The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 1913-1946
Page 73
So much much love to Baby and Mama Woojums!
Papa W!
xHe sent the First Reader back of course!
To Carl Van Vechten
22 September [19]41 Bilignin par Belley
Ain
My dearest Papa Woojums,
All in two days, the package of photographs, the announcement that we are to have Gerald Berners’ book and the lovely photo of the pickaninny and the baby lion,1 and thanks so much for each and every one, and we are hoping soon for the photographs of Fania, with her new hair, and the book, the envelope of photographs were not even opened by any censors, they all seemed to have intuitively too much respect to dare to look, the last proofs of Paris France are corrected and I hope to be sending you a copy of [it] soon, I am still trying to get you a copy of Patrie with my article on the french language written in the original french, but it seems to be so popular that it is hard to get hold of a copy, I am still trying, the days seem to be so full of people and events and vegetables, and wood, and eggs and other things and now I am trying to get our bicycle made into a tricycle so we can move around a little, that is Alice can, I go as much as 16 kilometres in all directions on foot so I get plenty of variety, and now we have a wood burning taxi so we can move around a bit, and nice new friends so we move around a bit more,2 but mostly we love Papa Woojums who sends us so much and we love it all, always
Baby Woojums
1. A reference to the photograph of Julius Perkins, Jr., and “Winston Churchill,” Tallulah Bankhead’s lion cub, which Van Vechten had used for his postcard to Stein, 16 August [1941].
2. Paul and Elena Genin.
To Carl Van Vechten
25 September [19]41 Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
Dearest Papa Woojums,
Everything has come xcept the book but that will surely come soon,1 the photos, the picture of the pickaninny and the lion cub, the account of the book, a copy of Story, with the Sherwood Anderson,2 and the copy of [William] Seabrook’s book about magic, which is awfully sweet. I wonder since he quotes so largely from children’s books of me, whether we might have a try at Harcourt Brace with the First Reader add the four xtra lessons if you like them, it might please them, particularly on account of Seabrook’s book,3 but of course that is as you think best, the world is full of magic but Papa Woojums’ magic works best, we have our potatoes for the winter our wood for the winter and the weather has been lovely, everybody seems to think that things will hum pretty soon, but anyway we have pleasant neighbors. My editors are enthusiastic about Paris France which you will have in about a month now, the American Red Cross wanders along from time to time to make us feel American, and Papa Woojums’ letters and postal cards cheer us up, and we love them,
lots of love
Baby Woojums
1. Lord Berners’ Far from the Madding War. See Van Vechten to Stein [? August 1941], note 1.
2. The Anderson memorial issue of Story. See Stein to Van Vechten [30 March 1941], note 1.
3. Seabrooks’s Witchcraft, Its Power in the World Today (New York: Harcourt Brace and Co., 1940). References to Stein are on Pages 310–13, 359–60, 365. On page 365 he introduces part three of his book with a half-page reproduction of Stein’s rose motto, “A Rose is a Rose is a Rose is a Rose.” Seabrook calls it, “the sweetest magic circle ever swirled.”
To Carl Van Vechten
[postmark: 29 September 1941] Bilignin par Belley
(Ain)
Dearest Papa Woojums,
This is the announcement of Paris France and they have just written to ask for permission to use your photo xiii g: 43. for a frontispiece for the edition originale, and I knew you would like it well not perhaps as much as I do but perhaps just as much, I always love us to be together and here we will be and they will send you a copy and they will say the photo is yours, the photo came just in time which is a pleasure, thanks and thanks again, and we are hoping that the ones of Fania in her new hair will come soon, these were not opened by the censor or anything they just came right along, bless you papa Woojums
Always
Baby Woojums.
To Carl Van Vechten
7 October [19]41 Bilignin par Belley
Ain
My dearest Papa Woojums,
I am pleased that it is going to be New York and not Smith, I always did not like Smith when I was at College [and] when I was over there this last time. It has always seemed to me a very arrivist institution plein de arrivism, and not the gentle Americanism that we love and that all the other colleges had, so I am awfully pleased that it is New York again1 and so happy about your show, I wish we might be there to see it, and you will tell us all about it and send a lot of photos now they seem to come along so easily, so far the only thing that has not yet turned up is Gerald Berners’ book but it will,2 and you must not worry about our wintering here in the country again, we have plenty of wood and potatoes, and other things, and lots of friends, and everybody is xtraordinarily good to everybody, money is a bit of a nuisance because everything is much more xpensive and we are still on the old xchange, that is the reason I bother you a bit about publishers and have written twice to Virgil [Thomson]3 but we really are quite alright, also we have had to help out English friends,4 but even so we are quite alright and go on, very completely happy, do you know a man named C. M. de Hauke,5 he turned up from America, and came to see us one night and said all that he knew about America, but he did not seem to know many people we know xcept Henry McBride, it is lovely autumn now and grapes are plentiful, and also hares and little birds, and we are all delighted about the show and bless you Papa Woojums
Always
Baby Woojums.
