Stanzas in Meditation : And Other Poems, 1929-1933

by Gertrude Stein; Edited by Susannah Hollister and Emily Setina; With an Introduct

• ISBN13: 9780300153095
• ISBN10: 0300153090
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2012-01-17
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

In the 1950s, Yale University Press published a number of Gertrude Stein's posthumous works, among them her incomparable Stanzas in Meditation. Since that time, scholars have discovered that Stein's poem exists in several versions: a manuscript that Stein wrote and two typescripts that her partner Alice B. Toklas prepared. Toklas's work on the second typescript changed the poem when, enraged upon detecting in it references to a former lover, she not only adjusted the typescript but insisted that Stein make revisions in the original manuscript. This edition of Stanzas in Meditationis the first to confront the complicated story of its composition and revision. Through meticulous archival work, the editors present a reliable reading text of Stein's original manuscript, as well as an appendix with the textual variants among the poem's several versions. This record of Stein's multi-layered revisions enables readers to engage more fully with the author's radically experimental poem and also to detect the literary impact of Stein's relationship with Toklas. The editors' preface and poet Joan Retallack's introduction offer insight into the complexities of reading Stein's poetry and the innovative modes of reading that her works require and generate. Students and admirers of Stein will welcome this illuminating new contribution to Stein's oeuvre.

Author Biography

Susannah Hollister is ACLS New Faculty Fellow, University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Austin, TX. Emily Setina is an Assistant Professor of English at Baylor University. She lives in Waco, TX.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xix
On Not Not Reading Stanzas in Meditation: Pressures and Pleasures of the Text	p. 1
The Turning Point: Preface to the 1956 Stanzas in Meditation	p. 28
The Impossible: Gertrude Stein, review of the 1956 Stanzas in Meditation	p. 50
Stanzas In Meditation
Part I	p. 57
Part II	p. 80
Part III	p. 106
Part IV	p. 138
Part V	p. 171
Publication History	p. 259
Reading Text	p. 261
Editorial Practices	p. 264
Notes	p. 268
Illustrations follow p. 250
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