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

by Edward Burns

[New York]

  Dear Gertrude Stein,

  A very flowery Christmas card from you indicates that you haven’t received the hundred letters I sent you. I hope you got my new book, mailed to you registered, last month. Certain parts of it may amuse you.1

  Allen Norton has left us for Europe. Why? I don’t know as I didn’t see him before he sailed—but if he gets as far as Paris doubtless you’ll see him. … There was to have been a divorce but, I believe, that was called off—when he departed.2

  There is to be a Salon des Independentes and I am going to exhibit.3

  Do you know Paulet Thenevaz? he paints and dances—He is here now—4

  I’m at work on a few more books.

  I’d like to see you. Fania sends her love to you and Miss Taklos.

  Carlo V. V.

  You know that Mr. Haweis is here?5

  1. Van Vechten’s Music and Bad Manners had been published on 14 November 1916.

  2. Stein did not meet Norton. Norton and his wife were eventually divorced.

  3. The Society of Independent Artists organized an exhibition from 10 April to 16 May 1917 at the Grand Central Palace (Lexington Avenue and Forty-sixth street), New York. Van Vechten was not a participant.

  4. Paulet Thévenaz was an artist who did many decorative portraits. Thévenaz was also a member of the New York School of Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

  5. See Van Vechten to Stein, 24 October 1915, note 3.

  To Carl Van Vechten

  MS. New York Public Library, Manuscripts Division [Rose motto]

  [postmark: 23 February 1917] 27 rue de Fleurus

  [Paris]

  My dear Van,

  Thanks so much for the book, I really did enjoy it. Did you really like the Argentina. I always like what you say about me.1 I haven’t very much news. I am at present engaged in good works which includes running a little Ford into the country for the American relief committee and am enjoying it.2 Otherwise I am working. I have done a number of plays and short things and a long one with a title that I know would please you. Some day I want to do a volume of Spanish things, if [Robert] Coady gets publishing really I suppose he will do it.3 If you know anybody who wants to why don’t hesitate to let me know. Paris is nice, looking for coal is xciting and now we have it. Do write to me and tell me all about yourself. Are you going to be a soldier.

  Always yours,

  Gertrude Stein.

  1. In the essay “Spain and Music,” Van Vechten discussed the dancer La Argentina. He also compared Stein’s writing to the rhythmic qualities of Spanish dancing.

  Gertrude Stein, who has spent the last two years in Spain, has noted the rhythm of several of these dances by the mingling of her original use of words with the ingratiating medium of vers libre. She has succeeded, I think, better than some musicians in suggesting the intricacies of the rhythm. I should like to transcribe one of these attempts here, but I have not the right to do so as I have only seen them in manuscript, they have not yet appeared in print. These pieces are in a sense the thing itself—I shall have to fall back on description of the thing. (Music and Bad Manners, pp. 88–89)

  2. After their return to Paris Stein and Toklas wanted to do something for the war effort and offered their services to the American Fund for French Wounded. The A.F.F.W. needed vehicles to deliver medical supplies. Stein appealed to her American relatives for aid. Eventually a Ford van was purchased and sent to Stein in Paris. Stein christened it “Auntie,” after her aunt Pauline, Mrs. Solomon Stein.

  3. Robert J. Coady and Michael Brenner owned the Washington Square Gallery, New York. They admired Stein’s work and through Mrs. Knoblauch had secured copies of Three Lives to sell in their gallery (Coady to Stein, 27 April 1914, YCAL). They proposed to Stein a deluxe edition (in imitation of the Editions Galerie Kahnweiler) of her “Letters and Parcels and Wool.” This idea fell through when they had difficulty securing a copyright for the work (Coady to Stein, 11 May 1916, 29 May 1916, and 30 May 1916, all YCAL). Coady and Brenner did print Stein’s portrait “Mrs. Th----y,” in Soil (December 1916), 1(1): 16.