1. See Stein to Van Vechten [4 July 1941], note 1.
2. Berners’ Far from the Madding War.
3. Possibly Stein to Thomson, postmark 15 May 1941, and postmark [2? September 1941], YCAL.
4. Possibly Diana Selby-Bigges and her family, who lived at the Château de Chambuet in Yenne in the Savoie.
5. César M. de Hauke, a French-born art dealer.
To Gertrude Stein
19 October [1941] [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dear and beautiful Baby Woojums,
I am sorry but the enclosed will inform you what has happened to Lord Berners’ Book.1 I’m afraid it will be worse soon, but I hope this letter will get through to you. Also Tommy Driberg of London has been here.2 People commute here from London and think nothing of it. They come on war business of course, but they come and go frequently. He was here for ten days. Anyway he has seen Berners recently and said that altho’ he was living in the country he was engaged in some kind of defense work. Driberg says he knows you and wanted to be remembered. And [John] McCullo[u]gh has sent me the Four Little Lessonsx, so that’s that. I’m glad the pictures came and I’m glad you are using one for a frontispiece and I hope I can get THAT book. Bennett Cerf’s father died two weeks ago and you had better write him as he is broken. He adored his father … Bennett’s father has been going around with a lady for eighteen years but he never dared marry her until Bennett got married, as he had always lived with Bennett. So a couple of months ago he got married and then he died.3. Bennett has bought a house on the east side and moved in, but I haven’t the address. Bennett is infatuated with his child. As soon as I have a good photograph of Fania and her white hair I’ll send it. So far, nothing is right … I’m still working very hard on Negroes for Yale, but this is fun and I’ll miss it I guess when Yale gets them all. Prices and taxes are getting very high and soon we’ll have no more money, but poor or no we’ll always love Baby and Mama Woojums and we send lots of love to them today and always.
[Carl Van Vechten]
I had tea yesterday with Ellen Glasgow on her way back from Maine and we spoke of you.
xI loved these & cant wait for the French Paris-France!!
1. The enclosure is not at YCAL. Presumably the book never reached Stein.
2. Tom Driberg was a British politician and writer. He submitted columns to Lord Beaver-brook’s Daily Express from the United States from 13 October to 2 December 1941. Some of these columns were collected in his Collonade (1937–1947) (London: Pilot Press, 1949). In his columns Driberg wrote about his experiences in America. Van Vechten is perhaps being glib about the ease of traveling from Europe to the United States. Driberg recounts that he traveled by convoy from England to an unnamed “landlocked Canadian harbor” (p. 198) in an extremely long and uncomfortable journey. Stein had met Driberg in London in 1937.
3. Gustave Cerf died on 2 October 1941, at Lenox Hill Hospital, New York. His widow was Eva Bigelow Cerf.
To Carl Van Vechten
1 November [19]41 Bilignin par Belley
Ain
Dearest Papa Woojums,
Thanks for letting me know about Bennett [Cerf]’s father, I have just written to him,1 I am sorry about Gerald [Berners]’s book, but perhaps later on it will come, as books do come through from time to time. Golly it’s cold, the November weather has taken to be December, and all the farmers are in despair because they have not yet planted their winter wheat, you see how naturally we have become farmers, and you will be pleased that we are having a turkey for Thanksgiving, those nice new friends of ours, by the way I am going soon to send his new ms. to you, it is called Mon livre de Pourquoi2 and I would like you to tell me if you think anybody in America would be interested in it, well anyway they have some turkeys and so we are going to have a turkey Thanskgiving and that will be a pleasure. Otherwise our news is everybody’s news, and we are very active in the mere business of living, it would be nice if somebody liked the First Reader, well anyway we do the Woojums family does and the Woojums family is very happy and very loving and that is nice,
Always
Baby Woojums.
They are sending you directly a copy de luxe of Paris France, let me know if it gets there, lots of love
B. W.
1. Stein wrote to Cerf, undated letter [? November 1941] (Columbia-Random House), about how much Cerf’s father loved him and how pleased he must have been to have seen the birth of a grandchild.
2. Paul Genin’s book was published as Essai sur le chaos (Alger, Algeria: Ε. Chalot, 1945). Stein had recommended this book to the reading committee, which consisted of Max Pol Fouchet and Albert Camus. The book contains many ideas and speculations that Genin and Stein discussed during their long walks together during the war years (letter received from Joan Chapman, 19 November 1980).
