by Edward Burns
[postmark: 14 September 1928] Hotel Pernollet
Belley (Ain)
My dear Carl,
It was a pleasure to see us together in the Herald this morning but it will be a realler pleasure when we are really together, I am awfully pleased you are here and here’s to our meeting very soon,1
Lots of love
Gertrude.
1. In an unsigned article, “America Has Literature, Says Tourist Van Vechten,” in the New York Herald, Paris ed., 12 September 1928, p. 11, Van Vechten lauded Stein:
“She is like yeast—” he said, “the yeast that makes the bread. Only time can disclose just how important her own work is, but the fact remains that at present she is one of the greatest influences of our age. According to his own admission she has greatly affected the writings of Sherwood Anderson. She has also been important in the literary development of James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson and others…
Mr. Van Vechten, with a humorous lift to his eyebrows, declared that he fully expected to find Miss Stein’s fall salon filled with “new Algerian poets and new Spanish painters.”
“They all get a broadening technique from her—and that is the important thing. One perhaps might say that her poetic medium is the forerunner of a changed language, but if so—what of it? Why shouldn’t there be changes of language. Look at the difference between Chaucer’s and ours?”
To Gertrude Stein
14 September [1928] Café Anglais
Restaurant
119 avenue des Champs-Elysées
Paris
Dear Gertrude,
So glad to get your letter. We are off for Strasbourg and the grand tournée on Sunday, but we shall be back in Paris towards the end of October. Paris is wonderful. I haven’t been here in 14 years but she does not seem to have changed at all.
The Banque de Paris etc. etc. will always reach us, but when we return we shall stop at the Carlton and I shall write you at once.
love always,
Carlo
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: München—Schloss Nymphenburg—Pagodenberg Speisesall]
[postmark: 20 September 1928] [Munich Germany]
Dear Gertrude,
We are going on to Kar[l]sbad tomorrow & then to Prague—Buda-Pesth—Vienna—& a lot of other places. I don’t think will strike Paris again till the middle of November.
Love
Carlo.
To Carl Van Vechten
[Postcard: Une Pensée de Meximieux]
[postmark: 7 October 1928] Hotel Pernollet
Belley, Ain
My dear Carl,
Is the grande tour continuing happily and in order, we are still down here and will be still for a couple of weeks but then it will be Paris and the pleasure really of seeing you
Love
Gertrude.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Roma—Carro da vino (Costumi Romani)]
26 October [1928] [Rome]
Dear Gertrude—
We arrive in Paris on Monday—Oct 29. I hope we shall see you & Miss Taklos almost immediately. We shall be at the Carlton.
C. V. V.
To Gertrude Stein
29 October [1928]
Monday Carlton Hôtel
Champs Elysées
Paris
Dear Gertrude,
Are you returned? And can you and Miss Taklos dine with us tonight? We are so anxious to see you. If you can dine with us please send me a pneumatique before two & we shall call for you at 7.30!
Love always,
Carlo V. V.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 29 October 1928] 27 rue de Fleurus
[Paris]
My dear Carl
We are just back and as pleased as pleased as can be that we will be seeing you soon, got your pneu[matique] just five minutes after the postal and then I tried to telephone but you were not in and the telephonist promised to tell you how pleased we will be to go with you this evening but somehow she did not inspire confidence so here it is sure.
At 7.30 to-night and lots of love to you both
Gertrude.
