The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 1913-1946
Page 66
1. Through the efforts of Thornton Wilder, Stein had begun, in 1937 to deposit the manuscripts and typescripts of all of her writings in the Yale University Library. In mid-March 1940 (undated letter, YCAL) Thornton Wilder wrote Stein that the Yale University Library, to show its pride in the material she had deposited with them, wanted to mount an exhibition. The exhibition was held from 22 February to 29 March 1941. One of the important byproducts of the exhibition was A Catalogue of the Published and Unpublished Writings of Gertrude Stein, compiled by Robert Bartlett Haas and Donald Clifford Gallup. It was the scope of this exhibition, and Yale’s interest in Stein’s works, that prompted Van Vechten to select Yale as one of the depositories of his varied collections.
2. John McCullough had been actively trying to arrange for a lecture tour. McCullough had been talking with Colstein Leigh, of the Leigh Lecture Bureau, about a tour. Stein must have written McCullough about the letter she had received from Ford Hicks of the National Lecture Bureau (see Stein to Van Vechten [26 November 1939], note 3). McCullough was then approached by both Hicks and another lecture agent, Lee Kudick. Kudick wired McCullough on 27 January 1940 that he would match whatever Leigh’s offer might be to Stein. McCullough sent the wire, including in it the substance of a letter he had received from Kudick to Stein (YCAL). For some reason Kudick withdrew his offer, and McCullough, after considering the two remaining offers, wired Stein on 29 February 1940 (YCAL) that he favored the proposal of Hicks and his eastern collaborator, Elbert Wickes. Stein eventually gave up the idea of returning to the United States.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 21 April 1940] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
My dearest Papa Woojums,
Yes you know about the novel,1 don’t you remember oh about three years ago I told you I was doing a novel about the Duchess of Windsor and it was to be called Ida, I worked at it and then I wrote it over and I have written it over almost three times completely and now Bennett [Cerf] likes it and so I am finishing it for him and he will do it in the fall. I am awfully happy that Random House is doing it, I was awfully unhappy about their not being my publisher but it was not my fault, I wanted them to be and now they are again and I am very happy about it, it is lovely spring weather and I just seem to have forgotten about going over to lecture, I undoubtedly do like writing books better than lecturing, and you never tell about yours, Papa Woojums, is it going on I am so anxious to know, and give our love to Fania and tell her how pleased we are with what she is doing,2 I do like the french, and I did like everything you said about Paris France
And lots and lots of love always
Baby Woojums.
1. Note by Van Vechten, 24 January 1941: “Of course she had but I had forgotten. In going over these letters I have discovered several references to this book. “
The first mention of this novel is in a letter, Stein to Van Vechten [26 June 1937]: “I have started a novel that Mama Woojums says is early American.”
The writing of the novel was extremely difficult for Stein and it occupied her on and off for more than three years. In an undated letter to Bennett Cerf (? March 1940, Columbia-Random House) she wrote:
I tell you Bennett I do not know anything about that novel. 1 have worked at it and written it over and over again and now it is about half or three quarters done and I really do not know a thing about it, usually, you know I know what I know and I put it down but this time I have worked at it until I am all bothered. …
Other significant references to the composition of this novel, which is sometimes called “Jenny and Arthur,” are in Stein’s letters to Van Vechten: [29 September 1937], [26 July 1938], [4 August 1938], [15 August 1938], [26 December 1938], [1 January 1939], [8 February 1939], [21 April 1940], and [20 February 1941].
This is the first mention in these letters of any connection between Ida A Novel and the Duchess of Windsor. Stein referred to the connection in her letter to Cerf [? March 1940, Columbia-Random House]. She explained the connection further in another letter to Cerf [? May 1940, Columbia-Random House]: “It was originally inspired by Mrs. Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, and a girl in this village and the two became one and she was called Ida, they are still one and they are going on being. ...”
