The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 1913-1946
Page 54
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 6 April 1937] 27 rue de Fleurus [Paris]
My dear papa Woojums,
We were pleased to hear from you and a little envious of Marie Louise [Bousquet] and your being so happy with her and glad that she got a job in Chicago and I hope she gets a lot more of them. The autobiography is almost getting done, I want to finish it before we go to London, I have gotten as far as Texas, it is very simple and naturally I am worried and yet have bought a brand new Ford car in the hopes the Ford car has the french and American flags on it so that should be alright, as soon as we get to the country Alice will tap it and we will send it to you, and then we will know, the xposition grows apace it might be nice are you coming, Kitty Buss sent us some Boston Negro paintings last summer, and they were Mary Bell’s,1 the premiere in London is the 27 and naturally we are xcited, Gerald [Berners] writes that it all goes on well, and I’ll send you pictures of it if I can get them, we have hurried Pepe’s one of the ones you sent us to the vet, who takes care of him, he is a popular character now so he got sick. Lots of love and to Fania for her birthday
Gtrde
1. Note by Van Vechten, 24 January 1941: “Mary Bell, a Negro primitive who lived in Boston and drew fabulous pictures with colored pencils on waxed tissue paper. A discovery of Mrs. Gaston Lachaise.” The location of works by Bell sent to Stein by Kitty Buss is not known. There are no letters in YCAL from Buss to Stein mentioning these paintings.
To Carl Van Vechten
[Rose motto]
[postmark: 16 April 1937] 27 rue de Fleurus [Paris]
My dear papa Woojums,
I have asked Bennett [Cerf] to pass over to you the autobiography as far as it has gotten which is the end of America,1 I am so hoping that you will be pleased, and then it is to be shown to Thornton [Wilder] and that’s all, I do hope you like it and I do hope it makes a lot of money, after having been terribly frugal ever since we have been back we would like to spend a little lots and lots and lots of love
Gtrde.
1. Stein wrote Cerf (undated letter, 1937, Columbia-Random House) that she wanted Wilder to see the typescript of her book Everybody’s Autobiography but that she wanted Van Vechten to see it first.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Unidentified sculpture of a man above an entrance to a building. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten]
19 April 1937 [101 Central Park West New York]
Dear Baby Woojums.
Marie Louise [Bosquet] is on her way to you & she will tell you a LOT. and Bennett [Cerf] says he has SOME of the mss of Everybody’s Autobiography! What a magnificent title & I CAN’T WAIT ‘til I see it. Also I’m in a fever about London. Do send pictures & programmes & clippings, please in profusion., There is no news. . But our new cook is SWELL and makes a Grand Cassoulet! next we try Bouillabaisse!
1001 red & yellow roses to you & Mama W!
Papa W!
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Marie Louise Bousquet. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten]
22 April [1937] [101 Central Park West New York]
Dear Baby Woojums.
ask Marie Louise B[ousquet]. to show you the rest of her pictures which go to her today!
Heard Aaron Copland’s opera for High School Children, “The Second Hurricane” hier soir. Not much good.1
Love to Mama W & yourself
Papa W.
1. Aaron Copland’s The Second Hurricane, a play-opera for high school performance, had its premiere at the Henry Street Music School, New York, with Lehman Engel conducting, on 21 April 1937.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Buon Natale]
27 April [1937] [101 Central Park West New York]
Dear Baby Woojums
Has it occurred to you the CPW not only stands for Central Park West but also for Carlo Papa Woojums! The papers are beginning to write about your Ballet which is tonight!!!1
[Carl Van Vechten]
1. The Berners-Stein ballet, A Wedding Bouquet, had its first performance on 27 April 1937 at Sadlers Wells Theatre, London. The choreography was by Frederick Ashton and the costumes and decor were designed by Lord Berners (executed under the supervision of William Chappell). The role of Webster was danced by Ninette de Valois, Julia by Margot Fonteyn, and the Bridegroom by Robert Helpmann. Stein’s dog Pépé was danced by Joyce Farron. The text was sung by members of the Sadlers Wells Opera Company. A Wedding Bouquet appeared, for its premiere, on the same program as the ballets The Rakes Progress, music by Gavin Gordon, choreography by Ninette de Valois, and Les Patineurs, music by Meyerbeer and choreography by Ashton. Constant Lambert was the musical director for all three ballets. In its first season A Wedding Bouquet was also performed on 4, 8, and 17 May.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Unidentified Roman Sculpture—Head of a Man. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten]1
[postmark: 28 April 1937] [101 Central Park West New York]
Dear Baby Woojums.
