The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 1913-1946
Page 69
3. This does not appear in any letter written in 1918. Stein wrote this in a letter to Van Vechten postmarked 29 August 1935.
4. See Stein to Van Vechten [17 July 1929], notes 1 and 2, and Stein to Van Vechten [20 February 1941]. Stein had met Hart Crane through Laura Riding and Robert Graves.
5. Cerf’s first son, Christopher, was born 19 August 1941.
6. W. Gilman Low to Van Vechten, 21 January 1941.
To Carl Van Vechten
[Postcard: Hauterives (Drôme)—“Palais Idéal” Façade Est—“L’Entrée du Tombeau”]
[postmark: 24 January 1941] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
Dear Papa Woojums,
The Christmas letter came but not the card but Christmas mail is still coming so we still have hope, had a charming letter from [Donald] Gallup who had such a nice visit with you, he told all about it,1 lots of love to you both and lots of love dear Papa Woojums from
B. W.
1. Gallup to Stein, 18 December 1940, YCAL.
To Gertrude Stein
31 January [1941]1 [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dear Gertrude and Baby Woojums!
The mss came back today and goes to Harcourt today. Of course I never told him it was a children’s book. I don’t think it is. If Harcourt doesn’t want it, I have another idea! I dream of Ida and chuckle over her and her playmates in the middle of the night. What a gal! Phyllis [Cerf]’s pictures are not yet printed, but here is a color picture of the cases enclosing the letters and photographs that went to Yale. Hold it by the edges—don’t touch the picture itself—to the light with a magnifying glass and you will see the whole thing. The colors are EXACT. It gave me a funny feeling to seal up your letters like mummies! But the Library is MAGNIFICENT and do you know they have ALL the books that were in the Yale Library in 1742. It is the only college library that has never had a fire.2 Lovex to you and Mama Woojums
Papa Woojums!
x and how!
1. Van Vechten’s letter is typed beneath a letter from William Gilman Low III, of Charles Scribner’s Sons, to him (30 January 1941). In returning the manuscript of “To Do: A Book of Alphabets and Birthdays,” Low wrote, “I wish Miss Stein could be persuaded to do another straight-forward book such as PARIS FRANCE.”
2. Van Vechten had visited the library for the first time on 28 January in order to present Stein’s letters to him and other materials to the library’s collections.
To Gertrude Stein
[Telegram]
[postmark: 4 February 1941] New York
Happy birthday and lots of love
Fania and Carlo Van Vechten
To Carl Van Vechten and Fania Marinoff
[Postcard: Environs de Belley—Le Gland]
[postmark: 4 February 1941] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
My dears,
The snow was gently falling and then your birthday telegram came and then the snow came out it really did, and now it is still my birthday and I send you all our love all of it now and always
Baby Woojums
To Gertrude Stein
10 February [1941] [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dearest Baby Woojumsl
Harcourt kept the mss. of To Do exactly one day and returned it, saying, “I have your note of the fourth, and the mss. of Miss Stein’s To Do: a Book of Alphabets and Birthdays, arrived with it. I have been able to spend an hour over the manuscript immediately. Not only is it somewhat in her difficult style, but it seems to me the idea (sic) isn’t sufficient to carry a book. So I am sending the manuscript back to you as you request.” I have another idea, as I wrote you, from which something may come. I’ll let you know.1 [John] McCullo[u]gh has retumed the manuscript he had and the Yale Show opens on the 22. . I haven’t found out anything about Lord Berners yet, but will let you know when I do. . PLEASE TELL ME DID you receive OUR Christmas card?x I HOPE SO. No pictures of Phyllis [Cerf] for you yet but will be soon. You are a woojurns of the First Water and so is Mama Woojums and lots of LOVE,
Papa Woojums.
x And our birthday cablegram?
1. Van Vechten had sent Alfred Harcourt a note on 31 January 1941 asking if he would like to see Stein’s new manuscript. Harcourt responded to Van Vechten on 3 February 1941 (YCAL), but he told him “I am a little afraid my interest is personal rather than professional, but do send it over anyway.” Van Vechten must have had the typescript hand delivered. Harcourt responded to him, the letter quoted in this letter to Stein, on 5 February 1941 (YCAL). Van Vechten’s other idea was to propose the book to the Yale University Press; they, too, rejected the book.
