by Edward Burns
B. W.
The Transition article so the A. P. who showed it to me told me is only sold with a number of transition, and that is the reason why.
To Gertrude Stein
18 March [1935]
Monday 150 West Fifty-fifth Street
New York City
Dear Baby Woojums,
Lectures in America is here and grand! I haven’t read it over yet but will. The picture might have had a better reproduction but looks pretty good anyway.1 Also your writings continue in the [New York Herald] Tribune2 and now you tell me you will have a book at the University of Chicago Press.3 It is all pretty marvellous! Willy Seabrook says he’ll come down for the Garden Party (organdies, please, with the sweet-pea design) although it be held in China, which perhaps it will be. Now that Germany is ARMING you’d better come live in South Carolina where it will be SAFER. . Those ladies will undoubtedly get some photographs of the Confederacy if they write for them. . Your Texas address only came to me this morning (March 18), for no later than the 20. So I’m sending this c/o the Algonquin. Speaking of Miss [Ela] Hockaday. Up in the wilds of Massachusetts where Bill Bullit[t] lives there is an ORGANIST named Cockaday. Mrs. [Muriel] Draper was much interested in him and his house. . I hope you got your sweet butter. De Luxe has closed but Times have Changed is still running on and may be here even when the garden party is the rage, though I doubt it.4 . Well, I can’t wait till we drive through America in a FORD and take photographs and talk with the peasants! How wonderful that will be! Hurry back, dear Baby and Mama Woojums. . It is almost spring now and intrepid crocuses will be stepped on by me today. But you are on your way to eternal sunshine and those FOGS. . I have written Aileen Pringle and George Kennedy to look you up in Hollywood. You are sure to like them both. Your publisher is back and I wish you were!
Fania and Pearl and Edith5 and Carlo send love to Mama and Baby Woojums!
Papa W.
x x x x x right back at you!
1. Stein’s Lectures In America was published by Random House on 14 March 1935. The frontispiece was a photograph Van Vechten had made of Stein in front of an American flag in New York on 4 January 1935.
2. In 1935, Stein wrote several articles for the New York Herald Tribune: “American Newspapers,” 3 March, Sec. 4, p. 10; “The Capital and Capitals of the United States,” 9 March, p. 11; “American Education and Colleges,” 16 March, p. 15; “American Newspapers” (continued), 23 March, p. 15; “American Crimes and How They Matter,” 30 March, p. 13; “American States and Cities and How They Differ from Each Other,” 6 April, p. 13; “American Food and American Houses,” 13 April, p. 13.
3. Stein’s Narration, with an introduction by Thornton Wilder, was published by the University of Chicago Press in December 1935.
4. See Van Vechten to Stein [26 February 1935], note 3.
5. The Van Vechtens’ household staff.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 19 March 1935] The Miss Hockaday School for Girls Dallas, Texas
Papa Papa,
Here we are in a most elegant school being most elegantly fed, and earning large sums of money, it would appear so Mama W. says that I got into the habit in Chicago of talking two hours at a time and so I did it here, and Mama W. says I mustn’t and so I mustn’t, even though one kind lady said let her do what she likes to do in Texas, you have no idea how good the food is in Texas papa W. it really is delicious and Gertrude Atherton says Carl must let me know that he is coming and I hope Carl is letting her know that he is coming. We had a beautiful ride down over Missouri Oklahoma and Texas, it was wonderful from the air, Missouri was Miro and Oklahoma was enormous, and the bad lands and everything in Texas was most graceful, we now go on to Austin and Houston and now they want us in Oklahoma, and we will see oil, and then we fly happily by day to California, we love you so much Papa W, for everything and we love you for having taught us to fly we do love you oh yes we do love you papa W. yes yes we do
Baby Woojums.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 20 March 1935] The Miss Hockaday School Dallas, Texas
Where oh where is wandering papa,
Not a word has he to say,
To his two little two little Woojums
Two little Woojums so far away,
Not a word has wandering papa
Not a word has he to say.
If this sad lament does not touch the heart of Papa
Woojums what will touch it.
