Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife

This innovative biography of Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) from Square Haunting author Wade assesses the influential writer’s life and legacy. Believing that truly groundbreaking artists were not appreciated in their lifetimes, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas author was obsessed with her own legacy, Wade explains, and sent her manuscripts, letters, and notebooks to the Yale University Library before her death. The first half of the book chronicles Stein’s childhood in California, her move to Paris, and her keen eye for modern art, the principles of which she tried to translate into her writing. The second half, however, is what makes the biography so distinctive; in it, Wade explores how scholars constructed Stein’s posthumous legacy. In particular, she draws on notes from literary scholar Leon Katz, who interviewed Stein’s life partner Alice B. Toklas in 1952. Wade, who believes she was the first researcher to examine these notes, explains how they elucidate Toklas’s commitment to Stein but also reveal Toklas as “a woman with her own private past, negotiating her position in a life devoted to another.” Toklas found herself in the ultimate conundrum: intensely private, she did not want to talk about her life with Stein, yet she was desperate for Stein to receive the plaudits Toklas felt she deserved. Wade’s knowledgeable insights and clear affection for her subject, warts and all, make this a thoroughly captivating portrait. Anyone intrigued by the legend of Stein and Toklas will find this a windfall. (Oct.)