Gertrude Stein

1. Gertrude Stein

2. Presentation By: • Katie Finkelstein • Allison Ripa • Ryan Wood • Emma Zimmerman

3. Biography of Gertrude Stein • Gertrude Stein was born to American Jews in Pennsylvania. • Her family left for Europe when she was 6 months old. • They first settled in Vienna, then Paris. • After a long cope with cancer, Stein’s mother died. Shortly after, her father passed away, too.

4. Since she had little education, Stein was accepted under special circumstances to the Harvard Annex where she studied medicine. • Following her studies she moved into her brother’s house in Paris. • It was after she moved out that she wrote the first of her books, The Making of Americans and Three Lives.

5. Throughout WWI, Stein delivered medical supplies to the front lines with Alice Toklas. • They financed their journey by selling off their collective artwork. • During WWII, friends protected Stein and Toklas from the Nazis, despite their Jewish descent.

6. After her ordeals in Europe during WWII, Stein planned on moving back to the United States for protection. • She discovered shortly before she left that she had cancer and died on July 27, 1946. • After her death, Toklas chose to be buried beside her friend, Gertrude Stein.

7. The Lost Generation

8. What is “The Lost Generation?” The term "the lost generation" was coined by Gertrude Stein. It is said that she overheard a French auto-mechanic saying that his young workers were, "une generation perdue". This basically referred to these workers’ poor repair skills. This is the phrase Gertrude Stein took and used describe the people of the 1920's “who rejected American post World War I values.” Noteworthy authors of “the lost generation” are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos.

9. This “lost generation” acquired a sense of aimlessness, or even moral loss. This was especially apparent in literary figures during the 1920’s. The horrors of WWI destroyed for some the idea that by acting virtuous and good, good things will happen to you in return. The fact that many good, young men either died in the war or were wounded physically, mentally, or both, really caused many people to lose hope and faith in what they previously believed in. This is why Stein considered them to be “lost”.

10. Impact of “The Lost Generation” Many people of the lost generation found it better to simply rebel against America and move to other countries (mainly Europe) in search of a cosmopolitan culture. This, however, allowed Europe to recognize the distinctive Democratic American Culture, and because of that, the definition of American Culture became more defined.

11. Stein and Hemingway’s Friendship: The Beginning Stein was an American who had been living in Paris for eighteen years when Hemingway arrived in 1921. She was mentioned to Hemingway by Sherwood Anderson in a letter, and he soon became a frequent visitor at Stein’s salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus. Stein’s salon had an extensive art gallery and was well known among contemporary artists such a Pablo Picasso and Matisse. She was concerned with experimenting with the English language rather than writing fiction. However, she continued to give advice to writers who were starting out and became a mentor to some.

12. The Friendship’s Influence Hemingway personally admired her “continuous present tense and her steady repetition of key phrases that created meanings larger than words themselves.” Stein would go on to teach Hemingway about structure and composition. She used cubist paintings, since she was such a lover of the arts, as a model for the organization of prose. This highly influenced Hemingway’s style in his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. Even after Hemingway and Stein’s friendship ended, her influence is present in his writing in novels, such as For Whom the Bell Tolls. Weeping Woman By: Pablo Picasso

13. Further Influence Stein had become like a surrogate mother for the insecure Hemingway. When he and Hadley had first arrived in Paris, he was unsure of his fiction writing, having only written in a journalistic style up until that time. Stein gave him some of her previous novels to read, and it was from these that Hemingway adapted her use of automatic writing, repetition, gerund use =, syntactical precision, sparse prose, and short, declarative sentences. Hemingway continued to use this style throughout the rest of his writing career.

14. The Impact Stein convinced Hemingway to quit his job as a journalist because it forced him to work too hard and left little time for him to concentrate on his fiction writing. Without her influence, Hemingway would have possibly never found his unmistakable style.

15. Comparing and Contrasting Ernest Hemingway’s and Gertrude Stein’s Writing Styles

16. Impact of Writing Style Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway shared a several-year long close friendship throughout the 1920s. Stein more or less took the young Hemingway “under her wing” when he first came to Paris to write. After becoming friends with Stein, Hemingway came is close contact with Paris literary scene writers such as Erza Pound, T.S. Eliot and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Stein became a surrogate mother to Hemingway, and encouraged him to pursue fiction writing, as opposed to the journalistic writing style he was used to. Hemingway read many of Stein’s works for inspiration and began to include her writing techniques in his own writing such as automatic writing, repetition, gerund use, syntactical precision, sparse prose, and short, declarative sentences. After mingling with these techniques, Hemingway later used them throughout the rest of his writing career.

17. Strictly Stein’s Writing Style Like most writers, Gertrude’s Stein’s writing evolved over time. Early in her writing career, she was heavily influenced by artwork, especially painters from Europe. Her prose was classified by her unique style of including repetition, fragmentation and the use of the continuous present, especially found scattered throughout her novels. She was extremely fascinated by the “stream-of-consciousness” writing that was happening in the early 1900s. These rhythmical word-pairings or “portraits” were written to evoke pure human feelings from within. This type of writing style was praised, but was commonly only enjoyed by the elite and avant-garde because of its difficult syntax. In her later years, Stein became known as a lover of repetition writing, laced with humorous style and undertones.

