by Edward Burns
1. Johnson’s letter to Van Vechten is not in YCAL.
2. The clipping did not remain with the letter and therefore cannot be identified.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Portrait of Fania Marinoff. Photograph by Carl Vechten]
[early 1942] [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dearest Baby Woojums.
Here are two pictures of Fania with white hair which I hope you will receive. I haven’t heard from you now in two months—so communication may be cut off. I hope not. We are well & I hope you got the letters and the contract about your book, ‘To Do”. . I do wish you were over here!
love to both
from Fania & Papa W!
To Carl Van Vechten
[Cablegram]
[Received in New York, 12 March 1942] [Belley]
ENCHANTEE ARRANGEMENTS POUR LIVRE MILLE REMERCIEMENTS1
GERTRUDE STEIN
1. Undated note by Van Vechten: “I think I had been notified by Margot Johnson that Harrison Smith would publish To Do’ and I had passed the information on to GS. He never did. In 1947 it is still unpublished.”
On 3 September 1943 (YCAL) Johnson wrote Van Vechten that there had been some trouble with the illustrations and that because of the war there were manufacturing difficulties. She hoped that the book would be coming out before the spring of 1944. Further complications developed and Harrison Smith did not publish the book; it was published in Stein’s Alphabets & Birthdays in 1957.
To Carl Van Vechten
23 March [19]42 Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
My dearest Papa Woojums,
You will have had my cable telling you how happy happy I was about To Do, thanks and thanks again, it took a long time for the letters to come through and all those came on the same day three written early in December and late in December and the last one written in January, it is the first time that we have really felt being separated from our native land, Alice and I both have not liked it, at all, because hitherto, it took a little time to get letters and they did come with a certain regularity but xcepting your three letters and one from Virgil [Thomson]1 for over two months we have not had a word and it is kind of uncomfortable to have America so far away, I hope Fania’s strapping up will remain peaceful, but I guess theatre for the boys in blue or whatever color they are now, we do not even hear that, but we do not complain, naturally not, only as they all say here now, it is a little long. Here is the prophecy of Saint Odile, the only one that has so far not deceived us, She was an Alsatian saint, and there is something about her blood flaming when France is in danger, I would try to send you a little book about her, but just now books do not get through,2 we have had nothing since Bennett [Cerf] sent us War and Peace, but that was a great comfort, it took so long to read, and it was so fascinatingly what is going on now in Russia.3 My book Mrs. Reynolds is going on indeed it is almost done but it cannot quite get done until it that is what Mrs. Reynolds talks about is done, but that has to be done, and so it will all get done, and I am so happy about To Do and I hope they will that is the readers will like it, perhaps it is because America is at war now that a book for children written during that time of terror does appeal to them, bless you Papa Woojums we love you so all of us love you so Mama Woojums and Basket and Pepe and Baby Woojums they all love you so bless you all
Always
B. W.
1. Possibly Thomson to Stein, 5 December 1941 (YCAL). Thomson wrote about the performance of Four Saints in Three Acts at the Museum of Modern Art and at Town Hall, New York, in May 1941. He also proposed to Stein that when the war was over they collaborate on another opera.
2. Enclosed with this letter was a one-page typewritten (by Toklas) excerpt from an unidentified source, of a prophecy of Sainte Odile.
3. Cerf wrote Stein on 25 November 1941 (YCAL) that he was sending her Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
To Gertrude Stein
15 June 1942 [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dearest Gertrude,
I haven’t heard from you in ages and I don’t know whether you get my letters or not. Anyway I had a letter and a cable from you not so long ago and two copies of Paris-France (the first and the 4th editions) published in French in Alger. Which naturally I am very happy to have. Margot [Johnson] says To Do is coming out in September and that will be wonderful too. I haven’t seen the illustrations but they seem to be pleased with them. NOW I hope we can do something with Gertrude Stein’s First Reader. I saw Therese Bonney too and she gave me some news of you but it is rather stale news, However she told me one or two things I was glad to know.1. I am working very hard giving my Negro collection to Yale and also in the Stage Door Canteen where I work as a busboy and a captain. This is hard labor as we have on an average of 3,000 soldiers and sailors a night. . Fania got up a dog show and fiesta (where Tallulah Bankhead, Lily Pons, Elsa Maxwell and others showed their dogs) and fiesta for the benefit of this and took in $2200.2. Thanks for the prophecies of St Odile and thanks for your letter and cable. I wonder if Bennett [Cerf] has been able to send you Elliot Paul’s The Last Time I saw Paris, a duck of a book more like Paris than anything ever written by a Frenchman except perhaps Proust and the two together Proust and Paul give you a pretty complete picture of French life.3 . . We haven’t seen Bennett all winter, nor his wife, nor his baby: we have been occupied and I dare say they have TOO. So endless love from Fania and me to you and Alice and I hope it won’t be long before we hear from you again … and we wish you were here, but probably you will be some day and LOVE
Carlo!