Oh please come to California, Mrs. [Gertrude] Atherton is getting so xcited about the cocktail party, she air-mails about it and the last is that Mrs. [Robinson] Jeffers wants to reconcile me and Mabel [Dodge],1 and do we want to be reconciled me not Mabel and is there anything to reconcile, I have said that I am reconciled to meeting Mabel which is not what you call reconciliation but an arriving, well anyway it sounds all most Gilbert and Sullivanish, and she says not Mabel but Mrs. Atherton that you must come to S[an]. F[rancisco]. and let her know right away, will you Papa Papa Woojums will you won’t you join the dance, and wander with your Woojumses instead of wandering all alone, Texas is nice and warm, warm in every way but we eat heartily and are very comfortable, the book has just come and the photograph is lovely and I like the looks of the book it is like a travel book, and so much love and to-morrow we move and lots of love oh so much love
Baby W.2
We are at Austin Texas until the 22nd c/o R. B. Johnson 199 Cliff St.
at Huston Texas until the 24th c/o Warwick Hotel
at Oklahoma City Oklahoma
Huckins Hotel
until the 26th
at Fort Worth Texas
c/o Mrs. Charles Scheuber
Carnegie Public Library
for the 27th
and then
Arrago Seco Hotel [i.e., Hotel Vista del Arroyo]
Pasadena until the 1st
Heaps of love from a busy
Mama Woojums
1. Atherton wrote Stein, 11 March 1935 (YCAL), that a friend of Mabel Dodge Luhan’s had telephoned to say that Mrs. Robinson Jeffers (wife of the poet) was very anxious to bring about a reconciliation between Mabel and Gertrude.
2. The postscript is by Toklas.
To Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas
22 March [1935] 150 West Fifty-fifth Street
[New York]
Dear Ladies Woojums: Mama and Baby!
Your letters delight me. It makes me very happy that your food is giving you so much pleasure and that your words are pleasing others! I lie awake nights and cry because I do not seem to be flying West. Maybe I will yet!. . I’m glad you received the book: it is quite lovely, I think, and I have been reading parts of it which remind me of so many places I have heard these parts before.1 I am quite confused! . Fania is still playing and they talk of going on for three weeks more. It would be funny if you could see it before the garden party! Or even AFTER. . What with conscription and all you’d better plan to live in USA where we have INFLATION and drive around in your car (with Papa W and his Leica) and occasionally take to the air for long jumps! We could fly to Honolulu, for instance, and send the car by boat. There are riots in Harlem, but everybody I know is still living.2
Fania and I send heaps and tons of love to you both!
Papa Woojums
X X X X X X and how!
1. Stein’s Lectures In America.
2. Between 4 and 6 P.M. on 19 March 1935 a riot developed in Harlem. The crowd believed that a young black boy Lino Rivera, who had stolen a ten-cent knife from an S. H. Kress store on 125th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, had been lynched. Three thousand people stormed the store. The police shot into the mob of rioters and one man was killed. The boy was later found unharmed in his home. (See New York Times, 20 March 1935, p. 1; 24 March 1935, Sec. 4, p. 11; 31 March 1935, Sec. 4, p. 11.)
To Carl Van Vechten
[Postcard: “Texas—Biggest State Biggest Jack-rabbits Everything Big!”]
[postmark: 23 March 193
5] [c/o R. B. Johnson 1909 Cliff Street] Austin, Texas
Darling W. P. W.
Not a word from him our papa dear so far away, not a word from him and here we are so heated and so far away not a word from him from papa dear so far away.
Baby W.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 24 March 1935] Worth Hotel Forth Worth, Texas
Dear Papa Woojums,
We are glad that you are alright with never a word from you we did get worried. We have had a wonderful time in Texas, Texas has been every bit Texas and we have liked it immensely, last night they took us to hear some Negroes who have a Little Theatre of their own do Porgy,1 it was a wonderfully good performance, it seems they have had a little theatre of their own here for a number of years, the actors all people who work and, I went down in the green room to see them make up and one who was being made up to be a white man said to me, I am sorry Miss Stein that you had so much trouble with your chops this noon, How did you know I asked him, I waited on you he said. I am inclosing the account of our visit from Sweet Briar where they wanted you so much,2 we really are having a most amusing time, and we are glad that you are all well and happy and this is us at the Hockaday school, and to-morrow at seven o’clock we are off for Pasadena and will you be there oh will you be there so much love from
B. W.
Will you keep the clippings picture for us.
1. DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy (1925) had been dramatized by Heyward and his wife Dorothy in 1927. Heyward later collaborated with George and Ira Gershwin on an opera, Porgy and Bess (1935). What Stein saw was the play.
2. The clipping was not kept with the letter but was possibly “Gertrude Stein Gives Talk on Recent Book Before S. B. Audience,” Sweet Briar News, 10 February 1935, pp. 2–3. The article reported on Stein’s lecture “The Gradual Making of The Making of Americans,” which she had delivered at Sweet Briar College.
To Carl Van Veckten
[Telegram]
27 March 1935 Fort Worth, Texas
HAVE NOT HEARD FROM YOU FOR TEN DAYS WIRE THAT YOU ARE QUITE WELL WE ARE SERIOUSLY WORRIED LOVE FROM
GERTRUDE.
To Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas
27 March [1935]
Wednesday 150 West Fifty-fifth Street
[New York]
Dear Mama and Baby Woojums,
How sweet of you to send me a telegram inquiring after me! I replied at once. You see I never have your addresses long enough ahead. When you sent the last batch there was just time to write to Pasadena, and now I have no address after April 1, which is next Monday. If I sent this by ordinary mail it would not reach you before then… I do want you to see Aileen Pringle and George Kennedy Junior in Hollywood and I have told them to look you up . . and Arthur Richman and Lillian May Ehrman, whom you met at my house. . If you go to Carmel, SURELY Nöel Sullivan: he may be in S[an]. F[rancisco]. Ask Mrs. [Gertrude] Atherton about him, and if you meet him, ask about my DEAR cousin, Mary Blanchard (Mrs. Frederic Mason Blanchard). She also is at Carmel. As Miriam Hopkins is in NY at present you may go to a Hotel. In that case the Château Elysée, Hollywood, is the place for you. Fania always goes there. If you see Philip Moeller running around the lobby (he is one of the directors of the Theatre Guild and is at present directing pictures in Hollywood) pick him up and say I told you to! . . What a strange picture of Baby Woojums arrived this morning! What is it? And so wonderful too! I sent Mrs. [Emily] Chadbourne (and Miss [Ellen] LaMotte) a lot of pictures yesterday. . I love to read in Lectures in America. I still prefer the order I suggested to you: 1(4); 2(5); 3(6); 4(3); 5(2); 6(1). It is, I think, more logical, but I may be wrong.1 . Don’t ever worry about me, please, because I’m NEVER sick. . Times Have Changed closed at last Sat and Louis B[romfield] sails today on the Manhattan. Fania is going to Georgia to visit the Eugene O’Neills. . 678 sticks of butterscotch to you both! Edith just asked me, When am I going to make an apple pie for Miss Stein? When, indeed? Unpack your prettiest pink and blue organdies, with the forgetmenotsx and pissenlits!
Love,
[Carl Van Vechten]
xmyosotis to you!
1. The printed order of Lectures In America is “What is English Literature,” “Pictures,” “Plays,” “The Gradual Making of The Making of Americans,” “Portraits and Repetition,” “Poetry and Grammar.” Van Vechten had suggested the following order: “The Gradual Making of The Making of Americans,” “Portraits and Repetition,” “Poetry and Grammar,” “Plays,” “Pictures,” “What is English Literature.”
