Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories - Tapa dura

"May be the most candid, thoughtful and extensive biography [Stein] will ever get." Wall Street Journal "The book can be seen as a life in pictures, or a visual biography, collecting and analyzing an impressively large array of portraits of (if not by) Stein." Times Literary Supplement (TLS) "Argues persuasively that Stein continues to challenge sexual, cultural, and racial norms-and to inspire creative projects." Biography "California educators deciding how to meet the state's new requirements to include ... gay Americans in history curricula could strike gold by digging into... Gertrude Stein's life and times." Stanford Magazine "[The book contains] assiduous research, careful selection and confident discussion... Uniquely gratifying." -- Igna Fraser, National Portrait Gallery, London Costume "Impressively researched, copiously illustrated, and a refreshingly 'good read.'; [An] exceptional volume about a literary figure and art patron who was one of the world's most complex and all-to human women." -- Joyce Beckenstein Women's Art Journal

Gertrude Stein is justly famous for her modernist writings and her patronage of vanguard painters (most notably Matisse and Picasso) in Paris before the First World War. "Seeing Gertrude Stein," the companion book to an exhibition of the same name, illuminates less familiar aspects of her life. Wanda M. Corn and Tirza True Latimer analyze the portraits for which Stein posed, the domestic settings she created with Alice B. Toklas, her partner, and the signature styles of dress the two women adopted. Corn and Latimer also explore Stein's engagement with multiple art forms and the bonds she formed with younger artists. Focusing on portraits in a range of media, photo essays, press clippings, snapshots, clothing, furniture, and other visual artifacts, this pathbreaking study reveals Stein's sophistication in shaping her public image and cultural legacy. Lavishly illustrated throughout, these 'five stories' represent Stein's life on a human scale while tracing her influence on a wide variety of visual artists of her own and subsequent generations.