On the 17 I shall be 62 (count the years!)
Four Saints was done on the air with the original cast and it was wonderful and the words came over better even than they do on the stage!4
Did you ever receive Fania’s picture with white curls?
1. Thérèse Bonney, a journalist, had recently arrived in New York from France. She published an article, with photographs, “Gertrude Stein in France,” in Vogue, 1 July 1942, pp. 60–61, 70.
2. The American Theatre Wing had established a center for soldiers where there was food, entertainment, and dancing.
3. Paul’s The Last Time I Saw Paris (New York: Random House, 1942). Elliot Paul (1891–1959) was a writer and editor. With Eugene Jolas he founded transition. There is no evidence that Cerf sent Stein Paul’s novel.
4. Alfred Wallenstein conducted Four Saints in Three Acts on WOR radio on 4 June 1942. The broadcast was aimed at selling war bonds and had been paid for by the Treasury Department. Virgil Thomson introduced the program.
To Carl Van Vechten
20 June [19]42 [Bilignin par Belley
Ain]
Dearest Papa Woojums,
Days weeks and months go by and no letter from Papa Woojums, every time the air mail arrives I see an envelope and I say papa Woojums and it isn’t, and we are getting kind of worried, do write and write again and again, because the letters do come now and it is a pleasure. May D’Aiguy who translated Paris France has just translated the First Reader and it translates very well into French, the ballad pleases everybody and we have hopes that the little volume might be printed and it will be nice having a little french volume dedicated to Papa Woojums,1 a Papa Woojums, otherwise there is no news, my book goes on slowly but well, Mrs. Reynolds the weather is lovely the garden by garden we mean vegetables grow happily and we see lots of people and the time passes all too quickly, and we think a lot about our native land these days in whom everybody has so much faith it is very moving, do write now and then do write soon again, have you seen the illustrations of To Do and how are they and do write soon and love to you so much love and to Fania and do write soon,
Always
Baby Woojums.
1. The Baronne Dianne d’Aiguy (called May) lived with her husband Robert, her daughter Rose, her mother-in-law, the Baronne Pierlot, and other members of her
family in a château in Béon, not far from Belley. Her translation of Stein’s The Gertrude Stein First Reader & Three Plays consists only of the first reader (the three plays were added by Stein in 1946). Her translation was published as Petits poèmes pour un livre de lecture (Alger, Algeria: Collection Fontaine, E. Chariot, 1944). “A Ballad” is on pp. 49–52 in the English edition and pp. 46–48 in the French edition.
To Gertrude Stein
20 July 1942 101 Central Park West
New York City
Dearest Baby Woojums,
It is July 20, 1942 and a letter from you dated October 7, 1941, with an announcement of the Alger publication of Paris-France which I have had for some time, has just come in. So you never know what may happen nowadays. I promised you a picture of Fania with white hair and I sent you one some time ago, but you never acknowledged it. So perhaps you never got it. Anyway, here is another. . I am to have a show of Theatre Photographs at the Museum of the City of New York in the fall and I think you will surely be in this.1 And I continue to shower Yale with gifts concerning the Negro. The Woman’s Collection is in abeyance for the Time Being. . I am also making photographs of the Ballet for the Museum of Modern Art.2 Do you remember Max Ewing? . I am editing HIS effects, letters, etc. for Yale. A most amusing lot of stuff which reached me via his cousin Doris. And the Stage Door Canteen (now with a cooling system) has us bothx working there two nights a week. It won’t be long now before To Do is out and I can’t wait and I suppose you know that Therese Bonney had an article about you in Vogue which made everybody homesick to see Baby and Mama Woojums.3 So lots of love to you both from Fania and
Carlo!
