Sister Brother

by Wineapple, Brenda

• ISBN13: 9780803217539
• ISBN10: 0803217536
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-01
• Publisher: Bison Books

Summary

Devoted, eccentric, and compelling, Gertrude and Leo Stein were constant companions, from childhood to adulthood, until, finally, they spoke no more. Americans, expatriates, and virtually orphans, they lived together for almost forty years, collaborating in one of the great artistic and literary adventures of the twentieth century. Sister Brother tells the story of that adventure and relationship. With a personality that drew people toward her-regardless of what they thought of her inventive, hermetic prose-Gertrude Stein dazzled and perplexed. Enigmatic, intelligent, and self-absorbed, Leo also dazzled but in his own way. One of the crucial figures in Gertrude's early years, he was the original guiding spirit of the famed salon at 27 rue de Fleurus, which continued for almost two decades. From her early days as a medical student to her first days in Paris, Gertrude was passionately driven toward the career in which she distinguished herself, demanding appreciation as an exceptional writer who knew precisely what she intended. This book shows how Gertrude slowly struggled with what became a unique voice-and why her brother spurned it.With its wealth of new and rare material, its reconstruction of Leo's famed art collection, and its array of characters-from Bernard Berenson to Pablo Picasso-this biography offers the first glimpse into the smoldering sibling relationship that helped form two of the twentieth century's most unusual figures.

Author Biography

Brenda Wineapple is the author of Genêt: A Biography of Janet Flanner and Hawthorne: A Life, which received the English-Speaking Union's Ambassador Award for the Best Biography of 2003 and the Boston Book Club’s Julia Ward Howe Award. She has a forthcoming book on Emily Dickinson and teaches writing in the School of the Arts at Columbia University and the MFA program at the New School University in New York.

Table of Contents

Prologue: And They Were Not Wrong	p. 1
Disorder and Early Sorrow
Bes Almon	p. 6
Tempers We Are Born With	p. 30
Too Darn Anxious to Be Safe	p. 47
Both Ones That Quite Enough Are Knowing
To Know Thyself	p. 64
The Feminine Half	p. 84
Evolution	p. 100
Respectability	p. 116
New Americans	p. 134
Speech Is the Twin of My Vision
Gilded Cages	p. 156
Brother Singular	p. 170
Quod Erat Demonstrandum	p. 188
Toward a More Quintessential Method, 1903-1905	p. 208
In the Thick of It	p. 227
An Alarm Has No Button
Quarreling	p. 248
Banquets	p. 266
I Could Be So Happy	p. 286
A Fine Frenzy	p. 304
Myself and Strangers, or The Inevitable Character of My Art	p. 323
Ripeness Is All
Two	p. 338
The Disaggregation	p. 356
Of Having a Great Many Times Not Continued to Be Friends: A Finale	p. 376
Epilogue: A Family Romance	p. 393
Appendix	p. 409
Acknowledgments	p. 415
Notes	p. 421
Bibliography	p. 487
Index	p. 501
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