by Edward Burns
1. See Stein to Van Vechten [17 December 1934], note 2.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 11 January 1935] Ellen Emerson House
Smith College
Northampton, Massachusetts
My dearest papa Woojums
Yes I like the stand up Jaegers much better and beside she has such a slim waist, and here we are, and having a very good time, Amherst was awfully nice, the next morning the students went around collecting faculty opinions and the football coach said yes I’d like to have Gertrude for the tackles but I don’t know whether she would be good to call the signals and then reflectively but I guess Alice B. would do that, and another one said, I was dead against her and I just went to see what she looked like and then she took the door of my mind right off its hinges and now it is wide open. I had awfully good talks with a lot of them and it was really awfully nice, and now we are at Smith and at the president’s there was the youngest Morrow girl and Alice said why how interesting she looks just like Lindbergh,1 so you see Mama Woojums is in the best of form, and everything is so sweet but the only really truly sweet is our own dear papa Woojums, the rubbers have been neglected but the rabbits are always there, right in our laps and in our pockets,2
Lots and lots and lots and more lots of love
Your
B. W.
* * * * * *
These are hugs and kisses.
1. Stein lectured at Smith College on Thursday, 10 January 1935. At a reception given by William Allan Neilson, president of Smith College, Stein met Constance Morrow (Smith, class of 1935), the sister of Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Smith, class of 1928).
2. Note by Van Vechten, 22 January 1941: “I always said when she went out ‘Don’t forget your rubbers!’ A reference to the Hopi Indian fetishes.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 12 January 1935] Hotel Kimball
Springfield, Massachusetts
My dearest Carl,
Really and truly I think your letter carrier is a collector of autographs, there surely is something mysterious about it, it is going to turn into another Lindbergh story sure as anything it is not the Woojums they kidnap but the Woojums’ letters, I am going to disguise my handwritting on the envelope here and see if it improves,1 so many things to write but I won’t until I know this comes safely, I have had an answer from Chicago for the same post I sent off your post, so here is my disguised handwriting and if it works then I will write all about everything because we do want papa Woojums to get our letters so that he may know everything about his family perhaps it is a deep plot to find out that we are the Woojums.
B. W.
1. In an attempt to disguise her handwriting, Stein had printed Van Vechten’s name and address on this envelope.
To Carl Van Vechten
[? January 1935] Hotel Kimball
Springfield, Massachusetts
My dearest papa W.
Here is something that came this morning and I thought might amuse you1 we are going sleigh riding to-morrow, we come home to you next Thursday or Friday and we love you more every minute and everybody wants me with the American flag2 I think even the flag does and lots of love from a most obedient B. and M. W.
Gertrude.
1. Enclosure is a clipping from an ad in the Toledo (Ohio) Times, which reproduces a clipping from the Toledo Sunday Times, “Over Teacups With Babette.” The ad is an anecdote concerning Stein and Tiedtke’s department store in Toledo, Ohio.
Mrs. Flora Ward Hineline was taking Gerty on a sight-seeing tour. They finally went in Tiedtke’s store and Gerty purchased some winesap apples. Then Mrs. Hineline couldn’t get her out. Gerty was fascinated, she wandered around and peered at everything. Later she told Mrs. Hineline that the things that impressed her most in Toledo were Tiedtke’s store and the Maumee river.
2. Van Vechten had photographed Stein with an American flag in the background.
To Gertrude Stein
[14 January 1935]
Monday 150 West Fifty-fifth Street
[New York]
Dear Gertrude,
The letter addressed as per Bruno Hauptmann arrived.1 They didn’t want his autograph. . and one other. Have you sent any more. None from Alice (alias Mama Woojums) and I don’t know anything about Virginia yet. So please write some more and disguise your hand all you want to, but don’t disguise your heart! … Will you PLEASE answer me about wrestling. You don’t seem to think I mean this. I began asking you at the Drake hotel in Chicago. I asked you in Detroit and Baltimore. I ask you in Springfield: have you ever seen professional wrestling? If not we must go when you get back.
768 banners of triumph to you both
Papa Woojums!