To Carl Van Vechten
[Postcard: Environs de Belley—Pont d’Yenne]
[postmark: 13 February 1941] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
My dearest Papa Woojums,
The pigeons came and they were pretty pigeons1 and this is the bridge that is no more and now we cross on a boat and the Rhone runs fast and is very lovely and what has happened to To Do and how are you and spring is here and [we] love you always and always
Baby Woojums
1. A reference to Van Vechten’s Christmas card, a photograph of pigeons from a page in Coronet magazine. See Van Vechten to Stein [? December 1940].
To Gertrude Stein
14 February [1941]
(St. Valentine’s Day) [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dearest Baby Woojums.
Here is Phyllis Cerf enfin!1 John McCullo[u]gh telephoned me yesterday about his plan for a book and I think it is a “natural” and a marvellous idea and immediately I thought of all the tots in the country beginning to read through Gertrude Stein and I LOVED the idea and I KNEW you would love it and I suggested the Title:
GERTRUDE STEIN’S FIRST READER
and I hope that’s the way it will be and I hope you will write it and PLEASE DO and everybody will be reading GSFR and it will be ordered by all the schools and thousands of copies will be sold and the youth of America as they grow up will take in GS at the breast as they should and from then on they will want to read nothing but GS. I DO HOPE IT will all be this way, but maybe you, or the schools, or something, won’t want to do it.2 But I do hope. Anyway here is Phyllis and did you get a Christmas card and a telegram on your birthday?
Please, and LOVE to you and Mama W
Papa W!
1. Enclosed was a photograph of Phyllis Cerf. On the verso Van Vechten wrote, “Phyllis Cerf. 1940 Just before they were married.”
2. The book was eventually published in 1946 as The Gertrude Stein First Reader & Three Plays. The book had decorations by Sir Francis Rose.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 17 February 1941] Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
My dearest Papa Woojums,
We are so xcited over the over 130 of them and those we have not seen, some day we will see them, happy days,1 and thanks again to you and Fania for my birthday wishes, it gave us a two delightful times, because first they telephone it letter by letter and then they send it, so we kind of got it twice and we were happy, I am getting a little mixed about the Bibliography, I thought it was Bobby Haas who was doing it and a man named [Donald] Gallup who wrote to me and now it is [Julian] Sawyer, well whoever it is do tell them to send it because books come through alright and I would like to see it.2 About the Portrait of Mabel I did write it at the Villa when we were there in the fall of 1911x and it was printed and the paper chosen and the proof corrected before we left, certainly it was printed within a month of our having been there. And do tell George [s Jacques] how proud we all are of the Greeks, and it is nice to know that he is one of them, we were always pleased and proud of him but now we are pleased of [i.e., and] proud of all of them. I do hope Scribners will do To Do but I am not setting my heart on any one of them, I know you will do whatever is best, I am fond of the book very fond of it and I do hope somebody will do it. I am
most awfully looking forward to seeing Ida, do tell us everything that happens, I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to get a letter from you so do write often and more often and so much love, I cannot tell you how much love to you and to Fania, dearest Papa Woojums, the prim roses are out and spring will come, lots of love
Gertrude B. W.
xAlice thinks it was 1912 that we were at Mabel’s but you would know that by the letters.3
1. The photographs Van Vechten had given to YCAL.
2. See Van Vechten to Stein [23 November 1940], note 1. Sawyer’s bibliography was a separate project from the Yale catalogue being prepared by Haas and Gallup.