  To Gertrude Stein

  [5 April 1917]

  April—of a Thursday 151 East 19 Street

  [New York]

  Dear Gertrude Stein

  Almost everything is happening here . . besides our going to war.1 Sarah Bernhardt has been operated on at the age of seventy-three and had several kidneys [i.e., kidney stones] removed . . A day or two after she sits up in bed and eats spinach, a vegetable which had been denied her for two years previously. She plans to begin another farewell tour of America in August, and is really intending to put on the whole of L’Aiglon2 … The Romanoffs, I gather, are lucky if they get spinach. We are hoping that the Hohenzollerns will soon be in a similar predicament.

  Isadora Duncan is dancing the Marseillaise and Tschaikowsky’s Marche Slav, with a symbolic reference to the Russian revolution, to packed houses. People—this includes me—get on the chairs and yell . . Then Isadora comes out slightly covered by an American flag of filmy silk and awakens still more enthusiasm . . It is very exciting to see American patriotism thoroughly awakened—I tell you she drives’em mad; the recruiting stations are full of her converts—by someone who previously has not been very much interested in awaking it.3

  Then there is the Salon des Independentes (so to speak—at least), which has already had two scandals. The first concerned the rejection by the board (which is not supposed to have the power to reject anything) of an object labelled “Fountain” and signed R. J. Mutts. This porcelain tribute was bought cold in some plumber shop (where it awaited the call to join some bath room trinity) and sent in . . When it was rejected Marcel Duchamp at once resigned from the board.4 [Alfred] Stieglitz is exhibiting the object at “291” and he has made some wonderful photographs of it. The photographs make it look like anything from a Madonna to a Buddha. The exhibition itself is pretty tiresome but there is one picture, The Claire Twins, which you may hear of again. It will probably be bought by the Prado. It belongs in Spain.5

  Fania has been appearing in [Frank] Wedekind’s “The Awakening of Spring.” At least she appeared in it once. Then the police stepped in and now all concerned are awaiting a decision from the bench of the Supreme Court.6

  I am writing. My new book is finished, but it will not appear until fall.7 We do want to see Paris again soon. I have a feeling that the war will last a very long time; everybody is so anxious that it should stop, but it won’t. I should like to see you run a FORD. Perhaps I will yet.

  all felicitations and salutations to you both from us,

  Carlo V. V.

  Oh yes, Valentine de Saint Point is here too . . She gave an exhibition of métachorie (gratis) at the Metropolitan Opera House, about which people are still talking. She has two boys and a monkey with her …8

  Did you ever know Paulet Thevenaz? He is here too.

  Ever so many are here … but few are chosen!

  I never see Mabel [Dodge]. Does she write to you?

  Mina Loy (Mrs. Haweis) has a wonderful primitive (sort of Cimabue) in the exhibition.9

  Do write me soon . . and vibrantly!

  1. The United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany on 3 February 1917. President Wilson called for a declaration of war against Germany on the evening of 2 April 1917. The Senate approved 82 to 6, the House of Representatives 373 to 50, and President Wilson signed the war resolution on 6 April.

  2. Bernhardt’s American tour began with a two-week engagement at the Knickerbocker Theatre on 1 September 1917. The program consisted of monologues and scenes from plays long associated with her. The final piece on the program was the sixth act of Edmond Rostand’s epic verse drama, L’Aiglon.

  3. Duncan had given a solo performance at the Metropolitan Opera House on the evening of 6 March 1917. On the afternoon of 28 March she and pupils from her school performed at the Metropolitan Opera House.

  4. “Fountain” was in fact an inverted urinal, the auteur of which was
Duchamp himself. It became a celebrated exemplar of the Dada movement.

  5. See Van Vechten to Stein, 31 January [1917], note 4. The Claire Twins is a painting by Dorothy Rice.

  6. On 30 March 1917 the Commissioner of Licenses, James C. Bell, saw a morning rehearsal of Frank Wedekind’s play The Awakening of Spring. He immediately obtained a court order prohibiting performances of the play on the grounds that it would offend public decency.

  The play, in a translation by Geoffrey C. Stein, was being presented under the auspices of the Medical Review of Reviews at the Thirty-ninth Street Theatre. Marinoff played the role of Wendla.

  When Frederick H. Robinson, chairman of the producing committee, learned that Bell had obtained an order blocking performances, he and his lawyers rushed to a second judge, Justice Guy. After a brief argument in his chambers Justice Guy issued an injunction allowing one performance to take place, remarking that the performances should not have been stopped on such short notice.