Did I tell you Fania broke her wrist? It is okay again.
[x]F M & C V V.
1. An exhibition, The Theatre Through the Camera of Carl Van Vechten, was held from 18 November 1942 to 11 January 1943 at the Museum of the City of New York. The exhibition comprised 104 photographs.
2. In 1945 Van Vechten gave the Museum of Modern Art, New York, a collection of his ballet and dance photographs. In 1942 he gave to the museum the illustrations for a projected edition of Nigger Heaven that had been done by E. McKnight Kauffer.
3. See Van Vechten to Stein, 15 June 1942, note 1.
To Gertrude Stein
[Typed on a page from The Playbill]1
2 August 1942 [101 Central Park West
New York City]
Dearest Baby Woojums,
This is Papa Woojums luimême in PERSON and not a Shakespearian actor as alleged … And also enclosed is an article about the J[ames] W[eldon] J[ohnson]Collection which tells you about another activity.2 And now I am editing Max Εwing’s letters for YALE. I recently sent you a picture of FM with white hair. Your latest letter to arrive is dated JUNE 20, 1942 (ALWAYS date your letters, please) which is much nearer home than the one before. I can’t wait to see Gertrude Stein’s First Reader in French! Ο I do hope it is out SOON.
I haven’t seen the illustrations of To Do. Harrison Smith didn’t offer to show them to me and I couldn’t ask him. But the book should be out soon, Very soon. The weather is hot and Fania’s broken wrist is all right and I am working hard for Yale and the Canteen and Fania and I send our love to you and Mama Woojums!
Papa Woojums!
1. This letter is typed along the sides of an illustration by Don Freeman, “Sketched at the Stage Door Canteen April 5,” on page 11 of an issue of The Playbill (a magazine given gratis in theatres). The illustration depicts “a typical night at the American Theatre Wing Stage Door Canteen: a noted entertainer singing and probably a Shakespearian actor clearing the tables.”
2. Van Vechten’s “The James Weldon Johnson Collection at Yale,” Crisis (July 1942), 49:18–19. The official opening exercises of the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters was held at Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale University, on 7 January 1950.
To Carl Van Vechten
14 August 1942 Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
Dearest Papa Woojums,
Your letter just came telling all about your being a busboy, we don’t know quite what a busboy is but Margot Johnson has just written that you are dealing out coffee and cocoa so we gather that is what a busboy is,1 and we are looking forward to being busgirls here very very soon, bless you all, and here inclosed is a translation and printing of the ballad, May D’Aiguy has done it very very well, there is a possibility of the people in Algers who did the Paris-France doing the book, it will be nice to have a french book dedicated to Papa Woojums wouldn’t it,2 and we never did get the photo of Fania with white curls, do try again, make it a post card and it might come, and we are now the age when you feel young and don’t count the years, bless us all, had a nice letter from [George W.] Hibbit[t] at Columbia about the broadcasting of Four Saints it seems he made a record of it on a gramophone disk as it came over, he thinks probably WOR, whoever they may be recorded it also, it would be wonderful to have it on a record,3 otherwise calm xcept that we are having a drought no water at all, unprecedented in this country which usually rains too much, and we are all anxious about winter vegetables, otherwise there are a great many passers-by, and we love you, tell us more about what you and Fania do, lots and lots of love
Baby Woojums
1. Johnson had written to Stein (9 June 1942, YCAL) that the publication date for “To Do” had been set for 15 September. Not until after the war did Stein learn that the book had not been published. Johnson also wrote Stein of Van Vechten’s activities at the Stage Door Canteen.
2. Stein’s “Ballade,” part of The Gertrude Stein First Reader & Three Plays, was published in the Baronne d’Aiguy’s translation in Confluences (July 1942), 11/12:[11]-12. Stein sent Van Vechten the page with the poem. At the top of the page was the inscription, “To Papa Woojums the translation of one of his pieces out of his book, bless him, Always Baby Woojums.” See Stein to Van Vechten, 20 June [19]42, note 1.