To Gertrude Stein
[30 October-2 November 1928]
9 A.M. Carlton Hôtel
Champs Elysées
Paris
Darling,
Carl was ill all night with chills and fever. The doctor [said] that perhaps it is Malaria. He’s coming in a few minutes again. We’re heartbroken about to-night, but of course it will be impossible to do anything—I expect to be here all day, if you should call up later or to-morrow morning—or any time
love—
Fania
To Carl Van Vechten
[3 November 1928]
Saturday 27 rue de Fleurus
[Paris]
My dear Carl,
It was awfully nice seeing you. I liked it while it was happening and I like it now that it has happened and I will like it to go on happening. I am sending you this catalogue, I think it would amuse you to go and see the things. They are by that South American1 you remember that we spoke about in connection with [Ronald] Firbank’s Prancing Nigger.2 I am asking him to meet us with some others at the Colonial ball,
Lots of love and well be seeing you as ever
Gertrude
1. In 1927, through Edith Sitwell, Stein had met the Chilean-born painter Alvaro Guevara and his wife Meraud (see Gallup, The Flowers of Friendship, p. 205). Stein sent Van Vechten a catalogue of an exhibition of Guevara’s paintings at a gallery on the rue de Seine, Paris. The catalogue is not in YCAL.
2. Van Vechten was active in promoting the novels of Ronald Firbank in the United States.
To Gertrude Stein
[4 November 1928] Carlton Hôtel
Champs Elysées
Paris
Dear Gertrude,
Your splendid note received while I was lying flat—as usual—much bandaged. But I am better today & shall try to go chez [Tristan] Tzara.1 Can’t you & Alice dine with us tonight? I must stay in & that would make such a beautiful staying in—& we would dine in our rooms. I shan’t go out until a quarter of four—but if you don’t receive this in time to reply before a quarter of four—why telephone hotel anyway & leave word if you are coming—& please come—say at 7. Bring [Alvaro] Guevara—if you can. I like him.
Every single kind of rose to you!
Carlo.
It has been marvellous, and it will be more. I think I shall come back in the spring & be well.2
1. Tristan Tzara (1896–1963) was a Romanian-born poet, essayist, and editor. Tzara is generally credited with having used the word “Dada” for the first time on 8 February 1916 at Meieres Cafe in Zurich and founded the review Dada there in 1917. Tzara came to live in Paris in 1919.
2. The French doctors diagnosed Van Vechten’s illness as phlebitis.
To Gertrude Stein
[5 November 1928]
Monday Carlton Hôtel
Champs Elysées
Paris
Dear Gertrude,
You did me so much good yesterday! Then I ate a dinner—went to sleep & slept. Got up this morning feeling any amount better—took a bath—my formula arrived (it’s mostly aluminum) and now I am sitting up before a fire quite cheered up. I think in a day or so I’ll be quite ready to fly. If you are up & about today I’d love to see you—but that is probably expecting too much. And bring someone if you like.
best love,
Carlo V. V.
To Gertrude Stein
[9 November 1928]
Friday night Carlton Hôtel
Champs Elysées
Paris
Dear Gertrude,
After coming home from your delightful party I found my ankle quite swollen again & Marinoff was kept very busy with poultices all night. Save for an hour at Natalie Barney’s I have been in bed all day.1 So we are not going to London Monday—if ever. Salomon Reinach2 at Miss Barney’s was much perturbed & said I had a very dan
gerous disease & Madame Clermont-Tonnerre3 insisted that I put my foot on the couch & recline. I felt like Thaïs or a grand courtisane quelconque. Anyway I loved your party & you & Alice are my favorite characters in history & I don’t think I want to go to London. I hope to see you both soon.
Yellow roses to you!
Carlo
1. Natalie (or Nathalie) Clifford Barney (1876–1972) was an American, born in Dayton, Ohio. She settled in France in 1899 and maintained a salon frequented by many of the leading writers, artists, and intellectuals in French society. Barney’s own writings, primarily in French, include poems, drama, fiction, and essays. She was the Amazone to whom the French writer Remy de Gourmont addressed his Lettres à l’Amazone (Paris: La Centaine, 1926).
2. Salomon Reinach (1858–1932) was a classical scholar, archaeologist, and director of the Musée de Saint-Germaine. Under the signature “Polybe” he wrote articles for Le Figaro (see Stein to Van Vechten, [31 May 1923]).
