1 00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:06,720 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, we are bringing 2 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:10,320 Speaker 1: a historical love story out as our classic episode today. 3 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: This is Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Totalist, who we 4 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:20,840 Speaker 1: first talked about on February Welcome to Stuff You Missed 5 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:30,840 Speaker 1: in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, 6 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:33,960 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and 7 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:38,520 Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry. Today's podcast is coming out on Valentine's Day, 8 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 1: so we thought it would be a good day to 9 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:44,519 Speaker 1: talk about a famous literary couple, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Totalis. 10 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:48,920 Speaker 1: Gertrude Stein is an icon in the world of modernist literature, 11 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:52,199 Speaker 1: and although Alice B. Tokaliss is more often described as 12 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:55,440 Speaker 1: her partner and assistant, she was a published writer as well, 13 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:59,840 Speaker 1: and assistant does not really begin to cover how important 14 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:03,640 Speaker 1: he was to Stein's life and work. Also, together, the 15 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:06,800 Speaker 1: two of them famously hosted a salon at their Paris 16 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:10,040 Speaker 1: home that was frequented by artists and writers such as 17 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 1: Pablo Picasso, f Scott Fitzgerald and Arima Tisse, and that 18 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:19,839 Speaker 1: salon was really influential in the whole world of literature 19 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:22,280 Speaker 1: and art. Yeah, it gets referenced in a lot of 20 00:01:22,319 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: people's life biographies that, oh, we met at Gertrude Stein 21 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 1: salon uh, that she's kind of becomes a big, big 22 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:35,399 Speaker 1: connecting point in in history at that point. So. Gertrude 23 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:39,400 Speaker 1: Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on February third, eighteen 24 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:42,959 Speaker 1: seventy four. She was the youngest of five children. She 25 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:46,080 Speaker 1: had two sisters and two brothers, and her father was 26 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: an immigrant to the United States, having moved here from 27 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 1: Bavaria in eighteen forty one. The family was Jewish, and 28 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 1: although they belonged to a synagogue, they were not particularly observant. 29 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 1: Gertrude's family moved back to her for five years when 30 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: she was still a baby, and when they returned they 31 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:05,920 Speaker 1: started out in Baltimore, where Gertrude had relatives on her 32 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: mother's side. Eventually, though, they moved to Oakland, California, and 33 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:13,680 Speaker 1: they lived really comfortably there. Thanks to her father's investments 34 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:16,840 Speaker 1: and rental properties and street car lines. They were a 35 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:21,000 Speaker 1: pretty well off family. Gertrude Stein is the person who 36 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: coined the famous phrase there is no there there, and 37 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:28,000 Speaker 1: it was in reference to Oakland. Out of context, people 38 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:31,040 Speaker 1: tended to interpret it as being dismissive of Oakland as 39 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:34,520 Speaker 1: a city, but it comes from Everybody's Autobiography, which she 40 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:37,480 Speaker 1: published in nineteen thirty seven, and it's really more about 41 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 1: the painfully nostalgic experience of trying to go home again 42 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:45,080 Speaker 1: and finding that everything has changed. By the time Gertrude 43 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 1: was seventeen, both of her parents had died, her mother 44 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:51,760 Speaker 1: in eight eight and her father in eighteen nine. One 45 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:56,079 Speaker 1: after her father's death, Gertrude's oldest brother, Michael, inherited the 46 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:59,799 Speaker 1: family businesses. He took her and her siblings with him 47 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:03,120 Speaker 1: to San Francisco, where he was a division superintendent of 48 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:07,200 Speaker 1: the Market Street Railway. After about a year, Gertrude, her 49 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:10,000 Speaker 1: brother Leo, and her sister Bertha all moved back to 50 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:13,600 Speaker 1: Baltimore to live with an aunt. Gertrude and Leo were 51 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:16,400 Speaker 1: very close, and when he got into Harvard, she went 52 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:20,440 Speaker 1: to Cambridge, Massachusetts with him. She enrolled at Harvard School 53 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: for Women, which was known as Harvard Annex when she started, 54 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:26,600 Speaker 1: but had been renamed Radcliffe College by the time she 55 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:31,880 Speaker 1: graduated in While she was in college, Gertrude Stein was 56 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:37,120 Speaker 1: deeply interested in psychology, she studied under psychologist William James. 57 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:41,320 Speaker 1: She published two formal papers in psychology before she graduated. 58 00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:44,840 Speaker 1: The first of them, which was her first published work ever, 59 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: was Quote Normal Motor Automatism, which she co authored with 60 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:54,080 Speaker 1: Leon Solomon's. This paper detailed a series of experiments and 61 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:57,400 Speaker 1: automatic writing, so the subjects would have their hand resting 62 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:00,160 Speaker 1: on a plant set, they would focus their attention on 63 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:03,240 Speaker 1: something else, like reading a story, and like let their 64 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:06,280 Speaker 1: hand right on its own. And just to be clear, 65 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 1: since automatic writing also has some paranormal connotations, they were 66 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,920 Speaker 1: interpreting the writing that resulted from these experiments as the 67 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,640 Speaker 1: work of the subconscious, not as the work of some 68 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:23,560 Speaker 1: kind of spirit. There were no Wegiboards present, uh and 69 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:27,640 Speaker 1: this work in the psychology lab influenced Stein's later writing. 