In an undated letter to Cerf (? May 1941, Columbia-Random House) Stein asked him to send a copy to the Duchess of Windsor. Cerf replied on 14 May 1941 (YCAL) that he would do so and would let Stein know if she replied. On 13 June 1941 (YCAL) Cerf wrote to Stein that the Duchess of Windsor had acknowledged receipt of the book and had written that she hoped “to emerge from this literary labyrinth with some idea of Ida’s thoughts and ways!” The Duchess of Windsor completed her brief note to Cerf by saying, “Will you say to Miss Stein how pleased I am that she should have thought of sending me the book, and how fortunate I think she is still to be in her own villa. We had to leave ours and all our possessions last June.”
2. Note by Van Vechten, 24 January 1941: “British War Relief work.”
To Gertrude Stein
23 April 1940 [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dear Baby Woojums,
In all the trouble you are having these days I worry about you and wonder constantly if you are all right. I hope you are. And one day I began to worry about your paintings, the Picasso portrait etc and have these been put away safely?1 I am dreadfully excited, of course, about the news of the novel and Bennett [Cerf] publishing it etc and all this is WONDERFUL.2 Paris-France hasn’t come over yet, but I dare say it will arrive soon. Or maybe you can’t send it or receive it and maybe I’ll have to wait for an American copy. I HOPE NOT. Fania is still sewing for soldiers’ wives and babies and they send over packages of garments all the time and then she sells tickets for benefits and she is very good at this and sells lots of them! The Autobiography in the Cinema would be MARVELOUS, with everybody playing his own part! Hollywood would be AGOG. . The idea of leaving a set of photographs with Yale University is a wonderful idea and if they request them I’ll be delighted to arrange it, but it would be an awful job to print them just for one show: it would have to be for their permanent collection. I have been very busy photographing recently, but mostly Ballet People, and you will LOVE the pictures I am doing in color and when you and Mama Woojums arrive again you must be done in color with all the glory of your waistcoats. Fania is most proud of the waistcoat you gave Her and she wears it Often.3
Well, lots of love to you both and La Belle France, and I hope to hear from you SOON.
Papa Woojums!
Did you know [Alexander] Woollcott had had a bad heart attack & is very ill?
1. Shortly after England and France declared war on Germany (3 September 1939), Stein and Toklas made a hasty thirty-six-hour visit to Paris to get their identity papers and winter clothing and to arrange for the paintings and valuables in their apartment.
From the time Stein acquired a lease on the house in Bilignin in 1929, she had been in the habit of spending almost six months of the year there. She did not, however, move her paintings with her. In Bilignin she had paintings by Sir Francis Rose, Picabia, and a few other artists. The bulk of her collection, including the paintings by Picasso, Juan Gris, and Cézanne, remained in Paris.
During this visit to Paris Stein tried to place the paintings flat on the floor. She soon realized that there was more wall space than floor space and so she left the pictures in their places. When she returned to Bilignin, she brought back only two paintings, Picasso’s portrait of her and Cézanne’s Portrait of Madame Cézanne. The scene in 5 rue Christine as Stein tried to arrange her pictures is described by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler in his introduction to Stein’s Painted Lace and Other Pieces, pp. xvii-xviii.
2. Cerf had written Stein on 2 April 1940 (YCAL) returning the typescript of Ida A Novel and asking Stein to go over it for certain corrections. Cerf agreed to publish the novel in a “handsome format.”
3. Marinoff gave this waistcoat, together with another given t
o her by Toklas after Stein’s death, to YCAL.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: ? April 1940] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
My dearest Papa Woojums,
Am so pleased you liked Paris, France, I never feel comfortable until I have heard from you and now I feel very comfortable,1 the latest proposition from the Chicago man who seems the most promising lecture man wants only 15 lectures about France and the war to unlimited audiences in Key cities, that sounds better because after that one could do what one pleases, he is also connected with the cinema and seems very taken with the idea of the Auto [biography of] A B. T. as cinema material, in which case we would be over this fall and be photoed in color but then always of course nothing may come of it all,2 and anyway here we are and though everything is complicated, life is cheerful, we have lots of french soldiers here now including the Legion, funnily enough Picabia’s younger son is here quite a nice boy,3 I wish you were here too, lots of love and lots to you and to Fania
Gtrde B. W.