I would love and love and love to see the NEW AUTOBIOGRAPHY but Bennett [Cerf] hasn’t shown it to me yet. Please be sure to send me all the clippings & programs of the Ballet last night. I can’t wait to hear [about] it! Did Pepe make a succes fou?
l[ove] & k[isses] to both
Papa W
1. This head would appear to be the cast of the Apollo Belvedere that Giorgio de Chirico used in his painting The Song of Love, 1914, oil on canvas, 28¾ × 23⅜ inches. Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 29 April 1937] 3 Halkin Street
[London], S.W. 1
My dear Papa Woojums,
It was a success a great success and they gave a big party afterwards and B.W. was on the stage bowing in the best B.W. Fashion and all that was wanted was P.W. to see and there was no P.W. there which was sad but Mama W. said B.W. behaved very satisfactorily, oh I wish you had been there, it was very lovely everything was beautifully done nothing could have been better, they do dance enthusiastically and delightfully and Gerald [Bernersj’s music is very interesting and his drop curtain perfectly delightful and [Frederick] Ashton whom I met for the first time is really a genius and we could hardly sleep the night before and not the night after and London is lovely and all we miss is P.W. but we do miss him dreadfully, we go back to Paris and then to Bilignin, have sent 3 programmes and Francis Rose catalogues1
Lots of love
Gtrde.
1. Stein sent Van Vechten copies of an exhibition brochure, a single sheet folded once to make a brochure 5½ × 4 inches, for Quelques oeuvres récentes de Sir Francis Rose, Galerie Pierre, Paris, 27 April to 8 May 1937. Stein contributed a short biographical notice about Rose.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Portrait of Leonor Fini. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten]
[postmark: 1 May 1937] [101 Central Park West New York]
Dearest Baby Woojums!
Was this the surrealiste card you were asking about? If so, it is Leonor Fini. Si non, Dites moi what was on the card please. The reviews came and are very exciting. Thank you, and I’m glad you liked the portrait of M[arie] L[ouise] Bousquet! Mad to see the pix of Wedding Bouquet. No autobiography yet! But SOON! F. Dixon of Flushing writes to ask if I am going to Paris as she wants to send some presents to you & M W I am NOT, but I’ve written her I can find somebody if she will leave the presence [i.e., presents] with me. M L Bousquet could have taken them!1
Love & lilies! !Carlo!