70 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:32,200 Speaker 1: James's own work in psychology influenced her as well, particularly 71 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:35,160 Speaker 1: the idea of a stream of consciousness, which was first 72 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 1: described in his eighteen ninety The Principles of Psychology. We're 73 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:43,720 Speaker 1: going to talk more about that later. After graduating from Radcliffe, 74 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:47,120 Speaker 1: Stein went to onto Johns Hopkins Medical School. She started 75 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:51,440 Speaker 1: there in but it didn't go very well. Towards the 76 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:54,640 Speaker 1: end of her studies, she started failing classes. She had 77 00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:59,159 Speaker 1: also become infatuated with Mary Bookstaver, who was nicknamed May. 78 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: She was involve aolved with one of Gertrude Stein's classmates. 79 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:07,280 Speaker 1: May did not return Gertrude's affections, and Gertrude had already 80 00:05:07,279 --> 00:05:10,160 Speaker 1: really been struggling with depressions. So all of this together 81 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:14,360 Speaker 1: left her feeling really dejected and despondent, and a fictionalized 82 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:16,919 Speaker 1: version of May book Staver would be part of some 83 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: of Gertrude Stein's later creative work. By this point, Leo 84 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:24,640 Speaker 1: Stein had moved to London, so in nineteen o two 85 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:27,800 Speaker 1: Gertrude dropped out of Johns Hopkins and joined him there. 86 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:30,920 Speaker 1: In nineteen o three, they moved to France, where Leo 87 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: had a flat at Rue de Fleroux in montpal Mass. 88 00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:38,640 Speaker 1: Michael and Sarah Stein, along with their son Allan, soon 89 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:41,720 Speaker 1: moved into a home nearby as well. And Michael had 90 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:44,800 Speaker 1: been shrewd in his management of their father's investments, and 91 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:47,359 Speaker 1: it was largely his money that allowed them all to 92 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:51,480 Speaker 1: have a very comfortable life in France. It was in France, 93 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:54,440 Speaker 1: at the age of twenty nine that Gertrude Stein really 94 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:58,359 Speaker 1: started to dedicate herself to writing. She and her brother 95 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:01,680 Speaker 1: were also patrons of the arts. They sought out avant 96 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:04,840 Speaker 1: garde artists whose work was at the time unknown. This 97 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:08,640 Speaker 1: developed into a massive collection of modern art by people 98 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:11,960 Speaker 1: who would become really famous. They were basically buying art 99 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:14,159 Speaker 1: from people who nobody knew about at the time, and 100 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:16,640 Speaker 1: then later on those those people would have a serious 101 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:21,200 Speaker 1: name for themselves. The biggest presences in that collection where 102 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:25,240 Speaker 1: pulses on On Rimatiss and Pablo Picasso. A lot of 103 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:28,520 Speaker 1: other artists are part of this collection, to including Eduard 104 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:33,279 Speaker 1: Money and Henri to Loose la Trek. This collection literally 105 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:37,279 Speaker 1: filled the walls at seven Rue de Florus, and in 106 00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:41,320 Speaker 1: nineteen eight, James R. Mello, writing for The New York Times, 107 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,720 Speaker 1: described it as the first the world's first museum of 108 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:48,480 Speaker 1: modern art. I know I'm romanticizing it, but this whole 109 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:52,200 Speaker 1: life situation sounds pretty heavenly, like, where we have enough 110 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:54,039 Speaker 1: money to kind of do what we want. Let's go 111 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:57,840 Speaker 1: find unknown and obscure artists. We'll just have beautiful art 112 00:06:57,839 --> 00:06:59,760 Speaker 1: around us all the time, and we live in France. 113 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:04,640 Speaker 1: That sounds lovely, yet it really does um and it's 114 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:08,360 Speaker 1: likely that Leo was really the one who introduced Gertrude 115 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:11,920 Speaker 1: to the Parisian art scene, but Gertrude developed a particular 116 00:07:11,960 --> 00:07:16,440 Speaker 1: interest in one specific artist, and that was Pablo Picasso. 117 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:20,360 Speaker 1: Gertrude's patronage helped Picasso stay afloat in the early part 118 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:23,920 Speaker 1: of his career. In nineteen o six, he painted her portrait, 119 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:26,880 Speaker 1: which is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of 120 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:32,680 Speaker 1: Art today. In nineteen o seven. Gertrude Stein met Alice b. Tokleis. 121 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:37,240 Speaker 1: Alice was born in San Francisco on April eighteen seventy seven. 122 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:40,960 Speaker 1: Her parents were Ferdinand to Kleis and Emil Evinski, and 123 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:45,360 Speaker 1: she was their oldest child and their only daughter. Like Gertrude, 124 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 1: Alice's father was an immigrant, having to come to Poland 125 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:51,840 Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty five. Her mother's father and uncle's had 126 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:56,480 Speaker 1: emigrated from Poland as well. Another similarity between the two 127 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,840 Speaker 1: families is that the Tokliss were Jewish, but not especially 128 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:04,560 Speaker 1: of servant. Alice had a well off but otherwise conventional childhood, 129 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:08,200 Speaker 1: with the family moving to Seattle in eighteen ninety. She 130 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:11,480 Speaker 1: attended private schools before going to the University of Seattle, 131 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:14,360 Speaker 1: and she enjoyed art and music, and she was good 132 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:16,800 Speaker 1: enough at the piano that for a while she actually 133 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:21,200 Speaker 1: thought about becoming a concert pianist. Alice also loved reading, 134 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:24,800 Speaker 1: and her favorite writer was Henry James, brother of Gertrude 135 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:30,160 Speaker 1: psychology mentor William James. The Tokliss