3. See Van Vechten to Stein, 15 January [1941], note 3. Toklas was correct. They had been there in September-October 1912.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 20 February 1941] Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
Dearest Papa Woojums
The little photo came and it is as clear as clear1 and next winter if peace is upon us in the winter evenings Mama Woojums and I will begin to clean up our letters and we will get all yours together and I think I will send them to you direct and then you will make another lovely rosy cover and there they will be side by side forever and that will be nice. Hart Crane was only in Paris a very short time, he came with a letter from [Robert] Graves and Laura Riding and he was fearfully drunk a case like poor [F. Scott] Fitzgerald, and only twice was he sober enough to come to see us, he was very American, intensely so, an old-fashioned American, really more a type of the nineties, than of the 20 century, and Alice says indignantly, if Carl will not stay longer than 48 hours how can he see everything and next time there will be lots to see, lots and lots, oh happy days when you come again.2
About To Do I wrote twice to McDougal [i.e., John McCullough] to tell him to return [to] you the ms. and I wrote twice on a postal card to tell you I had, so will you see he does, I am so xcited about your idea, and whatever it is please do it,3 I know it will be a lovely one and we are really xcited at the idea of Bennett [Cerf] being a papa he will make a nice one but and that is something so different papa Woojums our papa Woojums so much love and more and more and more. I am so xcited about Ida, it has not come yet and I am so pleased you like it. I am working steadily on the new one, Mrs. Reynolds, Ida and Mrs. Reynolds both were each one suggested by somebody in the village, and when you come they will pose for you, Mrs. Reynolds is turning out to be a bit of a mystic, it goes slowly I have about 50 pages done,4 Ida you know was done over and over again, before it finally became what it is. Oh lots of love dear Papa Woojums and to Fania and lots and lots
always
Baby Woojums.
1. With his letter of 31 January [1941], Van Vechten had sent Stein a Kodachrome slide of the slipcases he had had made for the Stein letters when he presented them to YCAL.
2. See Van Vechten to Stein, 24 January 1941, note 4.
3. See Van Vechten to Stein, 10 February [1941]. In this letter Van Vechten mentions an idea that he has for Stein. The idea is clarified in Van Vechten to Stein, 14 February [1941], where he proposes a Gertrude Stein “First Reader.” Stein had not yet received Van Vechten’s second letter.
4. Stein’s Mrs. Reynolds was not published until 1952. The novel is concerned with daily life during the occupation of France. It draws many of its details from Stein and Toklas’ domestic life during this period. The preoccupation with prophecies in the novel represents the shared interest of Stein, Toklas, and their neighbor in the nearby village of Chazey-Bons, Elena Genin. Stein and Madame Genin would talk on the telephone several times a day comparing prophecies. Stein was particularly interested in one of Madame Genin’s books, The Gypsy Queen Dream Book and Fortune Teller published by Herbert Jenkins Limited (letter received from Joan Ghapman, 21 February 1983). The Genins did not move into Chazey-Bons until early 1941 and so she could not have been a source of Ida.
To Carl Van Vechten
[Postcard: Environs de Belley—Le Rhône et le pont de La Balme]
[postmark: 20 February 1941] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
Dear Papa Woojums,
Just written you a long letter to tell you how pleased we are with the rosy cover which came out beautifully, and to tell you how happy we are that you like Ida and that please do your idea of To Do whatever you do is lovely and I have written twice to [John] McCullough to return you the ms. and this is the bridge that was blown up and we go across car and all on a boat, and spring has come and lots of love
Baby Woojums
To Carl Van Vechten
[Postcard: Environs de Belley—Le Gland]
[postmark: 6 March 1941] [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
Dearest Papa Woojums,
Ida has just come and they have made a lovely book of it, I am so pleased and happy about it and it is funny, funnier than I remembered it, bless you papa Woojums bless you always
B. W.
To Gertrude Stein
9 March 1941 [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dearest Baby Woojums,
I asked Mrs Geoffrey Toye to find out about Lord Berners and she cabled her husband and the reply came back at once that he is ALL RIGHT at Farthington House, Wantage.1 . Maybe you won’t know that Sherwood Anderson died yesterday (March 8) while on a cruise to South America with his wife. . He was sixty-one years old and he died of an obstruction in the intestines, followed by peritonitis.2 . . My other idea for To DO was the Yale University Press, but it wasn’t a good one. The Yale Press is something entirely aside from OUR friends at Yale and it appears nothing can be done there.3 . You should be receiving the catalogue of the Yale Show soon, which is more a Bibliography than a catalogue. .4 My photographs are all over the place and Virgil [Thomson] sent the score of Four Saints. I haven’t seen the exhibit yet, but Thornton Wilder has and the Kiddie [W. G. Rogers] has and they will doubtless write you and I suppose soon you’ll be getting the Catalogue-Bibliography. I hope you will like the idea of Gertrude Stein’s First Reader.5 To me it sounds like a “natural.” Marjorie Worthington was here the other night and asked all about YOU. She brought [Moise] Kisling with her. Do you know him.6 Be sure to report on the Christmas Card and the birthday cable. It is the only way I have of learning if things get THROUGH and Lots of Love and big HUGS to you and Mama P. [i.e., W.]