1. I have not been able to locate any of the correspondence between Van Vechten and Dixon. Florence Dixon, who lived in Flushing, New York, had written a fan letter to Stein on 23 July 1933 (YCAL). She was enthusiastic about the excerpts from The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas that had appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. Dixon wrote of having read Stein’s Tender Buttons and of having seen Jo Davidson’s bust of Stein in a New York gallery. She attended Stein’s lectures in New York (Dixon to Toklas, 13 November 1934, YCAL)
. In the letters from Dixon to Stein and Toklas that are in YCAL Dixon speaks of collecting presents for them and of her own interest in dogs. I have not been able to locate any of Stein’s or Toklas’ letters to Dixon. The letters from Dixon to Stein or Toklas that are in YCAL do not go beyond early 1935.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 3 May 1937] 27 rue de Fleurus [Paris]
Dearest Papa Woojums,
Marie Louise [Bousquet] was here all last evening and told us everything and brought me lovely cuff buttons suggested by Papa W. as he would just the thing to give me pleasure, I sent you the first batch of clippings at least some of them there were lots a very good one in the Manchester Guardian but that there was only one copy in the house so I could not take it and it was too long to rewrite,1 I guess there will be lots of pictures later and as Gerald Berners sends them to me I will send them to you I finished up the Autobiography with a description of our success, and I am just waiting for you to read it I will not be satisfied till you have, I told Bennett [Cerf] to give it to you before anybody, there is as yet only that one copy but when we get to the country there will be another we leave for the country day after to-morrow, are we seeing you this summer are you coming to the xposition if there is one, they perhaps will give the Wedding Bouquet here in Paris in June, and you must photograph Gerald and Pepe the false as you did the true,2 she was sweet and it is all lovely and we do miss you, and the photo of Marie Louise was a wonder, she was much moved and pleased she had not received hers yet and thanks for George[s Jacques]3 I must write and tell him how pleased I am to have it and what was the surrealist one,4 what is that it is unbelievable and lots of love always and always, Marie Louise made you and Fania all real
Lots of love
Gtrde.
1. Undated clipping from Manchester Guardian, YCAL.
2. A Wedding Bouquet was not given in Paris in June. Stein is referring to Lord Gerald Berners and Joyce Farron, who danced the role of Pépé in the ballet.
3. Headwaiter at the Algonquin Hotel, New York.
4. Van Vechten’s portrait of Lenor Fini. See Van Vechten to Stein, 18 January [1937], for the first portrait of Fini used as a postcard by Van Vechten.
To Gertrude Stein
[Postcard: Sculpture of Goya in Madrid. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten]1
13 May [1937] [101 Central Park West New York]
Dear Baby Woojums.
Thanks for the programs, the clips & the Rose catalogue. I am delighted with all this success! and I can’t wait till I see this Ballet! Ο dear, why can’t it be done here? and this is GOYA in Madrid: only it may be chipped now!
Love to BW & MW!
PW!
Ellen Glasgow was here for [dinner] last night & I asked Bennett [Cerf]. The Atlantic still has the ms.2
1. The sculpture, a head of the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828), is on the north façade of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain. It was executed by the Spanish sculptor Mariano Benlliure (1868–1947).
2. Cerf had written Stein, 22 April 1937 (YCAL), that he was sending parts of Everybody’s Autobiography to The Atlantic Monthly with the hope that they would serialize it. See Stein to Van Vechten [19 January 1937], note 2.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 15 May 1937] Bilignin par Belley Ain
My dear Carl
Here we are getting rested that is to say Gerald Berners has been here so it has been active but now we are settling down to a country life and the Tatler the Sketch and Bystander of the 5 and the Bystander of the 12 all have photographs of us and the Ballet and everything,1 there is a possibility of it being done in June in Paris, they said that the third performance which was a matinee was just as crowded and enthusiastic as ever and usually matinees at the Sadler’s are not, otherwise we are here and writing you more here and this is just to say that because although it is only eight o’clock in the evening we are all asleep, two dogs and us but very loving
Baby Woojums.
1. The Bystander, S May 1937, had a page of photographs, “Audience for Ballet: A First Night at Sadlers’ Wells.” The Bystander, 12 May 1937, “‘A Wedding Bouquet’ The Berners-Stein-Ashton Ballet at Sadlers’ Wells,” contained six photographs of scenes from the ballet. The Sketch, 5 May 1937, “Magnificent Double by Lord Berners’ ‘A Wedding Bouquet,’” was illustrated by four photographs of Angus McBean. The Tatler of 5 May 1937 had a photograph of Stein, Lord Berners, Ramsay MacDonald, and Richard Wyndam at an exhibition of paintings by Captain Richard Wyndam at the Tooth Galleries, London (exhibition 15 April to 14 May 1937).
