Gertrude Stein

This selection of Gertrude Stein's work is taken from the three-decade period between 1905 and 1936, when the iconic modernist poet was engaged in an astounding number of still-surprising literary experiments, whose innovations continue to influence all the arts. As much as possible, editor Joan Retallack has chosen complete texts or selections that lend themselves to a clarified vision of Stein's oeuvre. In her brilliant introduction, Retallack provides the historical and biographical context for Stein's lifelong project of composing a "continuous present" that parallels many of the most important technological and scientific developments of her era-from moving pictures to Einstein's revision of our understanding of space and time. Retallack's insightful essay also addresses the most persistent questions raised by this always original, sometimes troubling author and her body of work: how American is it? how cubist is it? how racist is it? what was Stein doing in occupied France during World War II? And, most important, what is the best way to read Stein's texts in our contemporary moment? In suggesting a performative "reading poesis" for these works, Retallack follows Stein's dictum by arguing that to actively experience the work is to enjoy it, and to enjoy it is to understand it.