1. Van Vechten had received the typescript of Paris France (see Van Vechten to Stein, 19 March [1940]), but he had not yet received the printed edition (see Van Vechten to Stein, 23 April 1940). This letter responds to Van Vechten’s letter of 19 March [1940].
2. A proposal by Colstein Leigh of the Colstein Leigh Lecture Bureau. See Stein to Van Vechten, [4? April 1940], note 2.
3. Picabia’s son Gabriel (b. 1911, known as Poncho). He was the son by Picabia’s first wife, Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 26 May 1940] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
My dear Papa Woojums,
The child’s book is done and I am sending the ms. to you, I am sending one copy to [John] McCullough and one to you and I have suggested to him that you will let each other know which one receives it, and if he has received his, then after you are through with yours will you let the Kiddie [W. G. Rogers] see it, and will you let me know just as soon as soon how you like it, I will be most awfully anxious to know, it has carried me over many anxious days, and I have liked doing it so much, I do want you to like it,1
lots of love
Gtrde B. W.
1. Stein’s “To Do: A Book of Alphabets and Birthdays,” in her Alphabets & Birthdays, pp. 1–86.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 3 June 1940] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
My dear Papa Woojums,
I am sending you to-day the copy of the child’s story To Do and most awfully anxious to know what you think, and then in about a week I will send you the copy of the Novel Ida and will you let Bennett [Cerf] know you have Ida when you have her in case he has not had his. Thanks so much, we are going through some pretty awful days, but we have lots of friends around and we all console each other, do tell Fania how much everybody appreciates what she is doing, we have a friend at Bordeaux and she says they are overwhelmed with all there is to do for the refugees and she tells a touching story of the day of the treason of Leopold, of Belgium,1 the canteen was full of Belgian soldiers and officers and when they heard the news they all began to cry and the french soldiers consoled them, she said it was terribly moving, do tell me how you like To Do, and lots of love
Baby Woojums.
1. As King and commander-in-chief of the Belgian army, Leopold surrendered to the Germans on the night of 27–28 May 1940. The Belgium government declared his action illegal and moved to London, where it formed a government-in-exile.
To Carl Van Vechten
6 July [1940] Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
My dearest Papa Woojums,
Baby and Mama are still here, and it is all over and we are still here and there is so much to tell and we are still here, Mama Woojums made raspberry jam through it all and I cut box hedges and so we got through and all full of love for you, and did To Do ever get there and did you like it, and oh dear so much love to you and Fania1
always and always
Baby Woojums
1. The French signed an armistice with the Germans on 22 June and with the Italians on 24 June 1940. American citizens had been warned on 24 August 1939 and again on 14 May 1940 (see Stein to Van Vechten [? October 1939], note 2) to leave France. After consulting with friends, and with the memory of what it had been like to be refugees during World War I, Stein and Toklas decided to remain in France.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Portrait of Georges Jacques. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten]1
29 July [1940] [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dear Baby Woojums,
Ida is here! I just got Bennett [Cerf] on the phone & Ida is herel So is Edward Wasserman!
LOVE to Mama & Baby!
Papa Woojums!
1. The headwaiter at the Algonquin Hotel, New York. This card did not arrive in France until 17 December 1940. See Stein to Van Vechten, 17 December [1940].
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 27 August 1940] Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
My dear Papa Woojums,
The Woojums family feel most separated and neglected, not a word from Papa Woojums, not one word, since everything happened, not one word, I know you had the ms. of To Do because [John] McCullough has just written that you passed your copy on to him his seemingly having been lost, and now I do not make out very well whether he likes it or not,1 but most and foremost I want to know how you feel about it, send me by cable or air-mail, a word, we are suffering for a word from you, and tell me if you like it, I myself am attached to it, and I am asking McCullough if he does not want it to send it back to you and will you then give it to Bennett [Cerf], I would like him to see it next,2 but please oh please Papa Woojums a word by air-mail or cable or something to tell us we are not forgot, as for us life just goes along, it has complications and it has compensations, and that is about all you can say about it, but do write or something please Papa Woojums the neglected Baby and Mama Woojums always loving,
Gtrde.