  On 11 April the courts decided that performances of the play would offend public decency and have “no proper place on the stage of a public theatre” and did “infinitely more harm than good.” (New York Sun, 31 March 1917, 8 April 1917; New York Globe, 2 April 1917; New York Morning Telegraph, 12 April 1917. These clippings are in Marinoffs scrap books, NYPL-Lincoln Center)

  7. Van Vechten’s Interpreters and Interpretations was published in October 1917.

  8. Valentine de Saint Point gave a dance recital in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, on 3 April 1917. The performance, Festival of Metachorie consisted of readings by Wallace Cox of poems Valentine de Saint Point had written herself. After the reading Valentine de Saint Point danced the ideas expressed by the poem.

  9. Mina Loy exhibited a painting, Making Lampshades.

  To Gertrude Stein

  [May-June 1917] 151 E. 19 Street

  New York City

  Chère Madame Stein,

  The enclosed clipping may amuse you.1

  You are in my new book too which I will send you in the fall.2

  Fania has been on a short tournée and I accompanied her—3

  and we salaam you both!

  Carlo V. V.

  1. The clipping cannot be identified.

  2. The half-title page of each essay in Van Vechten’s Interpreters and Interpretations contained a quotation. For his essay “Mary Garden,” Van Vechten used a line from Stein’s poem “Sacred Emily": “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.” This was the first time that this line appeared in print.

  3. Marinoff appeared in the role of Marie in Eugene Walter’s play The Assassin. The play toured Poughkeepsie, New York, and New Haven and New London, Conneticut, from late May to early June 1917. Van Vechten attended the 30 May performance in Poughkeepsie (Van Vechten to Marinoff, postmark 28 May 1917, NYPL-MD).

  To Carl Van Vechten

  [Postcard: Birthplace of Marechal Joffre at Rivesaltes, April 1917]1

  [postmark: 18 August 1917] [Perpignan, France]2

  My dear Van

  This is a nice photo, perhaps I will send you some others by and by.

  Always sincerely yours

  Gtrde Stein.

  1. Stein had postcards made from a photograph of herself and Toklas standing by their Ford van outside the house of Marechal Joffre. Joffre had been one of the architects of the French victory at the Battle of the Marne.

  2. On 18 March 1917 Stein and Toklas had driven their supply van from Paris to Perpignan. They then returned to Paris and later opened a distribution center for the American Fund for French Wounded in Nimes.

  The most detailed account of Stein and Toklas’ activities for the next two years can be found in the Weekly Bulletin, published by the A.F.F.W. Toklas wrote weekly reports to the Paris office, and many of these were used in the one-sheet (two-sided) Weekly Bulletin.

  To Carl Van Vechten

  MS. New York Public Library, Manuscripts Division

  [postmark: 24 March 1918] Hotel du Luxembourg

  Paris, France1

  My dear Van,

  You have been neglected but not forgotten neither am I. Thanks so much for the book.2 I liked it a whole lot. I like the book and then I always like me in it. I always want to know at once, Am I in it. And very nicely I am always in it. We saw a picture of Fania in Vogue. She looked very nice.3 Are you coming over this summer. It would be nice to see you both again. We are most active these days and in between I make little poems. I make very nice little poems perhaps I will make you one for your next book. Mabel Dodge is or is not Mrs. Sterne not that it very much matters.4 What is the news.

  Always yours

  Gertrude Stein.

  1. Stein wrote the return address “Hotel du Luxembourg, Paris” on the letter paper. She should have written Nîmes instead of Paris.

  2. Van Vechten’s Interpreters and Interpretations. See Van Vechten to Stein [May–June 1917], note 2.

  3. Vogue, 15 February 1918, p. 52, published a photograph of Marinoff by Charlotte Fair-child. The photograph showed Marinoff in the role of Karen Bomeman from Karen, a play by the Danish writer Hjalmar Bergström, which opened at the Greenwich Village Theatre on 8 January 1918.

