… was a writer who struggled to get published and read. At the same time, she was well-known, well-connected, and persistently sought out by younger writers and artists. Her work was depreciated, ignored, parodied, and celebrated. Much of it was never published until after her death, when it was again depreciated and celebrated—attaining cult status, even. Highly educated and independent for a woman of her time, she lived openly with the woman she considered her wife and counted queer people among her intimates, but never participated explicitly in feminist or queer liberation struggles. She and Alice B. Toklas were non-observant Jews from California who lived in France and were protected during World War II by an anti-Semitic French Vichy official who also happened to be a good friend.

What can we make of such a puzzling life, so full of contradictions and long-term influence?

Taking as our main subject selected pieces of Stein’s writing, her relationships, art collection, cultural status, and posthumous reception, and working extensively with several local collections of rare books and archival materials, we will explore these Steinian dilemmas not to resolve or dismiss them but to flesh them out and, ultimately, share them with a wider public.

Images left to right:

• Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Gertrude Stein, 1905-06. Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY.
• Félix Vallotton, Gertrude Stein, 1907. Oil on canvas. The Cone Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore MD.
• Jo Davidson, Gertrude Stein, 1922-23. Terra cotta. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. Gift of Dr. Maury Leibovitz.