1. McCullough wrote Stein [7 August 1940, YCAL] that he found that ‘To Do: A Book of Alphabets and Birthdays” lacked episode and thus it had less appeal than her The World Is Round.
2. Van Vechten sent Cerf the manuscript of “To Do.” Cerf replied to Van Vechten on 19 November 1940 (YCAL) that he thought that Random House, which was committed to publishing Stein’s Ida A Novel, could not undertake to publish more than one work by Stein per year. On 9 January 1941 (YCAL), after much prodding by Van Vechten, Cerf wrote him that everyone at Random House was “as cold as a slab of alabaster” about “To Do. “
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Fania Marinoff as Ariel, sculpture by Richmond Barthé. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten]
6 September [1940] [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dear Baby Woojums,
It isn’t that I haven’t written, I’ve written DOZENS of times and ALL about the book which I’m MAD about but I hardly think it is for les enfants. .1 hope SOME of my letters get through. I shall get in touch with [John] McCullo[u]gh and see what he says about passing the mss over to Bennett [Cerf]. He will be very disappointed because he HOPED you would make a children’s book out of it and I think Bennett has all he can attend to with Ida.
Bennett, by the way, is getting married again next week to Phyllis Fraser.1 We send Love to you both,
Papa Woojums
1. Cerf and Phyllis Fraser, whom he had met at the home of Harold Ross, editor of The New Yorker, were married on 17 September 1940. The ceremony was performed by New York’s mayor, Fiorello La Guardia.
Phyllis Fraser, whose real name was Helen Nichols, had worked in Hollywood at the R.K.O. Studios as an actress for about two years. She gave that up and moved to New York and was employed by the McCann-Erickson Advertising Agency at the time she and Cerf met. Cerf wrote Stein the details of his meeting Phyllis and their marriage in a letter to Stein, 10 October 19
40 (YCAL).
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 6 September 1940] Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
Dear Papa Woojums
Gracious goodness, another lot of mail this time boat mail after a month of not, and not one word from Papa Woojums, I know you are alright and had the ms. of To Do, I know that from the Kiddy [W. G. Rogers] and from [John] McCullough1 but not a word from you, not a postal card not a word, and we do not like it, not at all at all, the Scott people seem to have had a sudden change of heart, sent me my advance money and a cable saying Yes, perhaps the children said it was a child’s book even if the adults did not think so, but how can I know anything if Papa Woojums does not say a mumbling word, write, air-mail, boat, cable anything but write do please write.
Always
Baby Woojums.
1. McCullough in his letter to Stein about “To Do: A Book of Alphabets and Birthdays” (see Stein to Van Vechten [27 August 1940], note 1) had written that he read part of the typescript at Van Vechten’s.
W. G. Rogers had written Stein [postmark 6 August 1940, at YCAL], thanking her for letting him see the typescript of “To Do” and giving her a brief report on Van Vechten.
To Gertrude Stein
11 September 1940 [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dearest Baby Woojums,
I write and write and cable and cable, but nothing seems to get through. Maybe this will. [John] McCullo[u]gh had TO DO only one night (he borrowed my copy as his never got through) when he wrote his report to you. So now he wants to go over it again and have some children read it. But I agree with him that it is not a child’s book (we both, as he says, may be wrong) especially as you say letters M and Ν are unlucky and half the children who read it will be named Nathan and Mary. . It is too bad he can’t talk this thing over with you but that seems impossible just now and you must realize that you are only receiving a very tiny percent of the mail that is being sent to you … Bennett [Cerf] is getting married to a Phyllis Fraser on Sept 17 . . We have not met her yet but she is coming here to be photographed with him tonight.