sherwood anderson want to know why notes
Dead White Guys: An Irreverent Guide to Classic Literature: Sad Bastards: Gertrude Stein
Sad Bastards is our (not regularly scheduled) feature wherein I tell you Five Things You Should Know About An Author To Sound Smart At Dinner Parties.
Mean muggin'.
I had my first exposure to Gertrude Stein when I tried and failed to read Three Lives. That shiz is boring and awful and boring. And racist. But she lived in Paris! And hung out with Hemingway! And Picasso painted her! She has to be interesting, right? Um. Decide for yourself-
Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson:Introduction, Notes & Lessons by Michael SegedyLearn more
Sherwood Anderson
1. Stein met Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, et. al. because she hosted salons in her apartment in Paris and she had lots of neat art. And by neat I mean her collection consisted of works of some of the best artists who ever lived, and the art brought the writers. It was like this: Stein lived with art critic brother--> Stein collected fancy art (Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, etc.)---> Stein became famous because of her collection ---> smart people started hanging out at her house.
2. During World War I, Stein and her life partner Alice Toklas bought a car that they used to drive supplies to French hospitals to aid the war effort. They called the car "Auntie," after Stein's aunt who "behaved admirably during emergencies."
Winesburg, Ohio (Annotated) by Sherwood Anderson: Introduction, Notes & Lessons by Michael SegedyLearn more
Sherwood Anderson
3. She is said to have invented the phrase "the Lost Generation," and was godmother to Hemingway's son Jack.
4. Stein survived living in the south of France during the Nazi occupation, despite being Jewish and a lesbian. Some historians say she wasn't harmed (and neither was her art collection) because she was a famous American. Others say it was because she was good friends with the anti-Semitic Bernard Fay, a member of the Vichy government who had connections with the Gestapo.
5. In 1934, Stein said this to the New York Times: "I say that Hitler ought to have the peace prize, because he is removing all the elements of contest and of struggle from Germany. By driving out the Jews and the democratic and Left element, he is driving out everything that conduces to activity. That means peace." The statement sounds pretty heavy with irony...but in 1938, Stein quietly lobbied the Nobel committee to award Hitler the Peace Prize. In 1940, she compared Petain (head of the French Vichy government) to George Washington.
So basically, the Nazis were all this:
And Gertrude Stein was all: I'm in the South of France! I know famous people! At any rate, she was certainly a complex person. My admittedly brief experience with her writing leads me to believe she's more famous for her odd political beliefs, eccentric personality and her entourage of authors than she is for any personal talent she may have had.
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