Gertrude Stein

‘You are, of course, never yourself ’, wrote Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) in one of her famously witty autobiographies. Since the 1920s Stein has been celebrated in many incarnations: as the embodiment of Left Bank bohemia, as a patron of modern art and writing, as a gay icon, as the coiner of the expression ‘Lost Generation’, and as the hostess of perhaps the most famous salon of modern times. Yet despite an immense and varied body of work and a writing life that spanned 50 years, she remains one of the most recognisable and yet least known of the twentieth-century’s major literary figures. With detailed reference to her works, to the many notable portraits and readings, and to Stein’s own entertaining anecdotes, Lucy Daniel discusses how the legend of ‘Gertrude Stein’ was created, both by herself and her admirers.