18. Strictly Hemingway’s Writing Style There’s only one word to accurately describe Hemingway’s writing style: simple. Hemingway was known to hate description with a passion, and because of this, was often panned for being too boring by harsh critics. His prose style is forceful and is distinguished by simple sentences that include several adverbs or adjectives. His abundance of heavy dialogue was something not commonly practiced during this time period. His dialogue was meant to be relatable to the reader and her hoped readers could easily hear their own mouths saying the words his characters spoke. Reliability, to Hemingway, was key.

19. Comparing and Contrasting Because of their close friendship, Stein was a large writing influence in Hemingway’s life. Stein was influenced by her past teacher, William James, and because of this, Stein and Hemingway both used some of James’s techniques. James was mostly interested in the “stream-of-consciousness” and how the mind works in relation to writing, and Stein, too, was fascinated by this new study. Because of this, Stein’s style is subsequently very difficult to follow and comprehend, while Hemingway’s writing focused more on actual human interaction. Stein’s repetition in her writing was something Hemingway tried to avoid, and instead, preferred a simpler style. In closing, Stein’s writing was like one of a boisterous intellect, while Hemingway’s writing was one of a typical, shy, starving artist- straight and to the point. Stein Hemingway

20. Works Cited Bailey, Dayle G.. "Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway: The Literary Mother and her Precocious Son ." 2009. 26 May 2009 <http://www.uncp.edu/home/nwb/paris/dbailey/stein_%20and_hemingway.htm>. Cooper, Michael. "The Writing of Ernest Hemingway." Hemingway's Writing Style. http://deptorg.knox.edu. (23 May 2009). 1-3. Ernest Hemingway. Google Images. (26 May 2009). <http://www.florida- arts.org/programs /halloffame/images/hemingway.jpg> Ernest Hemingway Writing. Google Images. (26 May 2009). <http://www.melawend.com/Hemingway_at_his_writing_desk..jpg> "Gertrude Stein - Biography of Gertrude Stein." Women's History - Comprehensive Women's History Research Guide. 27 May 2009 <http://womenshistory.about.com/od/gertrudestein/a/gertrude_stein_1.htm>. "Gertrude Stein - Biography of Gertrude Stein." Women's History - Comprehensive Women's History Research Guide. 27 May 2009. <http://womenshistory.about.com/od/gertrudestein/a/gertrude_stein_2.htm>. gertrude stein and ernest hemingway. Google Images. (27 May 2009). <http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2391/2497987773_9db4c06079.jpg> gertrude stein and ernest hemingway. Google Images. (27 May 2009). <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_U_ERG5dylLw/Sdm-QhfvEqI/AAAAAAAACgk/WJz-UkeR3EI/s400/alice-b-toklas-gertrude-stein-1923.jpg> Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway. Google Images. (27 May 2009). <http://records.viu.ca/~lanes/english/hemngway/steintok.gif>

21. Works Cited Continued Gertrude Stein. Google Images. (26 May 2009). <http://www3.timeoutny.com/newyork/upstaged/wpcontent/uploads/2009/02/gertrude-stein.jpg> Gertrude Stein. Google Images. (26 May 2009). <http://connections-jazzage.wikispaces.com> Gertrude Stein. Google Images. (26 May 2009). <https://connectionsjazzage.wikispaces.com/file/view/Gertrude_Stein.jpg> Gertrude Stein. Google Images. (26 Mary 2009). <http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/001ac/001aca44.jpg Gertrude Stein. Google Images. (27 May 2009). <http://www.ovationtv.com/files/large_image_videos/0000/0118/gertrude_stein_372x495.jpg> Jill, Tripodi. "The Lost Generation." The Lost Generation. 27 May 2009 <http://users.rowan.edu/~lindman/lost_generation.html>. The Lost Generation. Google Images. (27 May 2009). <http://www-tc.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/images/lostgeneration.jpg> The Lost Generation. Google Images. (27 May 2009). <http://1920sgirls.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/scarboro_bike_1000px.jpg.w300h368.jpg> "The Lost Generation." The Lost Generation. Montgomery College. 27 May 2009 <http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/departments/hpolscrv/jbolhofer.html>.

22. Matthes, Kathrin and Kirsten Nath. "Hemingway and Stein. Gertrude Stein's Influence on Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls." Grin. 2005. 26 May 2009. <http://www.grin.com/e-book/57146/hemingway-and-stein-gertrude-stein-s-influence-on-ernest-hemingway-s-for.> Paris Café 1922. Google Images. (26 May 2009). <http://www.flickr.com> Picasso Gertrude Stein. Google Images. (27 May 2009). <http://usuarios.lycos.es> Picasso. Google Images. (27 May 2009). <http://www.artquotes.net> Prellwitz, Wendy. "Three's Company: Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and Their Pal William James." Stein and Hemingway's Writing Style. http://deptorg.knox.edu. (23 Mary 2009). 1-5. Works Cited Continued