Gertrude Stein: Part 1
I begin with this observation: I know very little about Gertrude Stein, except "a rose is a rose is a rose."
That little phrase spoken today will resonate with anyone, whether they know who penned it -- or not.
That's the power of that phrase, and possibly, the lasting power of Gertrude Stein.
So I will use it as a jumping-off point to write about this author. Living in Paris in the early 20th century, she was friend of Picasso, Matisse and many artists and poets including one of my favorite writers, Guillaume Apollinaire.
She lived and conducted a salon at rue des Fleurus in Paris with her brother, Leo, and later with her companion, Alice B. Toklas.
She upset the social order and the literary order. The first with her lifestyle as a masculine woman in a committed relationship with another woman and the second, by tearing apart recognized literary forms.
Her Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas was her own story (I have not read it, I regret to admit).
One thing I have read by her is this phrase, which she once used to describe Oakland, Calif., sister to San Francisco, There's no there, there.
AHEAD: Why the buzz about Rose