family eventually moved back 136 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:33,480 Speaker 1: to San Francisco, and Alice's mother, Emma, died there in 137 00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:38,600 Speaker 1: eight when Alice was twenty. In San Francisco, the Totalists 138 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:41,760 Speaker 1: became acquainted with some of the Stein family, and in 139 00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:44,800 Speaker 1: nineteen o six, in the wake of the San Francisco earthquake, 140 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:48,440 Speaker 1: Michael and Sara Stein traveled back from France to check 141 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: on all their property there. Alice was captivated by the 142 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:56,440 Speaker 1: Stein's stories of Europe, and since the death of her mother, 143 00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:58,960 Speaker 1: she had found herself spending most of her time keeping 144 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:01,880 Speaker 1: house for the men and her family. She'd also come 145 00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:05,040 Speaker 1: to understand that she was attracted to other women. All 146 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:08,120 Speaker 1: of this together made her life in California feel really 147 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:11,480 Speaker 1: narrow and restrictive, so in nineteen o seven, at the 148 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:13,920 Speaker 1: age of thirty, she decided to try to find more 149 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:17,080 Speaker 1: freedom for herself in Paris, traveling there with her friend 150 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:22,680 Speaker 1: Harriet Lane Levy. On September eight seven, Gertrude Stein met 151 00:09:22,720 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 1: Alice B. Toklis for the first time at the Paris 152 00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:29,920 Speaker 1: home of Michael Stein. That was Toklis's first day in Paris, 153 00:09:30,559 --> 00:09:32,679 Speaker 1: and we will talk about how they started to build 154 00:09:32,679 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 1: a life together after a quick sponsor break. After meeting 155 00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:47,960 Speaker 1: in nineteen o seven, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklis 156 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:51,079 Speaker 1: formed a friendship that developed into a loving relationship that 157 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:55,120 Speaker 1: would last for almost four decades. Stein focused on her 158 00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:58,720 Speaker 1: writing and on her connections within the Paris art scene, 159 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:03,359 Speaker 1: and then Toklis supported that work. She offered encouragement, She transcribed, 160 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:07,040 Speaker 1: she typed, she made corrections, She managed their household in 161 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:10,400 Speaker 1: their life together, even though they often had a hired cook, 162 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:13,320 Speaker 1: Tokliss was also very skilled in the kitchen and she 163 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:18,040 Speaker 1: did petit point embroidery, including in designs that Pablo Picasso 164 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:23,680 Speaker 1: created for her. So cool uh. Two years after they met, 165 00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:27,439 Speaker 1: Stein published her first book, Three Lives. One of the 166 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:30,920 Speaker 1: pieces in it is a novella called Malantha, and it's 167 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:33,600 Speaker 1: about a woman of the same name who has described 168 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:36,160 Speaker 1: in the book as a mulatto and her relationship with 169 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:39,520 Speaker 1: a black doctor. At the time, this story earned a 170 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:42,480 Speaker 1: lot of praise for being a depiction of black life 171 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:45,400 Speaker 1: written by a white woman, But of course today that 172 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 1: seems patronizing and dated, and it was largely about Stein's 173 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:53,319 Speaker 1: relationship with May Bookstaver recast as being between a man 174 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:57,400 Speaker 1: and woman of color. Alice moved in with Gertrude and 175 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:00,959 Speaker 1: Leo in and things did not go very well between 176 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:04,520 Speaker 1: the two siblings. Some of Leo's differences with his sister 177 00:11:04,640 --> 00:11:09,480 Speaker 1: were artistic. Leo didn't think Gertrude's writing was particularly good, 178 00:11:09,520 --> 00:11:14,080 Speaker 1: which Gertrude resented. Gertrude had also become an avid supporter 179 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:16,960 Speaker 1: of the Cubist art movement, which Leo didn't think was 180 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:27,600 Speaker 1: particularly valuable or noteworthy. This seems like such a sibling thing, right, Yeah. 181 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:31,400 Speaker 1: But on a more personal level, uh. The word homophobia 182 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:33,559 Speaker 1: had not been coined yet, and as we talked about 183 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:36,920 Speaker 1: in our recent episode on an Lister, the idea of 184 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:40,440 Speaker 1: lesbianism as an identity was in its infancy at the 185 00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:44,400 Speaker 1: turn of the twentieth century. But Leo knew that Gertrude 186 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:47,199 Speaker 1: and Ellis were not simply close platonic friends, and he 187 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:51,560 Speaker 1: did not approve of that, so in nine thirteen, Leo 188 00:11:51,679 --> 00:11:55,600 Speaker 1: Stein moved out of the flat at Rue Des. He 189 00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:59,520 Speaker 1: and Gertrude divided up that massive art collection, with Gertrude's 190 00:11:59,559 --> 00:12:03,199 Speaker 1: portion including the Picasso's. When they were done, Leo wrote 191 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:05,680 Speaker 1: to his sister saying, quote, I hope that we will 192 00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:09,160 Speaker 1: all live happily ever after and maintain our respective and 193 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:15,480 Speaker 1: do proportions while sucking gleefully our respective oranges. During their 194 00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:19,000 Speaker 1: time living together, Gertrude and her brother had been regularly 195 00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:22,199 Speaker 1: hosting artists in their home, but Leo had been the 196 00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:26,880 Speaker 1: more outgoing, gregarious one, Gertrude had mostly stuck to the background, 197 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:30,240 Speaker 1: and once her brother moved out, Gertrude moved into his 198 00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:33,160 Speaker 1: former role, often being the one to talk to writers 199 00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:37,640 Speaker 1: and painters while Alice socialized with their wives. A lot 200 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:41,400 Speaker 1: of Stein's work from the nineteen teens was inspired by Cubism, 201 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:45,679 Speaker 1: that very geometric, abstract movement that was inspired by art 202 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:50,640 Speaker 1: from Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. Cubism distilled