I saw Kit [Katharine] Cornell last night and she begged me to bring Baby and Mama Woojums to Romeo and Juliet and come up for supper later. Would you like to do this when you return?2
One of your flag pictures is the TOP. They are not all printed yet!
1. See Stein to Van Vechten [12 January 1935], note 1.
2. Katharine Cornell was appearing as Juliet in a production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Also in the cast were Basil Rathbone as Romeo and Dame Edith Evans as the nurse; others included Brian Aherne and Orson Welles.
To Carl Van Vechten
17 January [19]35 Hotel Kimball
Springfield, Massachusetts
My dearest Papa Woojums,
It is quite too dreadful all these years we have been separated, it is more than I can bear this not having you to ask how and why and when and where I should do or not do it. I’ve not been in hot water, no not at all, it is just the dread of it and no Sweet Papa Woojums to smile and say at the end, I think it will come out all right. The only consolation is that we will be back within the week. For these are our plans,
We leave here very probably Fri., the 25th for N.Y.
Feb. 4th, Univ. of Vir., Charlottesville
" 6 " " Richmond, Richmond
“ 8 Mary and William [i.e., William and Mary], Williamsburg (Not concluded but more than probable)
" 10 Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar
It is of course Mark [Lutz] that has secured William and Mary. There was a sweet letter from him upon our return from Emily C[lark].’s by way of Wesleyan where G[ertrude]. lectured. He asks if he may make reservations for us in Richmond. I have answered him that we wait until we see you, which we do. There are several things about that that the Woojums in holy and happy conclave will settle.1
We had a nice time at Sally Tock’s. Something there that I will tell you when we put Baby W. at Choate. I hope you will agree with me about Choate, they won’t suppress Baby’s lovely little personality a bit, they will help him to develop his literary aspirations, he will charm them and be the joy of the headmaster, but—will he really be happy at any school. It would be best for him. And how will we ever bear it? Ah me. This too we will have to talk over seriously.2
Now to go back to plans, Miss [Josephine] Pinckney has not answered yet.3 I have only four days for Charleston and Chapel Hill, North Carolina and as yet no reliable air guide. The 18th Tulane University, New Orleans. I am looking for another lecture for New Orleans so that we may stay a bit to enjoy N[ew]. O[rleans]. Then Saint Louis, nothing definite yet and the 27th or better the 26th at Chicago.
Gertrude Stein, Carl Van Vechten, and Alice Toklas, New York, 4 January 1935.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN. PRIVATE COLLECTION.
We go to Texas about the 17th March, Arizona and Cal[ifornia], for the first two weeks of April, then N.Y. and then alas alas alas back to France or what may then be what France was. Of course when we get to France 27 [rue de Fleurus] and Bilignin had better be there. It would be a million times worse to go back without them.
Dear papa Woojums I’m not dispirited about the end of this magical visit which came out of the bottle you made and held upon our arrival but I’m just not courageous any more for two soux. We won’t talk about it.
Do sen
d a word to say that Fania really found a smashing good play and will play it and soon and tell her what a supremely lovely and intelligent darling she is on the stage. All my love to her and to you.
Mama Woojums
1. This letter to Toklas is not in YCAL. Stein and Toklas’ letters to Lutz are in NYPL-Berg.
2. Stein had delivered the lecture, “How Writing is Written,” at the Choate School, Walling-ford, Connecticut, on 12 January 1935. The lecture was published in The Choate Literary Magazine (February 1935), 21(2):5-14. Stein is often referred to by the masculine pronoun—or by the neuter pronoun.
