by Edward Burns
Papa Woojums!
Your latest reply got back in just a minute over a week from the time my airmail envelope went to YOU!
xBennett just called up to say he is very enthusiastic about it!
1. The Mother of Us All opened at Brander Matthews Hall at Columbia University on 7 May 1947. The opera was conducted by Otto Luening and was staged by the choreographer John Taras. Dorothy Dow sang the role of Susan B.
To Gertrude Stein
30 April 1946 101 Central Park West
New York City 23
Dearest Baby Woojums,
The Richard Wrights, securing a passport at the very last moment, sail tomorrow (May 1) on the S S Brazil! They are excited. I am sure you will like them. Here are the latest pictures I took of him on March 8, but they were here for dinner one day last week with Pearl Buck and her husband, the Lin Yutangs, Mrs James Weldon Johnson, and Antony Tudor the choreographer… which reminds me to ask you if Lord Berners ever finished Faust. . Montie Johnson and his wife1 and Mrs [Jane] Claborne are here now and they came to see me the other day. They are very sweet people and somehow I feel they are right for your play, no matter what any one says. I am helping them all I can, which isn’t much, I’m afraid, because nobody can help anybody much in the direction of the theatre. . As I wrote you some time ago ALL the STEIN book has gone to the printer and proofs, I hope, will begin to come in before long. As soon as I have made corrections, and perhaps some changes, in a set of galley proofs I’ll send the introduction along to you pronto, hoping it will please you… Virgil [Thomson] read The Mother of Us All aloud to the YES people from Pasadena and they adored it. Everybody agrees so far that Joe the Loiterer is the Part of PARTS. Can Joe [Barry] sing? . . The ballet is here and we go practically every night to see the great [Alicia] Markova and this afternoon we are going for the third time to see the film version of Henry V, by Laurence Olivier. This great film has not yet been released here but occasional private showings are given to special people and we are taking Markova and the Eugene O’Neills today. . So, you’ll here [i.e., hear] from me soon and Fania and I send our love to you both,
Papa Woojums!
I HOPE you have the towels that Edward Waterman is bringing you from us. We flew over last week.
1. Toni Merrill, the actress.
To Carl Van Vechten
14 May [1946] 5 rue Christine
[Paris]
Dearest Papa Woojums,
They have all come, [Edward] Waterman, the towels, so much thanks, Dick [Wright] and family, Virgil [Thomson], and we have been busy, particularly with Dick and family,1 saw Virgil at the train where I went to meet Dick and family, and have not seen him since but xpect to soon, Waterman is very happy slightly on the over wt., he does look a little heavy, but so happy, Dick and family are so happy they about are bursting with it, the french have been very good to him, we have been a lot together, I have introduced him to Jo [Barry] and Chris [Blake], and all the young ones, and they get along fine, everybody is pleased, this is just to tell you so, dear papa Woojums, and love to Fania, and everything,
Always
Baby Woojums.
1. Wright and his family arrived at Le Havre, France, on Thursday, 9 May. They reached Paris the next day. Stein had cabled Wright on 8 May 1946 (Yale-JWJ) that she had reserved rooms for him at the Trianon Palace Hotel and that she would meet him at the train station. Stein had also enlisted the assistance of Douglas Schneider, director of the United States Information Service in Paris, in arranging for publicity about Wright to appear in French newspapers. See Schneider to Stein, 4 and 7 May 1946 (YCAL).
To Gertrude Stein
10 June 1946 [101 Central Park West
New York]
Beautiful Baby Woojums,
Here, at LONG enfin, is your introduction. I’m sorry you’ve had to wait a minute but printers take for ever these days. In the meantime it has been WEEKS since you have written; I have heard nothing from or about the Wrights (except a few lines about Julia in a letter from St Christopher and St Stanislas);1 I have heard nothing from Virgil [Thomson] about how the OPERA is progressing; and Joe the Loiterer hasn’t written. I have seen Montie Johnson and his wife and Jane Claborne again. Fania and I went there for dinner one night, Montie cooking. They have Virgil’s apartment and are very comfortable and happy. Jane Claborne came in. She is rehearsing (The Man Who Came to Dinner: this is the piece about Alec Woollcott) and will soon go abroad again with it in an USO outfit.2 Montie has a radio job but he has his eye peeled more and more for possible productions of YES. We like these young people enormously. And I have photographed them. Bobbie Haas writes that he is arriving the end of the week to stay some time.3 Also I ran into Mrs [William Α.] Bradley somewhere or other and we had a long talk and frequently mentioned GS with enthusiasm. I wrote you that Bertha Case died in February. Frank [Case] died last week and I am an usher at his funeral tomorrow at the Church of the Transfiguration (known usually as the Little Church Around the Corner).4 This is the fourth funeral at which I have officiated since January 1. I think I wrote you that Mrs [Channing] Pollock died. Edward Waterman writes he is seeing you and Mama Woojums.5 How I envy him! And his descriptions make Paris sound very glamorous indeed. So love and embraces to you both!