life down 203 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:53,880 Speaker 1: to geometric forms, and in the movements earlier years, you 204 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:57,360 Speaker 1: could usually still recognize what the original subject of the 205 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:02,360 Speaker 1: painting had been, so for example, bowl. Picasso's La Demoiselle Damion, 206 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:06,280 Speaker 1: for example, is obviously a group of nude women, but 207 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: they're also painted in a very angular and flattened way. 208 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:13,280 Speaker 1: By about nineteen ten, though, Cubist painters were doing what 209 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:17,200 Speaker 1: was called hermetic or analytic Cubism, and this had a 210 00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:21,320 Speaker 1: lot of overlapping angular shapes, often in a very monochrome palette, 211 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:24,680 Speaker 1: with the real subject that had, you know, been the 212 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:28,400 Speaker 1: starting point for the painting being barely discernible, if at all. 213 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:32,640 Speaker 1: Stein did with words what the Cubist painters were doing 214 00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:36,599 Speaker 1: with paint and canvas. Rather than trying to write descriptively 215 00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:40,400 Speaker 1: in a conventional way that reflected real life, she distilled 216 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:44,960 Speaker 1: things down to little bits and seemingly disconnected words. A 217 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:49,480 Speaker 1: good example is nineteen fourteen's Tender Buttons, a collection of 218 00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:55,520 Speaker 1: experimental hermetic pieces arranged into objects, food, and rooms. So 219 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:57,640 Speaker 1: to give listeners a sense of what this was like, 220 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:02,240 Speaker 1: Dog from Objects reads quote a little monkey goes like 221 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:05,079 Speaker 1: a donkey. That means to say that means to say 222 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:08,480 Speaker 1: that more size last goes leave with it. A little 223 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:12,600 Speaker 1: monkey goes like a donkey. Stein's work was also heavily 224 00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:16,240 Speaker 1: influenced by William James's ideas of the stream of consciousness, 225 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:20,040 Speaker 1: which we mentioned earlier. As James described it, a person's 226 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:23,040 Speaker 1: states of mind change, but all these states connect to 227 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:27,280 Speaker 1: one another, and within these different connected states, ideas and 228 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:31,080 Speaker 1: words repeat themselves, but their meaning changes through that repetition 229 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:35,280 Speaker 1: and through their relationships to each other. Stein put this 230 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:38,680 Speaker 1: concept into practice in works like Sacred Emily, which was 231 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:42,240 Speaker 1: where she first penned her most famous line, rose is 232 00:14:42,280 --> 00:14:46,320 Speaker 1: a rose, is a rose is a rose? Sacred Emily 233 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:49,040 Speaker 1: was written in nine thirteen and published in the book 234 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 1: Geography in plays In. It's a three D sixty seven 235 00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:57,520 Speaker 1: line poem, nearly all of it one into syllable words, 236 00:14:57,560 --> 00:15:00,440 Speaker 1: which recounts the day of an ordinary woman at home. 237 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:04,720 Speaker 1: The lines are really choppy, and they're repetitive. Seven lines 238 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:07,280 Speaker 1: in a row are just the word pale p a 239 00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:10,680 Speaker 1: l e by itself. Some lines build on each other, 240 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:14,000 Speaker 1: so one portion of it reads quote put something down, 241 00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:17,800 Speaker 1: put something down, some day, put something down some day 242 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:21,320 Speaker 1: in put something down some day in my in my hand, 243 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:25,560 Speaker 1: in my hand right in my handwriting, put something down 244 00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:30,000 Speaker 1: some day in my handwriting. Today. Gertrude Stein is considered 245 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:33,320 Speaker 1: to be a pioneer in modernist literature, but there is 246 00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:36,480 Speaker 1: some debate about exactly how much of her work directly 247 00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:40,640 Speaker 1: influenced other writers. At the time, Stream of Consciousness became 248 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:43,880 Speaker 1: its own style of writing, connected to but still distinct 249 00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:47,640 Speaker 1: from the stream of conscious idea in William James's psychology work, 250 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:51,920 Speaker 1: James Joyce wrote Ulysses after being exposed to Stein's work, 251 00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:56,160 Speaker 1: but it's not completely clear whether he intentionally followed her example. 252 00:15:57,160 --> 00:16:00,760 Speaker 1: On the other hand, Stein's cubist and her medic work 253 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:04,640 Speaker 1: definitely had its detractors. The same kinds of criticisms that 254 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:08,040 Speaker 1: you will hear about cubist art or modern abstract art 255 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:12,640 Speaker 1: in general. People does as people describe abstract art as 256 00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:15,360 Speaker 1: not art or as just blatches of paint or whatever. 257 00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:19,600 Speaker 1: People described Stein's writing as unreadable nonsense that didn't mean 258 00:16:19,640 --> 00:16:23,040 Speaker 1: anything and had no value. She kept at it, though. 259 00:16:23,680 --> 00:16:26,360 Speaker 1: Stein and Toklis went to Majorca at the start of 260 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:29,960 Speaker 1: World War One and then returned to France in nineteen sixteen, 261 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:33,560 Speaker 1: where they volunteered for the American Fund for the French Wounded. 262 00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 1: Stein learned to drive, and she and Totalist started delivering 263 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:42,840 Speaker 1: hospital supplies to outposts in rural France. Back in Paris. 264 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:46,120 Speaker 1: After the war, Stein and Toklis were still hosting their salons. 265 00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:49,760 Speaker 1: They were still buying art, although now people like Picasso 266 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:52,480 Speaker 1: and Matisse were too famous for them to really afford. 