3. Elisabeth de Gramont, Duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre (1875–1954). It was through Natalie Barney that Stein had met Elisabeth de Gramont, who as a young girl had met Proust and had served as a model for his Duchesse de Guermantes. Under the name Elisabeth de Gramont she wrote a number of books dealing with nineteenth-century French life, memoirs of her family, autobiographical works, travel books, and two works on Proust: Robert de Montesquiou et Marcel Proust (Paris: Flammarion, 1925) and Marcel Proust (Paris: Flammarion, 1948).
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 10 November 1928] 27 rue de Fleurus
[Paris]
My dear Carlo
I did wake up with a bit of a cold this morning so I stayed at home and sat with it or rather slept for it the whole afternoon and so we did not see you which is a pity because I do want to see you both again. Everybody was so awfully pleased with you, they went on quite at length about your charms after you left, but after all I like your charms best, and I can tell you how completely and entirely I have enjoyed being with you. We loved each other very much by correspondence but there is even more of it face to face. When can we say good-by to you both, and au revoir with very much intention
Love always
Gertrude.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 12 November 1928] 27 rue de Fleurus
[Paris]
My dear Carl,
We were certain that it was the defile that had come between us but it was rather wonderful with the true Paris color all about it, triste but not sad, but now when do we meet because we do most awfully want to hear all your adventures, I like your having seen Nathalie Barney’s at its best between Salomon Reinach and the Duchesse [de Clermont-Tonnerre], we will be around your way to-morrow afternoon, not any time precisely and do not bother about us we will only be dropping in but if we do not connect we will connect, it takes a whole procession really to get us apart even for a day, lots and lots of love, I must show you a poem of [Georges] Hugnet’s to me that is being printed by Burton Rascoë as he writes it, like Edgar Poë, Rascoe would be pleased in his Almanach, but anyway lots when we meet and once more to you both,1
Always
Gertrude.
1. Stein wrote to Hugnet [postmark 23 June 1928, Texas], telling him that Burton Rascoe had asked her about young French writers. She suggested that Hugnet send Rascoe his poem “Le Berceau de Gertrude Stein, ou le Mystère de la rue de Fleurus.” This series of eight poems was set to music by Virgil Thomson under the title Le Berceau de Gertrude Stein (8 Poèmes de Georges Hugnet to which have been added a Musical Composition by Virgil Thomson entitled Lady Godiva’s Waltzes). Rascoe did not publish Hugnet’s poem.
Burton Rascoe was the editor of Morrow’s Almanac for 1928 (New York: William Morrow & Company, 1927), which published Stein’s “Van or Twenty Years After A Second Portrait of Carl Van Vechten,” pp. 81–83. The book, Morrow’s Almanac was published 18 October 1927.
To Gertrude Stein
[Calling Card: Carl Van Vechten]
[12? November 1928] [Paris, France]
Dear Gertrude—
We were across the street & couldn’t get back on account of the parade & the moment we did get back we came right over here—and you are out & I am crying. I am returning J’ adore which you were an angel to leave—because I already had bought a copy—and I see that your copy is autographed.1 When can we meet? I wish you were here now—& Je suis desolé.
Carlo.
4 o’clock.
1. Jean Desbordes’s J’Adore (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1928). In 1926, Jean Cocteau met Jean Desbordes who was serving in the Navy as courier for the Ministère de la Marine in Paris. With Cocteau’s help J’Adore was published. The book, a collection of short pieces lyrically extolling love and sensual cravings, also contained several essays, fervent appreciations of Cocteau. Cocteau wrote a preface for the book and for the publicity slogan conceived “jeune homme, ne vous tuez pas avant d’avoir lu ‘j’adore!’” Desbordes, a member of the resistance, died during World War II after being captured and tortured by the Germans.
To Gertrude Stein
[12 November 1928]
Monday Carlton Hôtel
Champs Elysées
Paris
Dear Gertrude,
Everything is all messed up because we are leaving tomorrow—I’m so afraid we’ll miss you this afternoon—and that would be dreadful. So can’t you come to dinner? & watch Fania pack—she is sure to be doing that at the last minute. I am forehanded & all packed.