3. Hibbitt to Stein, 5 June 1942 (YCAL). See Van Vechten to Stein, 15 June 1942, note 4.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 31 August 1942] Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
My dearest Papa Woojums,
Fania’s white hair has come as a postal card and we are delighted with it, it has quite a Cleopatra air, I don’t know whether she had white hair but if she had had white hair that is the way she would have looked I am sure, thanks and thanks again, and a passing American told us what a bus-boy is, that he shoves a wagon with the eats it’s nice to think of eats, not that we are hungry, we even went to a barbecue the other evening, a very small but a whole lamb roasted out of doors,1 and beside that there is a drought, no rain for almost 3 months now, unprecedented in this region and a bit tough on man and beasts. There are two more of the poems of the First Reader going to be printed in a collection of poetry in 42,2 and I am hoping that the whole book will be done soon, I will like a book dedicated to Papa Woojums done in Algeria. The french are all crazy about it, I have gotten to be a very popular author over here, I am aching to see To Do, and we see lots of people, just interrupted to see if I can get the electric stove going, and back again to send lots and lots and lots of love to Papa Woojums and Fania
Always
Baby Woojums
1. The barbecue was at the home of Elena and Paul Genin.
2. This project was never realized.
To Carl Van Vechten
4 September 1942 Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
Dearest Papa Woojums,
Just had a cable from somebody called William Colt 72 Sixth Avenue saying wish to print few related passages from [The] World [Is Round] in anthologies Carl Van Vechten represent you artistically and financially.1 I wanted to cable back that Papa Woojums could represent me not only artistically and financially but in every other which a way, but as that would have cost a great deal of money I contented myself in answering yes. But of course it is not necessary that they cable, anybody who wants anything
has only to ask you, and you are always the decider, what you say goes, which you and I and everybody knows, golly it is still hot and hotter even if it is the fourth of September, lots of love to Fania and her hair and to Papa Woojums and his hair bless you both
Always
Baby Woojums
1. The cable was probably first read over the telephone to Stein and then a written copy sent to her. Stein has mistaken the name; the cable had come from William R. Scott who had published The World Is Round. The cable was received in Belley on 3 September 1942 (YCAL).
To Gertrude Stein
5 October 1942 101 Central Park West
New York City
Dearest Baby Woojums,
FOUR letters from you more or less ambled in together to make me happy. In one of them you said you hadn’t received a picture of Fania with white hair. In another you said you had and compared her with Cleopatra which ought to make her happy! And DOES. In another you say you have learned what a busboy does, but you really haven’t. A busboy is the one who goes around cleaning off tables after people get through eating. There is a tremendous lot of this to do at the Canteen and a tremendous lot of bus-boys, but Papa Woojums is no longer a busboy. He is a Captain now and has charge of the floor. It is a happy placex and a warm place and an amusing place and the soldiers and sailors enjoy themselves HUGELY. I wish you could see it, but maybe you will some day. And I have your letter giving me permission to decide things for you when people are in a hurry and something has to be done quick. I’ll use this permission discreetly. Anyway you have Margot [Johnson] too now to look out for you. To Do doesn’t seem to be out yet. I loved the Ballade in French and please continue to keep me posted on anything published over THERE. I am very excited about a French book published in Algiers by you dedicated to ME. One of the four letters just received was written on Christmas Day but as it wasn’t sent airmail it has just come in … Lincoln Kirstein in his Ballet Index (a periodical) is devoting a whole number to my old writings on the Ballet.1 Remember when we were in a box together at Sacre du Printemps? The Museum of the City of New York is giving me a big photographic show (You will be in it: it is devoted to theatre people but YOU wrote Four Saints) beginning November 17.2 And a group of Negroes in Harlem is giving a big official dinner for me in November.3 In the spring Yale is giving a show of my books and manuscripts. Fania has just returned from Washington where she opened another canteen for the American Theatre Wing. You can see our lives our [i.e., are] active. So lots of love and kisses to baby and mama woojums and write soon and often to your loving