267 00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:55,840 Speaker 1: Stein really kept her focus on the avant garde, and 268 00:16:55,880 --> 00:16:59,440 Speaker 1: they turned their attention to finding lesser known surrealists to 269 00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:03,040 Speaker 1: buy their art. It was also after World War One 270 00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:06,920 Speaker 1: that Stein coined the term lost generation for the American 271 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:09,320 Speaker 1: writers who had come of age during the war and 272 00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:12,000 Speaker 1: we're making a name for themselves. In the nineteen twenties, 273 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:15,360 Speaker 1: she said she'd heard a garage owner refer to young 274 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:19,240 Speaker 1: people as a general rastion berdu, which means lost generation, 275 00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:21,320 Speaker 1: and then later on she brought it up in a 276 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:25,800 Speaker 1: conversation with Ernest Hemingway, saying you are all a lost generation. 277 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:29,359 Speaker 1: It was Hemingway who popularized the term, which came to 278 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:33,080 Speaker 1: apply both to that whole generation of Americans and especially 279 00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:36,919 Speaker 1: to the American expatriate writers living in Europe, including of 280 00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:41,200 Speaker 1: course Hemingway and f. Scott Fitzgerald. Through all of this, 281 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,359 Speaker 1: through the war, after the war, all of it, Stein 282 00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:48,159 Speaker 1: and Tokliss were inseparable. They had a whole collection of 283 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:52,480 Speaker 1: pet names. For one another Stein called Tokless wifey, Totalist 284 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:56,119 Speaker 1: called Stein lovey. They called each other Mr and Mrs 285 00:17:56,160 --> 00:18:00,920 Speaker 1: cuddle Wettles. These are just examples. Stein often stayed up 286 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,479 Speaker 1: really late writing and she would leave little notes by 287 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:05,719 Speaker 1: the pillow for Totalist to find when she woke up 288 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,959 Speaker 1: in the morning, signing them y D for your Darling. 289 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:13,480 Speaker 1: Although Stein was definitely the more famous, Totalis played an 290 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:17,920 Speaker 1: active part in managing her literary career, including eventually managing 291 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:21,880 Speaker 1: the small press they established to publish Stein's more unconventional works. 292 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:25,280 Speaker 1: It was Totalis's support that kept Stein writing through the 293 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:29,120 Speaker 1: nineteen twenties and into the early nineteen thirties. Although their 294 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:32,280 Speaker 1: salon was immensely popular and had become sort of an 295 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:36,560 Speaker 1: incubator for avant garde artists and writers, her more experimental 296 00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:41,360 Speaker 1: and unconventional books didn't really sell. Stein wanted literary glory, 297 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:44,560 Speaker 1: and without Totalist urging her on, she might have given 298 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:48,040 Speaker 1: up in those years without it. Although people tend to 299 00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:51,440 Speaker 1: describe the two women as near opposites, with Stein being 300 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:55,119 Speaker 1: the dominating force and the relationship, Totalist definitely held her 301 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:58,600 Speaker 1: own when she wanted to. Case in point, Ernest Hemingway 302 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:00,679 Speaker 1: made no secret of the fact that he wanted a 303 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:04,840 Speaker 1: sexual relationship with Gertrude Stein. Alice by Toklis was having 304 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:07,560 Speaker 1: none of that and eventually got Stein to cut him 305 00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:11,359 Speaker 1: out of their social circle. Their relationship, though, also was 306 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:15,119 Speaker 1: not a continual honeymoon, with never a cross word. Multiple 307 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:19,600 Speaker 1: people who knew them commented on Stein and Tokliss's ability 308 00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:25,400 Speaker 1: to have really blistering fights. In three Stein published her 309 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:29,920 Speaker 1: most commercially successful work and her only bestseller, The Autobiography 310 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:33,800 Speaker 1: of Alice B. Toklis. It is her most conventional book, 311 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:37,679 Speaker 1: except that it calls itself an autobiography, and it's written 312 00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:40,679 Speaker 1: from Alice's point of view, but Gertrude is the author 313 00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:45,160 Speaker 1: and it's largely about Gertrude. The book also gave Gertrude 314 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:48,760 Speaker 1: Stein a chance to write about herself as a genius 315 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:52,560 Speaker 1: without being like, hey, y'all, I'm a genius. As an example, 316 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:56,320 Speaker 1: here is how, in Hopless's voice, Gertrude Stein wrote of 317 00:19:56,400 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 1: their first meeting quote, I may say that only three 318 00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:02,320 Speaker 1: times in my life have I met a genius, and 319 00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:04,760 Speaker 1: each time a bell within me rang, and I was 320 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:07,639 Speaker 1: not mistaken. And I may say that in each case 321 00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:10,600 Speaker 1: it was before there was any general recognition of the 322 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,000 Speaker 1: quality of genius and them. The three geniuses of whom 323 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:17,240 Speaker 1: I wish to speak are Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, and 324 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:22,600 Speaker 1: Alfred Whitehead Uh. The autobiography of Alice B. Tokliss also 325 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:29,040 Speaker 1: really emphasized Gertrude Stein's purported personal influence on the Cubism 326 00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:33,880 Speaker 1: school of art, something that highly offended a great many 327 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:38,760 Speaker 1: Cubists artists. There's part of me that's like man. I 328 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:44,240 Speaker 1: wish I had that kind of confidence. While both women 329 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:47,480 Speaker 1: had been well known in Parisian artistic and literary circles, 330 00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:51,480 Speaker 1: this book made both of them internationally famous, Stein as 331 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:55,400 Speaker 1: its author and Toklis as its purported subject. They both 332 00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:58,160 Speaker 1: traveled back to the United States so Stein could carry 333 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:01,399 Speaker 1: out a sold out lecture tour. This was a huge 334 00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:05,800 Speaker 1: publicity event that included newsreel appearances, tea with First Lady 335 00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:10,040 Speaker 1: Eleanor Roosevelt, and meetings with such famous names as Charlie Chaplin. 