3. Josephine Pinckney (1895-1957), the writer, was helping to arrange Stein’s lectures in her native South Carolina.
To Alice Toklas
[19 January 1935]
Saturday 150 West Fifty-fifth Street
[New York]
Dear Alice,
Your letter is here with all kinds of sweet information and your prospective tours sound bewildering! Your pictures are ready. I sent you a little one which you don’t mention, so maybe you don’t like it. And I can’t get a word out of GS (Baby Woojums) about a WRESTLING or Miss [Katharine] Cornell in R[omeo] and J[uliet]. Grand news that you are coming back Friday! I guess I’m going south with you, though I may let you drop me off in Richmond. However maybe I’ll stay and hold your hand all the way to the coast! You’ll hear from J[osephine] Pinckney if she is alive. Doubtless she is collecting her data. I forwarded a letter from Californiax and Mrs. [Gertrude] Atherton again writes plaintively she hasn’t heard from GS.1 Has Baby Woojums written her yet? F[ania] M[arinoff] is tottering on the edge of two jobs, but will probably take a third. The pictures are Marvels, I am sure you will say, especially the Flags, and you (dear Mama Woojums) with the Tree! Think of your having been at Sally TOCK’S! I had a letter from GS’s niece or cousin or whatever in Baltimore and she says she mailed that letter. It hasn’t turned up.
Sweet calla, easter and water-lilies to you both!
Papa Woojums!
xto G. S.
1. Gertrude Atherton (1857-1948), the writer. Van Vechten had met Atherton through Avery Hopwood probably in 1915. At that time she was living in an apartment at the Madison Square Hotel, New York. It was Hopwood, too, who introduced Atherton to Stein (see Hopwood to Stein, postmark 16 May 1925, YCAL).
Atherton had written Stein, 31 October 1934 (YCAL), inviting her to a dinner in her honor to be given by the San Francisco P. E. N. at the end of November 1934. Because of lecture commitments, Stein declined but said that she might be in California in January 1935 (Atherton to Stein, 14 November 1934, YCAL). That plan, too, had to be canceled.
Atherton sought in vain to interest various clubs and universities in sponsoring a lecture by Stein. She did succeed, however, in interesting Alice Seckles, a well-known San Francisco literary figure, in Stein’s California plans, and it was Seckles who finally arranged for several university lectures.
To Carl Van Vechten
20 January [19]35 Hotel Kimball
Springfield, Massachusetts
Dearest Carl,
Well it was most awfully nice for one Woojum to hear its chief’s voice. Mama W. felt she had gotten the better of Baby W. who was that surprised at the ways of the grown up Ws. He always is surprised, so freshly surprised and so frequently surprised.
This is only to ask hurriedly, at what hotel do we stop at Richmond? Mark [Lutz] asks and suggests the Jefferson as probably the one you prefer. Is it necessary to make reservations long in advance? To be sure we don’t know when we start, will it be the second or the third? The first lecture is on the evening of the fourth. And then here I am find out nothing about flying, they say the schedules are being changed.
I had a letter from Miss [Josephine] Pinckney, who charmingly asks information to give to the Poetry Society.1 (I had in haste confusion and featherheadedness put Virginia instead of N[orth]. C[arolina]. Don’t let us ever speak of that before either Papa W. or Baby W. Mama W. would lose prestige.) I have given her Feb. 14th as the date; Feb. 12th Chapel Hill.
Heaps of love, in a towering hurry,
Mama W.
1. This letter does not appear to be in YCAL.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 20 January 1935] Hotel Kimball
Springfield, Massachusetts
My dearest papa W.
I have a suspicion amounting almost to a certainty that all my lost letters have been sent to 55 W. 150 Street instead of where they should go, do you suppose one could tell the sad story to the Dead Letter office and they could get them back, do you think so. We had a sleigh ride yesterday, in a real sleigh with a black horse but we did not go very fast because they take the snow off the roads and when they don’t there are ruts but we liked it so much love from the family to Papa W. and we are to see him soon,
xxxxxxxxxxxxx B. W.
To Gertrude Stein
[Telegram]
21 January 1935 New York
GUESTS OF KIT [Katharine] CORNELL AT ROMEO AND JULIET AND SUPPER MONDAY JANUARY TWENTY EIGHTH DINNER WITH PAPA WOOJUMS BEFORE IS THIS ALL RIGHT LOVE TO BABY AND MAMA WOOJUMS
CARLO.
To Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas
[“A Little Too Much” motto]
21 January 1935 [150 West Fifty-fifth Street New York]
Dear Mama Woojums and Baby Woojums!