Papa Woojums!
You may keep these proofs as I have another set…
1. Blake had written Van Vechten on 16 May 1946 (YCAL) reporting on the arrival of the Wrights in Paris. Blake and the Wrights were staying in the same hotel, but they soon quarreled (see Blake to Van Vechten, 5, 6, and 23 August 1946, YCAL). Stanislas was Blake’s middle name and Van Vechten had christened him St. Stanislas (see Blake to Van Vechten, 11 March 1946, YCAL).
2. A play by George Kaufman and Moss Hart. In the play the character based on Alexander Woollcott rings up Gertrude Stein every Christmas Eve so he can hear the bells of Notre Dame.
3. Haas to Van Vechten [postmark 5 June 1946], YCAL.
4. Frank Case was the owner of the Algonquin Hotel in New York.
5. Possibly Waterman to Van Vechten, 8 May [1946], YCAL.
To Carl Van Vechten
14 June [19]46 5 rue Christine
[Paris]
Dearest Papa Woojums,
The introduction has just come and it is marvelously balanced, and contains everything, it is perfectly xtraordinary the way you have made it an introduction that all can see, and at the same time an introduction for you and for me, it’s made us very happy, it keeps level and it moves around, I don’t think anybody has ever handled quotations like that, thanks and thanks again, dear dearest papa Woojums, I have not written for some time first I was waiting for the introduction, then busy with Dick Wright, then had an attack of colitis, then bought a car and then life got complicated, and now the introduction has come, and we have calmed down, Nathalie [Barney] has come too, we had a long long talk about you the other day, Romaine [Brooks] is still in Italy full of complications, but then that is life just now, peace is much more troublesome than war, and then I xpected Brewsie and Willie and it has not come and now I have frantically written to Bennett [Cerf] to know the reason why,1 and now about the Wrights, it is a long and also complicated story, he interests me immensely, he is strange, I have a lot of theories about him and sometime when it all gets straightened out I’ll tell you, of course there was a bit of difficulty on account of the wife and child, she is rather awful, and the child terribly spoiled, and we had finally to sort of give it up, it was too fatiguing, but then in spite of giving it up it just has gone on, he has made quite clear to me the whole question of the Negro problem, the black white the white black, are they white or are they black, is Dick white or is he black, in his particular case it is very interesting, more so than in any of the others I have ever met, well I got to think a lot more before I can say anything, I said to him, your next book can’t be Black boy, that is camouflage, you got to find out more than that, I think he knows what I mean. Virgil [Thomson] as yet answers nothing new about the oper
a, we have cut him out as a character and I think that is right,2 I have heard nothing from the Montie Johnsons, but I guess they are most awfully busy, thanks again, and so much sun-shine, and we need it, because it rains, of the introduction and love and love and love to you and Fania, from
Mama and Baby Woojums.3
1. Stein was extremely impatient to receive copies of Brewsie and Willie. On 12 June and then again on 14 and 15 June she wrote Cerf asking him why there was a delay in the publication of the book. (Stein to Cerf, Columbia-Random House). Cerf replied on 19 June 1946 (YCAL) explaining that the delay had been caused by a strike at the bindery. In the same letter he asked Stein to send him two or three pages to be used in the Selected Writings that would tell what she thought of the selection and of Van Vechten’s foreword.
2. The character Virgil T. remained in the opera. He and the character Gertrude S. are the narrators of the work.
3. Both signatures by Stein.
Gertrude Stein in a small room at 5 rue Christine, April 1946.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SIR CECIL BEATON. PRIVATE COLLECTION.
To Gertrude Stein
19 June 1946 101 Central Park West
New York City 23
Dearest Baby Woojums,
Your letter arrived this morning and made me very happy. You can imagine I was in a sweat until I found out whether or no you liked the introduction. There will be notes too, but the way these are printed I’d vastly prefer you read them when the book comes out. Each Selection is prefaced by a brief note of explanation, dating it, etc. . These are both factual and entertaining. .x Bennett [Cerf] (who has gone off somewhere in a SUBMARINE) has surely written you about Brewsie and Willie.1 This book has been stalled by a binder’s strike or something equivalent but now is due on the 15th of July. Selected Writings is due in October… I can’t make head or tail of what you say of the [Richard] Wrights. As a matter of fact you say you will write more clearly when the complications of describing him clear up a little. I’ve never seen the baby. I wish somebody would send me Dick’s address. He could do it himself but probably won’t. I have wanted it several times as I do not think YOU should be bothered with forwarding mail or visitors to him! Get one of the Mercurys to send it to me. I am sorry Virgil [Thomson] has come out of The Mother of Us All. I liked Virgil’s part, but Joe the Loiterer is my FAVORITE. Oh, yes, one of the papers says Dick is leaving Paris for Mexico… Any truth in that?2 Has he given any conferences? Were they good? Ο dear, why doesn’t he write me? . Montie [Johnson] telephoned a few minutes ago to say he has been engaged for the first three plays in the summer season at Westport which is nice. I like him so much and also his wife and also Jane Claborne, whose husband has stayed in the West.3 So I had four birthday parties this year. The Ballet Theatre is going to London tomorrow to appear at Covent Garden. I wish you and Mama Woojums were in London to see Hugh Laing, and the others, but particularly Hugh Laing. So lots of love to both of you,
Papa Woojums!
xI hope!!!