336 00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:13,920 Speaker 1: This would also be Stein's last visit to the United States. 337 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:17,560 Speaker 1: After a quick sponsor break, we will get to their 338 00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:21,560 Speaker 1: lives during and after World War Two, which, in what 339 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:25,960 Speaker 1: may surprise some listeners, the extent of which surprised me 340 00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:29,280 Speaker 1: includes a heavy dose of supporting the VC government and 341 00:21:29,359 --> 00:21:41,320 Speaker 1: its collaborations with Nazi Germany. Between the two World Wars, 342 00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:44,159 Speaker 1: Gertrude Stein and als B Toklist kept up their life 343 00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:47,520 Speaker 1: in Paris when they weren't on that enormous and wildly 344 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:51,600 Speaker 1: successful publicity tour. They hosted their salons, they traveled, they 345 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:54,880 Speaker 1: kept on collecting art. They were also fond of dogs, 346 00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:57,280 Speaker 1: and they had several ast pets during their life together. 347 00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:02,080 Speaker 1: In seven they moved into an apartment at five Rod Christine. 348 00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:05,520 Speaker 1: At the start of World War Two, Gertrude Stein and 349 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:08,720 Speaker 1: als B Toklist decided to stay in France, even though 350 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:12,240 Speaker 1: as an elderly Jewish couple with an enormous art collection, 351 00:22:12,359 --> 00:22:15,520 Speaker 1: this was obviously very risky and it was not a 352 00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:18,240 Speaker 1: decision that they came too easily. They fretted back and 353 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:22,840 Speaker 1: forth about it through much of nineteen and ninety. Ultimately 354 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:26,000 Speaker 1: they stayed, and then they left Paris for the French countryside, 355 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:29,320 Speaker 1: where they had a house in Billin. A lot of 356 00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:32,920 Speaker 1: people asked them why they stayed, because, I mean, really, 357 00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:37,320 Speaker 1: that is a lot of risk factors for being in 358 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:41,760 Speaker 1: France during World War two. Right, they have their age, 359 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:44,560 Speaker 1: the fact that they are gay, they have the huge 360 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,560 Speaker 1: art collection, like all of this together, and the answers 361 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:51,040 Speaker 1: that they gave were kind of like Gertrude Stein was like, Yeah, 362 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:53,320 Speaker 1: I didn't want to travel and I'm picking about my food, 363 00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:58,520 Speaker 1: so I mean, I see how it would be hard 364 00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:02,600 Speaker 1: to leave French food behind. I do. Yeah. So a 365 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:06,480 Speaker 1: lot of accounts really gloss over how they made this work, 366 00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:09,480 Speaker 1: and the answer is that it was largely through the 367 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:13,159 Speaker 1: protection of Bernard Faii, who was a high ranking and 368 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:18,080 Speaker 1: openly anti Semitic VC government official. Quick recap if anyone 369 00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:20,320 Speaker 1: needs a brush up on this part of World War Two. 370 00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:24,480 Speaker 1: The VC government was installed after France felt to Nazi Germany. 371 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:27,120 Speaker 1: It collaborated with Germany for the rest of the war, 372 00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:30,520 Speaker 1: and it's named after the town of Vc, which effectively 373 00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:34,480 Speaker 1: acted as the French capital. During World War Two. The 374 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:39,440 Speaker 1: VISs government deported seventy five thousand Jews to Naxi extermination camps, 375 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:43,199 Speaker 1: and almost none of them survived. When VIC Chief of 376 00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:49,560 Speaker 1: State Martial Philippe banned secret societies in ninety Faii himself 377 00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:53,600 Speaker 1: compiled a list of Freemasons that led to six thousand imprisonments, 378 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:57,760 Speaker 1: nearly a thousand deportations, and more than five hundred deaths. 379 00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:01,920 Speaker 1: It's not clear how much of Fight's work during the 380 00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:05,840 Speaker 1: war Stein knew about. She probably did not know about 381 00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:10,879 Speaker 1: this whole Freemason list. She certainly knew that Jewish people 382 00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:14,480 Speaker 1: were being rounded up and deported, but she had been 383 00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:19,200 Speaker 1: friends with Bernard Face since Nix, and then later on 384 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:24,840 Speaker 1: Toklis would call him Stein's dearest friend. The reason that 385 00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:28,240 Speaker 1: Stein and Toklas were left alone was that Fight arranged 386 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:32,960 Speaker 1: it with Phillip Patten. Stein had a connection with Patent 387 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:37,760 Speaker 1: as well. In ninety one, at Fi's suggestion, she translated 388 00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:42,000 Speaker 1: a set of his anti Semitic speeches into English. She 389 00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:46,880 Speaker 1: described herself as a propagandist for the Vichy government. Faia's 390 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:50,400 Speaker 1: protection of Stein and Toklis extended to their Paris apartment 391 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:54,720 Speaker 1: as well. While they were in Billennieu, the Gestapo broke 392 00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:57,119 Speaker 1: into that apartment and they started packing up all the 393 00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:02,200 Speaker 1: art for removal. A neighbor attacted the gendarme, who arrived 394 00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:05,760 Speaker 1: on the scene and asked these Gestapo to show their 395 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:10,240 Speaker 1: requisition orders for the paintings. They didn't have orders, which 396 00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:13,240 Speaker 1: bought a little time, Waffee arranged for the art to 397 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:16,679 Speaker 1: be left alone. His protection didn't really extend to the 398 00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:18,920 Speaker 1: rest of the apartment, though, and some of Stein's and 399 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:23,199 Speaker 1: total other possessions were looted. After the war, Fay was 400 00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:26,600 Speaker 1: put on trial for his collaboration with Nazi Germany, and 401 00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:30,480 Speaker 1: Stein wrote a letter in his defense to add to 402 00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:34,960 Speaker 1: all of this. In a May six New York Times article, 403 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:38,639 Speaker 1: Gertrude Stein is quoted as saying, quote, I say that 404 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,760 Speaker 1: Hitler ought to have the Peace Prize because he's removing 405 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:46,359 Speaker 1: all elements of contest and struggle from Germany by driving 406 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,440 Speaker 1: out the Jews and the democratic and left elements. He's 407 00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:53,720 Speaker 1: driving out everything that conduces to activity that means peace. 