] [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dearest Baby Woojums,
Everybody missed your portrait in the Picasso show last night1 & here is a new stamp for you.2 Also a glimpse of the Water Ballet in the Aquacade, World’s Fair.
LOVE,
Papa W!
1. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, had opened a major retrospective of Picasso’s work. Picasso: Forty Years of His Art, 15 November 1939 to 7 January 1940. The exhibition was organized by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., in collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition consisted of 344 works, including Guernica and its studies. Barr had approached Stein about the loan of the Picasso Portrait of Gertrude Stein. Stein, while not refusing, suggested that it could not be arranged until she returned to Paris in late October. Barr was willing to try to have a special shipment arrangement made for the painting or even to accept it after the offical opening of the exhibition (see Gallup, The Flowers of Friendship, p. 340). The outbreak of World War II prevented the shipment of the painting.
2. A 3-cent stamp celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of statehood, 1889–1939, of Washington, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
To Gertrude Stein
16 November [1939] 101 Central Park West
New York City
Why, my dear Baby Woojums!
I love your stationery with the rosebuds, but I can’t cable you because I don’t know what to cable. I have written you all I know about this several times.1. [John] McCullo[u]gh tells me that an agent is interested in taking you on for lectures in BIG halls, but NEXT year. I am all for that if arrangements are Proper and Secure. Don’t do anything without a guarantee. Money in bank, if possible. . But from your letter I gather something is imminent and I don’t know what it is so, I can’t cable you until I know more about what has happened. If you come now, certainly you will have to stay here for the duration of the war, but we will all love this. . If anything happens within the next few days which gives me an inkling of the new developments you want me to cable about, why of course I’ll cable you at once. .
In the meantime LOTS of love,
TO YOU BOTH,
FROM
Papa Woojums.
Maybe you are just asking me if I think you ought to come home to stay? I have read & reread your letter & can’t be sure. So if I cabled I might give the wrong impression.—I hope this will be soon enough.
1. See Stein to Van Vechten [23 October 1939].
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Statue of George Washington, New York World’s Fair, 1939. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten]1
18 November [1939] [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dear Baby Woojums!
Of course, we will have another anniversary right away if you & Mama W come over!
Love
Papa W!
1. This statue was by the sculptor James Earle Fraser.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 26 November 1939] Bilignin par Belley1
Ain
My dearest Papa Woojums,
It is sad to have the once every ten days or so post come and no letter from Papa Woojums, it kind of does not seem right, please write and write soon, it that is we are like the poilu, we need to get letters.2 I have just had a cable with very interesting conditions offered by the National Lecture Bureau, what is that is it something good or not, of course that would mean early spring,3 I am finishing my Paris-France, Batsford’s enthusiasm grows and they want it now, the English edition of The World is Round is out, and as soon as I have some copies I will send you one, and please
write soon, we are lonesome, we are having lovely weather, and I do kind of like life in the country really do, but do not let another post go without you lots and lots of love
Gtrde.
1. The return address was stamped on the paper.
2. Poilu in French means hairy or shaggy. It was a term used for French soldiers in World War I.
3. The cable is not in YCAL. On 15 December 1939 (YCAL) Ford Hicks, manager of the National Lecture Bureau, Inc., of Chicago, Illinois, wrote to Toklas at the suggestion of Samuel Steward. He offered Stein $375 per date and specified that he would try to secure large audiences. On the verso of Hick’s letter Toklas drafted a reply setting out some of the details that would have to be arranged if Stein would agree to a lecture tour. One of those details was that colleges unable to pay the large fees should not be excluded from the tour.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 28 December 1939] Foyer du soldat1
Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
My dearest Papa Woojums,
Happy New Year happy new year to you and Fania happy happy new year to you both now and always always and now, and do you like our new stamp, we are very busy getting our foyer together, we are making our sport center in the barn and an inside foyer in a large room in the village and there is lots to do, any illustrated American things would be gratefully received by us, they like to look at photographs made in America, and if anybody has any french books, they are not using, I suppose anything is useful, we have gotten a lot of out-door games already, with the aid of some English friends,2 my book Paris, France is all done, I hope you will like it, it is not long, almost 70 type written pages and now the great question is should it or should it not be illustrated, Batsford thought at first no, and now he kind of thinks yes,3 well anyway happy new year, I like wintering in the country, I had no idea there would be so much to do, and that I could walk so much as I do, the new Basket jumps and walks, but he does not care for the moon, he says it is too bright, and too unxpected, but anyway happy new year lots of happy new years to Papa Woojums and to Fania from B. W. and Mama Woojums and all love always
