The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 1913-1946

Gertrude Stein, Carl Van Vechten, Edward Burns

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 1986
• ISBN:
  9780231519014
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

This monumental collection of correspondence between Gertrude Stein and critic, novelist, and photographer Carl Van Vechten provides crucial insight into Stein's life, art, and artistic milieu as well as Van Vechten's support of major cultural projects, such as the Harlem Renaissance. From their first meeting in 1913, Stein and Van Vechten formed a unique and powerful relationship, and Van Vechten worked vigorously to publish and promote Stein's work. Existing biographies of Stein—including her own autobiographical writings—omit a great deal about her experiences and thought. They lack the ordinary detail of what Stein called "daily everyday living": the immediate concerns, objects, people, and places that were the grist for her writing. These letters not only vividly represent those details but also showcase Stein and Van Vechten's private selves as writers. Edward Burns's extensive annotations include detailed cross-referencing of source materials.

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents 
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Letters
• Coda
• Undated Letters
• Appendix A: The First Meeting of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten
• Appendix B: An Unpublished Portrait of Carl Van Vechten by Gertrude Stein
• Principal Works of Gertrude Stein
• Principal Works of Carl Van Vechten
• Selected Bibliography
• Index