If you can’t come to dinner—please do—both of you—we are likely to be here between three & four—but quite surely, I should think, after dinner.
We must see you. Dinner, say, at 7!
all sorts of fancy roses to you both—and a ripe pomegranate!
Carlo.
To Carl Van Vechten
[12 November 1928] Carlton Hôtel
Champs Elysées
Paris
My dear Carl
Alas and alas here we are but here you are not and we do so want to see you and we cannot come to dinner and see Fania pack because we have to be back right after dinner to see some one who I told I would be at home and you are leaving so unexpectedly, we do want to see you we will be at home all this evening but so will you but perhaps you can just come over to say good-by, this sounds like a wail but really we have so much enjoyed seeing you and we do want to see you again and wish you good-luck for London & Cambridge
Lots & lots of love to you & Fania
Gertrude.
To Gertrude Stein
[13 November 1928]
Tuesday Carlton Hotel
London, S. W. 1.
Dear Gertrude,
In the last night’s excitement—and nothing to me is more exciting than mutual appreciation—I forgot to tell you that apparently we always stop at the Carlton, anyway here we are again!—and we sail on the Ile de France on Nov 29 from Plymouth—she leaves Havre on Nov. 28. You and Alice are two very good reasons why I shall not remain away from France so long again, but travelling terrifies me & we have 14 pieces of baggage—aside from 3 we left at the hotel to be shipped to the boat. Quelle vie!
Tell Monsieur [Kristians] Tonny to signe the sketches he sends—and even to name them, names are very important in America—& perhaps everywhere.1
Yellow, red, and blue roses to you & Alice & very much love!
Carlo.
How does George Lynes spell his name?2
1. Kristans Tonny, born in Paris of Dutch parents, was one of a number of young artists Stein took an interest in in the 1920s. Through Stein Van Vechten met Tonny and agreed to take a number of his drawings back to America to try to sell.
2. George Platt Lynes (1907–1955), the photographer, first met Stein in November-December 1925, when he was eighteen years old. Lynes was brought to meet Stein by Walter B. Hardy and his wife Katharine. The Hardys, who lived in Paris, had known Stein since 1916. They were active in setting up the Mildred Aldrich Endowment Fund which prov
ided an income for Stein’s friend Mildred Aldrich during the last years of her life. Lynes acquired a copy of Stein’s The Making of Americans, which had just been published, and brought it to her to inscribe. See Lynes to Stein, 6 December 1925, YCAL. When he returned to America, he continued his studies at Yale University. Lynes began issuing a series of small pamphlets published by his own As Stable Press. One of these was Stein’s Descriptions of Literature. On 15 October 1927 Lynes had opened the Park Place Bookshop in Englewood, New Jersey.
To Gertrude Stein
[14 November 1928]
Wednesday Carlton Hotel
London, S.W.I.
Dear Gertrude:—
Well, here I discovered a doctor who discovered what was the matter with me—and it is not phlebitis at all, but something serious & oriental—caused by a Fungus, and he put me right to bed. So I am having a nice time reading the English & Tallulah Bankhead while he is curing me.1 So we have had to postpone our sailing to December 10 on the Paris and we shall be in London till then, partly in bed, partly, no doubt, out.
I’ll send you more comments later. In the meantime please write me to my bed—not of pain—but of boredom—and write me all the news. Tell Virgil Thomson that I’ll be in New York about the 17th & if he leaves before then to leave [Kristians] Tonny’s drawings for me at 150 W. 55 Street, New York.
Love to you both,
Carlo V. V.
1. Tallulah Bankhead was in London appearing with Leslie Howard in Her Cardboard Lover, at the Lyric Theatre. The play, by Jacques Deval, had been adapted from the French by P. G. Wodehouse and Valerie Wyngate. Bankhead played the role of Simone.
To Carl Van Vechten
[Rose motto]
[postmark: 17 November 1928] 27 rue de Fleurus
[Paris]