  4. Mabel Dodge married Maurice Sterne on 18 August 1917.

  To Carl Van Vechten

  [Postcard: HANSI.—Saverne. (D’après l’estampe) Lt von Forstner back from schopping (after the drawing)]

  [postmark: 4 March 1919] [Mulhouse, France]1

  My dear Van,

  How goes it. Am looking forward to seeing you again one of these days. We are enjoying Alsace. It’s almost too story-book to write about and besides we’re busy but will write just the same

  Gtrde Stein

  1. In November 1918, shortly after the armistice was declared, Stein and Toklas returned to Paris from Nîmes. In late February or early March 1919 they left Paris to open an A.F.F.W. station from which to supply the devastated country in the Vosges district of France. They opened their depot in Mulhouse and remained in that area until late May 1919, when they returned to Paris.

  To Gertrude Stein

  7 April 1919 151 East 19 Street

  New York City

  Dear Gertrude Stein,

  You do pop around so—the latest card seems to come from Alsace—and one before that came from Spain, I think—or was it Norway? Will 27 Rue de Fleurus still reach you? You do not say and I am sending this to find out … you are just like a page or two in one of my new books, and you shall have one as soon as I discover where you can be surely reached.

  Many very interesting things have happened. I do hope we can all meet again for a Conference . . Nothing like the one now going on in Paris,1 of course—we want—we hope—to go to Spain. I have a feeling that I’ll never go anywhere else after.

  Fania sends her love to both of you—and so do I.

  Carlo V. V.

  1. The Versailles Peace Conference had begun on 7 January 1919.

  To Gertrude Stein

  12 September 19211 151 East Nineteenth Street

  New York City

  Dear Gertrude Stein,

  May I introduce you to the picturesque & amusing Lochers (Monsieur et Madame), who can, and will, tell you everything about everybody? Look forward to a delightful afternoon with them—I think they are almost sailing for Paris for the pleasure of meeting you.2

  Sincerely,

  Carl Van Vechten

  1. There is no explanation for the break in correspondence between Van Vechten’s letter to Stein of 7 April 1919 and this letter. Nor can I find an explanation for the break between this letter and the next letter from Stein of 2 June 1922. Stein had returned to Paris in May 1919. In a letter to Harry Phelan Gibb (postmark 23 December 1921, YCAL) Stein would write that “I was laid up more or less for a month.” There is no further explanation of this illness. It may be that Stein was ill although there are no other references to an illness. It is also possible that a number of letters from this period have been lost.

  2.
Robert and Beatrice Locher. Robert Locher (1889–1956) was a well-known stage-set and costume designer and interior decorator. His illustrations appeared in Rogue, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, among other magazines. An illustration by Locher was used on the dust jacket and as a frontispiece for Van Vechten’s The Blind Bow-Boy.

  To Carl Van Vechten

  MS. New York Public Library, Manuscripts Divison

  [Rose motto]

  [postmark: 2 June 1922] 27 rue de Fleurus

  [Paris]

  My dear Van,

  “Am I in it” there is one certainly one could never be more pleasantly more faithfully nor more gently in it than when one is put in it by you.1 I am awfully pleased with your book. You are indeed the most modern the least sentimental and the most gently persistent of romantics. I like the romantic and so does every one else to whom I have loaned your book. I have been hearing a lot of you from the Lochers, Baron de Meyer etc.2 Mabel Dodge was funny. She was afraid I would miss the book so she sent me a copy. Anyway we all like it. Do write once in a while if you won’t come over. Best to Fania

  Always

  Gertrude Stein.

  1. Van Vechten’s novel Peter Whiffle: His Life and Works included two mentions of Stein. Van Vechten, who is a character in his own novel, mentions “I met the Steins” (p. 59) after a list of things Americans do when they go to Paris. In describing Edith Dale’s villa near Florence (Dale is a character based in part on Mabel Dodge), the story of Stein’s composition of the Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Cumnia is recounted (pp. 121–22).

  2. Baron Adolphe de Meyer (1868–1949), a photographer who worked for Vogue and Harpers Bazaar.

  To Gertrude Stein

  [3” × 5” blue index card]

  23 June [1922] 151 Ε 19 St.

  N.Y.C.

  Loved your piece in Broom!1

  Thanks for your letter—