Papa W!
Also I sent Phyllis Cerf’s pictures!
1. Mrs. Toye was the wife of an English film producer who was associated with Alexander Korda.
2. Anderson and his wife Eleanor sailed from New York on 28 February 1941 on a goodwill tour of South America. Anderson died of peritonitis infection in the Panama Canal Zone on 8 March 1941.
3. Van Vechten had approached Norman Holmes Pearson to try to convince the Yale University Press to publish Stein’s “To Do: A Book of Alphabets and Birthdays.” Pearson wrote Van Vechten on 6 March 1941 (NYPL-Berg) that although he would love to see Yale publish something by Stein, he had no influence with the press. “To Do” was eventually printed in Alphabets & Birhtdays, vol. 7 of The Yale Edition of the Unpublished Work of Gertrude Stein.
4. See Van Vechten to Stein, 23 November 1940, note 1.
5. Stein’s The First Reader was first published in a French translation by Madame la Baronne d’Aiguy as Petits poèmes pour un livre de lecture (Alger, Algeria: Collection Fontaine, E. Charlot, 1944). It did not include the three plays that were added to the English edition, The Gertrude Stein First Reader & Three Plays, with decorations by Sir Francis Rose, published in 1946.
6. Marjorie Worthington, the writer and wife of the writer William Seabrook. Moise Kisling (1891–1953) was the Polish-born painter who had settled in France in 1910. Stein may have met him at that time.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 9 March 1941] Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
My dearest Papa Woojums,
Phyllis [Cerf] does look sweet and serious, and seems made to be a
good wife and mother, I am awfully pleased that Bennett [Cerf] did so well for himself this time, she does really look like a nice wife and a nice mother, thanks for sending it, and I am quite xcited about Gertrude Stein’s First Reader only I have not heard anything from [John] McCullough and do not quite know what it is it should be, do you remember that when I was somewhere in the West they gave me a volume a sweet little volume of Reading without tears, and it was wonderful reading, I have just been looking for it but it must be in Paris, but I did think they would like To Do but they didn’t, and do I know what the little children do, do, well anyway I know what Baby Woojums does do she does whatever Papa Woojums wants her to do so here goes for a First Reader and a cuckoo, if I get an idea I’ll write a page or two and send it on to you, dearest Papa Woojums yes we love you, all of us love all of you, but what does a First Reader do, I remember so well McGuffey and Appleton’s Third Reader, I don’t seem when I went to school to have had a first and Second Reader, I seem only to have had a Third Reader, perhaps in East Oakland where we were fond of skipping a grade we skipped Two Readers right away, anyway I will try right away,1 but would they do To Do if they had this other one to do, To Do might [be] a fifth Reader, was there one, I still only remember the Third, well spring is the time for a first reader and Spring has come. I picked Alice lots of white violets and pussy willows yesterday, lots of love oh so much from us all to you all, to you
B. W.
[on back of envelope] Have just done 2 lessons of the first Reader, will send them soon.2
1. Favell Lee Mortimer, Reading Without Tears; or A Pleasant Mode of Learning to Read (New York: Harper, 1857). William Holmes McGuffey (1800–1873) was the author of a series of books, one primer and six readers, Eclectic Readers. The McGuffey system of reading originated in 1836 and used phonics charts to teach children to sound out words by learning the pronunciation of each letter of the alphabet. It also used letter grouping recognition. Appletons Third Reader was part of a series of educational books published by D. Appleton & Co.