Bobby Haas writes he will be in New York this season (summer)4
1. Cerf had cabled Stein on 13 June 1946 (YCAL) about the publication date of Brewsie and Willie.
2. Wright remained in Europe until 11 January 1947, when he sailed from Southampton, England, to New York.
3. Robert Claborne, who had played the role of Henri in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Yes Is For a Very Young Man.
4. Haas to Van Vechten [postmark 5 June 1946], YCAL.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 24 June 1946] [5 rue Christine,
Paris]
My dearest Papa Woojums,
Bennett [Cerf] asked me to do a little testimonial and here it is and I hope it is alright, dear papa Woojums it is thrilling, these days so far away bless you, love to Fania bless you1
Always
Baby Woojums.
1. See Stein to Van Vechten, 14 June [19]46, note 1. Cerf acknowledged receipt of Stein’s foreword, which he titled, “A Message from Gertrude Stein,” on 27 June 1946 (YCAL). In the Modern Library editions this “message” has always been dated “Paris June 18, 1946.” The date does not appear in the manuscript. The idea for including the date was Van Vechten’s.
On 4 August 1946 (Columbia-Random House) Van Vechten wrote to Saxe Commins, an editor at Random House, that he was convinced that “A Message from Gertrude Stein” should have a Paris dateline, just as his “A Stein Song” had a New York dateline. Van Vechten suggested that if he did not have the actual date on the piece he should approximate it.
To Carl Van Vechten
27 June 1946 [5 rue Christine,
Paris]
My dearest Papa Woojums
I am sending you in duplicate the changes that Monty [Johnson] has just written to me for, I have sent him a copy but in case it gets lost here is another.1 They were charming photos you made of Monty, he looks almost like an early renaissance head, very lovely and you want to know about Dick Wright, well it’s kind of funny, oh no he is not going to Mexico, he is having a huge success here, being very feted by all the french all the salons and the intellectuals, having a perfectly fine time, and do I like him, well I don’t know, there is a strange materialism about him that is not at all Negro, in fact he does not seem to me very Negro, I didn’t think his books were but now it is stronger, is it island, or Hindoo, what is it? I have told him that I am meditating about him, but I don’t tell him what I meditate, it’s a kind of materialism a feeling about money, about women that is not Negro not American. You see I kept saying his books were not Negro, that is what I liked in them so much, but now when he isn’t, do I like it so much? I tell you all I think and I tell him or will so that’s alright, I have told him some. Dearest Papa Woojums that’s the way I feel about it, and in between I read your introduction and it is a comfort to me.
Lots of love
Baby Woojums.
1. The Lamont Johnson-Stein correspondence is all at YCAL. Johnson had suggested certain changes in Yes Is For a Very Young Man. Stein’s added scene, however, arrived too late for the Pasadena Playhouse production. The first complete production of the play, incorporating all the changes Stein made, was given by the University Players, Princeton University, for two weeks beginning 26 July 1948.
To Gertrude Stein
28 June 1946 101 Central Park West
New York City 23
Dearest Baby Woojums,
Well the “testimonial” arrived and it is beautiful and everybody is crazy about it and Papa Woojums is very much touched and feels very nostalgic and wishes he had a white pleated shirt to put on so that he could look and feel the way he did in 19141 and a few minutes later Saxe Commins called to say that the First Reader, published in Dublin, and dedicated to Papa Woojums had arrived, and this is a most complete surprise and I am in tears… Are you sending me a copy of this, I hope? Are you sending it quick, I hope? Are you inscribing it, I HOPE. … I can’t wait. And Saxe says that Brewsie and Willie is at last printed and I am getting a copy this afternoon! And you will get one as soon as it can be sent to you. You will be interested to know that Selected Works is already completely in galley proofs and that I have corrected all my parts. This is way ahead of schedule but I dare say a printer’s or binder’s strike can hold us up yet. BUT I HOPE NOT. THIS LETTER IS TO THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING and to say I HOPE WE’LL be associated always in charming projects of this character, and that I hope I can take some color photographs of you SOON. Montie Johnson, Toni Merrill, and Jane Claborne, dined with us at a Chinese place the other night. He is going into summer stock. We like them a lot. Bobby Haas wrote me he was coming to New York two or three weeks ago and promised to ring me but that is the last I have heard of that. So lots of love to you and Mama Woojums and I’m very excited about the future of Selected Works and Brewsie and Willie and the FIRST READER. …