You will see from the enclosed one of the reasons why I don’t get all my letters. This has happened before. Sometimes, I suppose, the postoffice is not sufficiently ingenious! … I have written Kit [Katharine] Cornell that we will accept her invitation but have not heard from her about the date yet. I’ll let you know at once, of course … BUT on Thursday January 31th,1 the [Louis] Bromfields are coming here to dinner for you and Alice, that is if you will come (at 7 o’clock). Will you? . . Dying to see you both and to go into everything with you!
love,
Papa Woojums (and how!)
Two more letters have just arrived. You are correct, Baby Woojums, you do address your letters wrong, and now Alice says she addresses letters to Virginia instead of NC! Why don’t you write to the Post Office and ask them to collect ALL letters addressed ANYWHERE to Papa Woojums and send them to him! . . It’s the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, of course. It’s the older hotel and the one where the haute Monde are most comfortable. Certainly we’ll let Mark [Lutz] make the reservations. Time enough to do this when you get back here. Also I think it would be a good plan to write (for me to write) Miss Ellen Glasgow. I want her to entertain for us if possible. A party at the Academy, ANYTHING, could be arranged, but Miss Ellen would be best.2 I’ll talk to you about this. If the lecture at Charlottesville is Monday night, we could go down Monday easily, I think, flying to Washington, if the weather is good. If not, taking a train. We’d go on to Richmond Tuesday or Wednesday. If you don’t want to RUSH, it might be better to go to Charlottesville on Sunday. . I think this might be better.
We’ll talk about everything. Call up at once when you arrive.
1. 30 was changed to 31, but the “th” remained.
2. Van Vechten had met Ellen Glasgow (1874-1945), the writer, in the mid-1920s during one of his frequent visits to Richmond, Virginia. When Stein visited Richmond, Glasgow gave a dinner in her honor.
To Carl Van Vechten
[Telegram]
22 January 1935 Springfield, Massachusetts
LOOKING FORWARD GREATEST PLEASURE THEATRE AND SUPPER WITH YOU AT KITTY [Katharine] CORNELLS ALSO DINNER AT PAPA WOOJUMS TO MEET [Louis] BROMFIELDS STOP HAVING LOVELY TIME BUT LONG FOR YOU AND NEW YORK STOP RETURN FRIDAY AFTERNOON STOP DEAREST LOVE
M AND Β WOOJUMS.1
1. Note by Van Vechten, 22 January 1941: “Katharine Cornell asked us to a performance of Romeo and Juliet and to her house after. “
To Gertrude Stein
[February? 1935] [150 West Fifty-fifth Street New York]
Dear Baby Woojums!
[Thomas] Whittemore never wrote me: so I coul
dn’t do anything about that.1 Les Belles Woojumses never wrote me either. I haven’t had a peep since you left God’s country. I wonder if you are sending my letters to Ain?
mille pensées, a tub of hydrangeas, five candy hearts, 167 flawless emeralds, and much love to you and Mama Woojums from
PAPA WOOJUMS!
1. Whittemore had probably asked Stein for a copy of one of Van Vechten’s photographs of her.
To Gertrude Stein
[“A Little Too Much” motto]
[4? February 1935]
Monday 150 West 55 Street
New York City
Dear Baby Woojums,
This card will show you what may happen to baby woojumses,1 so please don’t let it! . . I saw Louis Bromfield and he grinned for three minutes as he reflected on your American triumphs. I hear that all American authors, except your loving friends, have gone to bed as a result! . . Well it seems incredible you’ve gone away again, even for a minute, and very sad-making. So let me know about Virginia and give my love to Mama Woojums and yourself, woojie, woojie, woojie (very fast),
Papa Woojums!!
1. This letter is written on a 7 x 5-inch card with Van Vechten’s motto engraved in the upper left-hand corner. Van Vechten, when sending a card, usually used a picture postcard or one of his photographs used as a card.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Houdon’s Statue of Washington in the Capitol Building, Richmond, Virginia]
[10–13? February 1935] [150 West Fifty-fifth Street New York]
Dear G. S!
I have always liked the South, but the last line in this review of Mark Lutz’s—probably you have seen it already in the bundles of reviews sent you—makes me reel with enthusiasm.1 Of course, we must look forward to the Autobiography of Gertrude Stein!—