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 30 March 1935] Hotel Vista del Arroyo Pasadena, California
My dearest Carl
Isn’t this [swagger?]1 and here we are and we did fly over the mountains so high and they were so high that for a moment I was scared, but it was all very fine and very safe and here we are, and thanks for giving Emily [Chadbourne] and Ellen [LaMotte] the photos they will appreciate them and we are going to ask for some for the Hockaday school, who were so good to us in Texas we did like Texas, and now we are here, and here is a letter I am sending you, will you get into communication with [George W.] Hilbitt [i.e., Hibbitt]2 you and Bennett [Cerf], and make the arrangements, Alice thinks a morning meeting might be nice but anyway Alice is suggesting to him the possible dates, we are going to take it easy here for a bit, I will get myself a drive yourself car and we will just look at fruits and flowers because Texas was strenuous and S [an]. F[rancisco]. will be so also, had a telegram on arriving from Florine Stettheimer who is still here but leaving almost at once, but we will try and meet, one of the movie people the ones who have just done the [Max] Reinhardt show3 also met us at the plane and asked us to lunch in the green room and look around, perhaps we will but first we are going to take it easy here, it was a wonderful trip and it is so marvelous that you taught us to fly and everything else and I wish you were to be a nice surprise and prize package in S. F. and we could then fly home together and visit convents together oh it would be nice Papa Woojums it would be nice after S. F. we move back to New York and sail on the 4 May for Paris, but we do not want to go no we don’t we love it so, and Papa Woojums the best of all, so much the best of all
Baby Woojums.
1. The reference to the stationery on which the letter was written. At the top of the paper was an engraving of the hotel as seen through an archway.
2. Hibbitt was a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, New York. This particular letter from Hibbitt is not in YCAL. An earlier letter to Stein, 26 October 1934 (YCAL), had asked Stein to participate in a project of recording some of her writings for the National Council of Teachers of English organized by Columbia University. Other writers who had participated in the project were Vachel Lindsay, Aldous Huxley, T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, John Gould Fletcher, Conrad Aiken, and Alfred Kreymborg. See Van Vecthen to Stein and Toklas [12 March 1935], note 2.
3. Max Reinhardt (1873–1943) had produced Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Hollywood Bowl in the summer of 1934. William Dieterle suggested that he do it as a film. The film was released on 16 October 1935 and starred, among others, James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Olivia de Haviland, George Sanders, Dick Powell, Anita Louise, Arthur Treacher, and Victor Jory. Exactly whom Stein is referring to is not made clear.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 2 April 1935] Hotel Vista del Arroyo Pasadena, California
My dearest Carl,
Just a note as we are off to the desert and other pleasures that we have had a most amusing time and thanks to you met everybody we wanted to meet, Mrs [Lillian May] Ehrman gave a party last night for us Charlie Chaplin, Dashiel Hammett, the highest payed directors, Anita Loos, and John Emerson and all and everything and it was most amusing,1 and in Monterey we will meet Noel Sullivan and I have a beautiful drive yourself 8 cylinder Ford car, and we went to a mission in it yesterday and are off to the desert and then to San Francisco in it and oh dear
papa Woojums would that the Woojums family could be reunited when they get there and love to Fania and everything
Always B. W.
1. Mrs. Ehrman’s party was reported in the Hollywood Citizens News on 10 April 1935 (YCAL). In addition to the guests Stein mentions, the party was attended by Mrs. John Kahn (Mrs. Ehrman’s mother), Ivan Kahn (Mrs. Ehrman’s brother and a Hollywood agent), Dr. and Mrs. Norman Dixon (Virginia Bishop), Lillian Hellman, Paulette Goddard, Theresa Helburn, Arthur Richman, Rouben Mammoulian, William Prestema, Mario Ramirez, and John Baker Opdycke. The party is described in Stein’s Everybody’s Autobiography, pp. 4–5.
To Carl Van Vechten
7 April [19]35 Hotel Del Monte
Del Monte, California
Dearest Papa Woojums,
We are so near you if you are where I can’t believe you are not, Baby W. keeps saying don’t expect it, but I go on believing you are there just the same. Well tomorrow eve. we’ll know. And if you aren’t what will save us from finding my S[an]. F[rancisco], not ours. But you are going to be there, we will come to the air field to meet you and this letter will be at 150 when we get to Ν. Υ.