Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American writer of novels, poetry and plays that eschewed the narrative, linear, and temporal conventions of 19th-century literature, and a fervent collector of Modernist art. She was born in West Allegheny (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, raised in Oakland, California, and moved to Paris in 1903, making France her home for the remainder of her life.For some forty years, the Stein home at 27 rue de Fleurus on the Left Bank of Paris was a renowned Saturday evening gathering place for both expatriate American artists and writers and others noteworthy in the world of vanguard arts and letters, most notably Pablo Picasso. Entrée into the Stein salon was a sought-after validation, and Stein became combination mentor, critic, and guru to those who gathered around her, including Ernest Hemingway, who described the salon in A Moveable Feast.In 1933, Stein published a kind of memoir of her Paris years, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, written in the voice of Toklas, her life partner. The book became a literary bestseller and vaulted Stein from the relative obscurity of cult literary figure into the light of mainstream attention.
Coined the popular phrases "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" and "There is no there there" (said in reply to a friend talking about Oakland, CA, who said, "I'm going there").
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Her older brother Leo Stein moved to London in 1902, and she followed a few months later. They moved together to Paris in 1903, where they settled on the Left Bank, and shared a house and collected art together until 1914.
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Was a longtime friend of Ernest Hemingway, who wrote about her salon (a regular gathering of people, generally intellectuals or cultural icons, held for their mutual amusement to discuss culture, current affairs, increase the knowledge and refine the tastes of the participants, and often to bask in their own glow) in his memoir of his life in France, "A Moveable Feast".
Long-time companion of Alice B. Toklas, who she met in 1907. They stayed together until Gertrude's death in 1946.
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She sarcastically advocated awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Adolf Hitler " . . . because he is removing all the elements of contest and of struggle from Germany. By driving out the Jews and the democratic and Left element, he is driving out everything that conduces to activity. That means peace . . . " (New York Times Magazine, May 6, 1934).
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Was of German-Jewish ancestry.
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Was an early patron of experimental painting.
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When she was three years old her parents moved the family to Vienna, Austria, then to Paris, France. They moved back to California when she was four years old (1878), settling in Oakland, where she attended school until 1891, when she was 17 and her father died.
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Attended Radcliffe College (then the woman's annex of Harvard University) from 1893 to 1897, and then two years at Johns Hopkins Medical School, where she failed two courses and left without a degree, citing boredom.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Gertrude Stein's Brewsie and Willie
2012
Tender Buttons
2011
Short writer
Hubby/Wifey
2005
Short
Quest for Love
1988
novel "Q.E.D."
Three Plays by Gertrude Stein
1988
TV Short play
O Cinema Falado
1986
excerpt
Actor's Choice
1970
TV Series various writings - 1 episode
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show
2008
TV Movie
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Paris Was a Woman
1996
Documentary
Herself
The Unconquered
1954
Documentary
Herself (in Louis Braille procession) (uncredited)
Known for movies
O Cinema Falado (1986) as Writer
Hubby/Wifey (2005) as Writer
Quest for Love (1988) as Writer
Gertrude Stein's Brewsie and Willie (2012) as Writer
$19 Million