408 00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:58,480 Speaker 1: The general consensus is that she probably meant this ironically, 409 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:01,640 Speaker 1: and given that Stein's into your literary career was about 410 00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:05,040 Speaker 1: playing with and breaking the conventional rules of language, it 411 00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:07,919 Speaker 1: was probably not intended to be taken at face value. 412 00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:11,480 Speaker 1: But her later support of Patent and the Visi government 413 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:14,640 Speaker 1: and her defensive Faii make it hard to just dismiss 414 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:17,640 Speaker 1: that statement with oh, she was supposed to be ironic. 415 00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:21,040 Speaker 1: There at the same time as all of this, I 416 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:25,680 Speaker 1: mean she made steps that clearly seemed to support fascism 417 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:29,000 Speaker 1: and and the VC government. Stein and Toklas were also 418 00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:33,240 Speaker 1: both huge supporters of Allied troops UH in both World 419 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:36,639 Speaker 1: War One and World War Two. They really took a 420 00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:39,040 Speaker 1: lot of American g i s under their wing, acting 421 00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:43,560 Speaker 1: almost as Godmother's, wrote them letters, hosted them in their home, 422 00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,399 Speaker 1: and for Stein's part, she wrote a lot of laudatory 423 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,720 Speaker 1: poems and stories about Allied soldiers and friends for resistance 424 00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:54,800 Speaker 1: fighters during World War Two. We don't know how Stein's 425 00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:57,600 Speaker 1: views might have evolved after the horrors of the Holocaust 426 00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:00,959 Speaker 1: became more fully known. Not long after the war, she 427 00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:04,199 Speaker 1: was diagnosed with what turned out to be inoperable stomach cancer. 428 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:09,439 Speaker 1: She died during surgery on July at the age of 429 00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:12,679 Speaker 1: seventy two. By the time she died, her body of 430 00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:19,199 Speaker 1: work included novels, short stories, poems, plays, memoirs, and opera librettos. 431 00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:24,520 Speaker 1: She is buried at Perlischa Cemetery in Paris. After Stein's death, 432 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:28,399 Speaker 1: Alice by Toklis converted to Catholicism, saying that she hoped 433 00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:31,680 Speaker 1: that she would meet Gertrude again in heaven. She said 434 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,640 Speaker 1: that Stein's genius would have secured her a place there, 435 00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:38,040 Speaker 1: even though she was a Jew. Toklis also spent the 436 00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:42,160 Speaker 1: rest of her life publishing and promoting Stein's work. While 437 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:45,399 Speaker 1: Stein was alive, Totalist had never tried to compete with 438 00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,680 Speaker 1: her in the world of literature, but after Stein's death, 439 00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:51,880 Speaker 1: she published multiple works of her own. Two of these 440 00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:55,679 Speaker 1: works were cookbooks. The Alice by Totalist cookbook blends recipes 441 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:59,000 Speaker 1: and memoir, giving glimpses of the two women's life together. 442 00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,120 Speaker 1: It also includes a recipe for how She fudge, which 443 00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:05,440 Speaker 1: she said was given to her by painter and performance 444 00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:09,480 Speaker 1: artist Brian Geyson. The other cookbook is called Aromas and 445 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:12,800 Speaker 1: Flavors of Past and Present, a Book of Exquisite Cooking, 446 00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:19,800 Speaker 1: which is a more straightforward recipe book. Yeah, that fudge recipe, um, 447 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:24,240 Speaker 1: she she was pretty uh, I don't, I don't even 448 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:28,240 Speaker 1: know the best word. She was kind of just lighthearted 449 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:30,720 Speaker 1: about it. Later on she was like, oh, you just 450 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,280 Speaker 1: just gave me that recipe. But then the fact that 451 00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:36,360 Speaker 1: it was in the cook but sort of made her 452 00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:40,880 Speaker 1: almost a cult figure within the counterculture movement in the sixties. 453 00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:47,560 Speaker 1: Uh Toklis also wrote an actual memoir called What Is Remembered, 454 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:51,080 Speaker 1: which came out in ninete and it chronicles her nearly 455 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:54,560 Speaker 1: forty year relationship with Gertrude Stein ending with Stein's death. 456 00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:58,880 Speaker 1: Uh Alice B. Toklis published work in magazines and newspapers 457 00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:03,320 Speaker 1: as well. After Stein died, Totalis often struggled to make 458 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:06,720 Speaker 1: ends meet. Aside from Picasso's portrait of Stein, which was 459 00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:10,240 Speaker 1: bequeathed to the Met, Totalist had inherited nearly the whole 460 00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:14,760 Speaker 1: art collection, with Stein's nephew Allen as co beneficiary. The 461 00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:17,840 Speaker 1: will included a provision that Totalist could sell pieces of 462 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:20,800 Speaker 1: the collection if she needed to, but she didn't really 463 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:23,120 Speaker 1: want to. She tried to keep as much of the 464 00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:25,960 Speaker 1: collection intact as she could, and she lived off the 465 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:30,920 Speaker 1: generosity of friends. By nineteen sixty, Alan Stein had died 466 00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:35,560 Speaker 1: and his widow, Rubina Stein, removed the paintings from Toklis's 467 00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:38,560 Speaker 1: apartment while she was away in Rome and had them 468 00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:41,440 Speaker 1: put in a vault at Chase Manhattan Bank in Paris. 