To Gertrude Stein
20 May 1937 101 Central Park West New York City
Dear Baby Woojums,
Here are all Florence Dixon’s letters which you need not return. The package goes by Bibi Dudensing next week. SO, when you get this will you please drop her a note:
Madame Valentine Dudensing
“Low Wood”
Le Touquet
P de C
France
and tell her whether you are in Paris or Bilignin. And she will send you the package.
How are you both? We are well and happy and miss you both. No mss. yet. The Atlantic has not yet returned it.
l[ove] and k[isses]
Papa W!
I hear Henry [McBride] is going abroad as the Guest of the French government or somebody.
To Gertrude Stein
25 May [1937] 101 Central Park West New York City
Dearest Baby Woojums,
Here is more Dixoniana. Your letter came with news about the English weeklies and I have several of them at hand, all that have arrived so far. The rest will be picked up later. Pepe’s picture in the Sketch is too adorable. Has anybody thought to paint Pepe in the ballet? I do hope somebody does. Wouldn’t I just photograph and photograph were I there!
cards and spades to you both!
Carlo Papa W!
No Mss. Yet.
Henry [McBride] is sailing Saturday.1
1. Stein used the verso of this letter as part of a draft of a letter. It is possible that Van Vechten’s letter and the letter from a Virieu le Grand correspondent arrived in Bilignin on the same day. Page one is written on a single sheet of unlined paper:
I remember and this was long ago a m they were talking about automobiles and they were saying what one was and what another was and a man there who had had them from the beginning said well all I can say about automobiles perhaps some are better than others but all automobiles are good. That is the way I feel about printing, as long as printing prints words I like them
Page two: written on verso of letter from Van Vechten:
when they print my words I like it best naturally enough but all words have to be printed and I like it when it is printing. To be sure I do have feelings about margins I do not like big ones, I like little ones, you might say that—that is natural as I like words to be printed and when the margins are big you have
Page three: written on sheet of lined paper:
less of them, I must say I liked enormously the printing of the Geographical History of America, its about the best printing I have seen of a purely commercial book, but even aside from in with big margins there being less words than with little ones I like the way it looks best with very small ones, I have even dreamed that there might be none, but then it would not be a book, and then I like I made Maurice Darantiere print one with almost none, and
Page four: written on recto of letter received from a French correspondent from Virieu le Grand, dated 5 June 1937.
it was a book, Let me see what else about printing when I was very very young my brother and I had a printing press a very little one but we never did get to do any more than print visiting cards I do not think we ever printed any words that were not names and never since then have I done any printing. American books look very different from English and certainly from french ones, I wonder which I like best, naturally American ones.
Alway
s,
Gtde Stein
Stein often wrote drafts of letters, particularly if she was formulating a critical idea or responding to specific questions. These drafts were written in small carnets, the cahiers she used for her compositions, or on loose sheets of paper—often the verso of letters she had received. I have not located the final draft of this letter nor do I know its recipient.
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 2 June 1937] Bilignin par Belley Ain
Dear Papa Woojums
I am sending you this boy’s letter because it pleases me so much that they are discovering you, he is not an uninteresting boy he wants to do an anthology of my things and he has some good ideas what do you think about that1 and what is the autobiography of yours that he talks about, Bennett [Cerf] was to give you the ms. of mine long ago what has happened you were to have it and then Thornton [Wilder] but neither of you have, it bothers me because I will not know until you have had it,2 we are all peaceful the weather funny but everything else calm, Gerald [Berners] comes next Wednesday again I wish you could be here to meet wth much love
Gertrude.
1. In a letter to Stein, 1 May 1937 (YCAL), Haas proposed the idea of an anthology of Stein’s writings. Haas also mentioned to Stein an idea that had often been discussed by Van Vechten’s friends, a Van Vechten autobiography.