469 00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:45,240 Speaker 1: Rubina Stein's argument was that the apartment was not a 470 00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,680 Speaker 1: safe place for these paintings, and it is true that 471 00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:51,040 Speaker 1: by this point a lot of these pieces had become 472 00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:54,840 Speaker 1: very valuable and they were uninsured and being kept in 473 00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:58,160 Speaker 1: a private residence without a lot of security. But at 474 00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:01,600 Speaker 1: the same time, Rubina Stein took those paintings while Tokliss 475 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:04,920 Speaker 1: was away, and she was motivated in part by Tokaliss 476 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:07,800 Speaker 1: having sold some of the Picasso drawings, which she was 477 00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:11,600 Speaker 1: allowed to do. So Toklist got back from Rome to 478 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:14,960 Speaker 1: find an apartment with bare walls, and she was ultimately 479 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:18,360 Speaker 1: evicted from that apartment because of her extended time away, 480 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:22,640 Speaker 1: So she was simultaneously without a home and without the 481 00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:27,200 Speaker 1: option of selling off paintings to support herself. Toklis's last 482 00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:30,120 Speaker 1: year sore difficult. She had very little money, she was 483 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:34,720 Speaker 1: increasingly poor health in addition to having disabling cataracts and arthritis. 484 00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:37,920 Speaker 1: She died on March seventh, nineteen sixty seven, at the 485 00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:40,600 Speaker 1: age of eighty nine, and now she is buried at 486 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:45,600 Speaker 1: Perlash's cemetery in Paris, next to Gertrude Stein. A year later, 487 00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:47,800 Speaker 1: the rest of the art collection was sold to the 488 00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:51,320 Speaker 1: Museum of Modern Art Syndicate, with a few pieces sold 489 00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:55,840 Speaker 1: through art dealers. When Gertrude Stein died, she left her 490 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,640 Speaker 1: literary archives to the barneky Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, 491 00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:02,320 Speaker 1: Yale University, and a lot of those papers are made 492 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,160 Speaker 1: public for the first time in the nineteen eighties, which 493 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:09,240 Speaker 1: led to the publication of Baby Precious Always Shines. Selected 494 00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:12,360 Speaker 1: love notes between Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Totalis, which 495 00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:16,240 Speaker 1: was edited by Kay Turner and came out in These 496 00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:19,959 Speaker 1: notes are mostly from Stein and eight of them are 497 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:24,000 Speaker 1: from Totalis. So to close out here is one of 498 00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:27,640 Speaker 1: these notes, which was from Gertrude to Alice, quote, Dear, 499 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:30,640 Speaker 1: it is not queer that I love her here here 500 00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:36,760 Speaker 1: in my heart, in me all through. That was a 501 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:40,520 Speaker 1: lovely way to end an episode that had an upsetting 502 00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:46,880 Speaker 1: Nazi territory. Yes, I mean it becomes one of those 503 00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:49,280 Speaker 1: engaging pieces of history right where it's a figure that 504 00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:52,160 Speaker 1: a lot of people have looked up to and really enjoyed, 505 00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:54,120 Speaker 1: and it is hard to face some of the negative 506 00:31:54,160 --> 00:32:00,160 Speaker 1: parts such a person's life. I knew that that that 507 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,600 Speaker 1: they had basically been able to survive in France in 508 00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:05,960 Speaker 1: the position that they were in because they were protected 509 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:10,640 Speaker 1: by this one bec government official I And then I 510 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,959 Speaker 1: think a lot of people can conceptualize and it doesn't 511 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,800 Speaker 1: create a ton of cognitive dissidence because it's like, okay, 512 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,520 Speaker 1: you needed to survive. This person had the ability to 513 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:23,040 Speaker 1: help you, you might accept their help, and it's like 514 00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:25,600 Speaker 1: awesome from your safe armchair to be like, oh, I 515 00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:28,360 Speaker 1: would never do that because that would violate my principles. 516 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,200 Speaker 1: But you don't actually know. But like when it got 517 00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:33,840 Speaker 1: into oh, and then she was translating all of these 518 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:36,760 Speaker 1: anti Semitic speeches into English, and she made a number 519 00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:39,880 Speaker 1: of statements that obviously, uh, would seemed to be in 520 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:44,360 Speaker 1: support of fascism. That's uh. That's when I went and oh, man, 521 00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:46,680 Speaker 1: I did not realize that you were going to ruin 522 00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:57,640 Speaker 1: Gertrude Stein. For some people today, they so much for 523 00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:00,800 Speaker 1: joining us on this Saturday. Since it's episode is out 524 00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:02,800 Speaker 1: of the archive. If you heard an email address or 525 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:05,280 Speaker 1: Facebook U r L or something similar over the course 526 00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:08,560 Speaker 1: of the show, that could be obsolete now. Our current 527 00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:13,880 Speaker 1: email address is History Podcast at I heart radio dot com. 528 00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:17,080 Speaker 1: Our old how stuff Works email address no longer works, 529 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:19,640 Speaker 1: and you can find us all over social media at 530 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:22,880 Speaker 1: missed in History and you can subscribe to our show 531 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,400 Speaker 1: on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, the I Heart Radio app, 532 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:32,800 Speaker 1: and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff you missed 533 00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:35,240 Speaker 1: in History class is a production of I heart Radio. 534 00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:38,440 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart 535 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,600 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 536 00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:42,320 Speaker 1: favorite shows.