To Gertrude Stein
21 December 1941 [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dearest Baby Woojums,
I consign this to the air with the hope it will reach you to wish you a merry Christmas (with St Ignatius to help!) but I can no longer be sure of anything as naturally from now on the movements of clippers and ships will be mysterious. I do wish you and Mama Woojums were over here, but wishes are not horses and you and Mama W are certainly not beggars … Fania is learning First AID which means lessons all day and is further a captain of the American Theatre Wing on War Relief. I am trying to get my Negro books off to Yale before the bombs fall … You wrote a very sweet letter about Smith [College] and the Ada (named after Ada Byron!) Amanda Fitch Memorial Collection of Books by Women. Nothing whatever is decided about this yet, except that the Librarian at Harvard who is a trustee at Smith is much interested. But they have no treasure room as yet and I am fully occupied with the Yale Library at present. . By the way, I’ve found more items (in storage!) for your collection at Yale and have sent them on. I do wish you and Mama W had been here for my show (of MY books) at the [New York] Public Library. . You received the invitation, I hope. . It is a little like being dead, being all laid out in rows like that, but it is like being an illustrious dead man. I first had the feeling when I saw YOUR show, and I had it again with mine. . The first day was very brilliant and everybody was there from Doris Keane to W. C. Handy (the Negro who wrote the St Louis Blues). Virgil [Thomson] is adding to his laurels as a critic and ALL the orchestras are playing his symphonies etc., as I knew they would. He is on the top of a wave … But it is a bad time for publishing. Margot Johnson had almost arranged the publication of TO DO when the war broke out on both sides of us and now nobody knows what any will publish or will want to publish. I do not want to confuse the publishers, so I am saving the First Reader until TO DO is out of the way which it should be soon. Julian Sawyer has now compiled a list of papers and articles etc ABOUT Gertrude Stein, but he is having difficulty at the moment getting THIS published.1 However I dare say everything will arrange itself. You wrote on November 1 you were sending a copy of the de luxe Paris, France. This has not yet arrived. . I am happy to think of you with a turkey for Thanksgiving. I’ve just heard from Mary Garden who is in Aberdeen and Mabel [Dodge] sends her usual sprig of sage. . Will be happy to see Mon Livre de Pourquoi, a charming title. And please don’t forget to send me the predictions of St Odile and ALL ABOUT HER. I do not know this saint … I hope by now you have received my letters about Bennett [Cerf]’s baby boy (Christopher, I think). Anyway he was born in the summer and a letter from you inquires about him as if you had not heard. Believe it or not, I have been too busy to print pictures of Fania with her white hair, but she has changed her appearance so much since these were taken, rather resembling a Countess of the merveilleuse period now, that I think I shall have to photograph her again. Anyway I’ll send something SOON. . You are NOW DATING YOUR LETTERS and this is helpful, as Often I can make out nothing from the postmarks and they often arrive way out of order and I like to keep them in order. . I have not yet had the copy of Patrie with your article on the French language, either! So love and Kisses to you Both and Fania and I wish you a very happy New Year! BUT WE WISH YOU WERE HERE.
[Carl Van Vechten]
1. Sawyer’s checklist was published as “Gertrude Stein (1874- ): A Checklist Comprising Critical and Miscellaneous Writings about Her Work, Life and Personality from 1913–1942,” in Bulletin of Bibliography (January–April 1943), 17:211–12; (May–August 1943), 18:11–13.
To Carl Van Vechten
[25 December] 1941
Christmas Day Bilignin par Belley
Ain
Dearest papa Woojums,
Had just a letter from Mark Lutz, and he says Carl writes that he is reasonably healthy these days, that does not mean that you have not been well, but anyhow it does mean that you are well now and I hope not too disturbed by everything that is happening, dear me, we thought we had gotten used to everything but when your native land gets into it well your feelings are different, we had a nice Christmas, we all gave all the village children a pretty fête at the home of our new friends the Genins and a good time was had by all, it really was very pretty and french children do have an xtraordinary amount of ease and retenue, and then we walked the Bilignin children home 5 kilometres and everybody was tired and happy. Have you had your Paris-France it seems to be having a real success I had to sign 18 copies here in Belley, and I get fan letters, and it is all nice but do write soon we want to know how you and Fania are and we do send you such a lot of love,1
Always
Baby Woojums.
1. Lutz’s letter is not in YCAL.
2. In a letter to the author, 29 November 1981, Joan Chapman wrote: Yes, I remember Xmas ‘41 party for the village children, with presents, cookies, hot chocolate, a Xmas tree & a lovely creche built by Philippe Charveriat cute little wooden houses even a little chateau & a windmill, I think there even was an electric train running through and of course a collection of santas. Gertrude and Alice came to the cure and quite a lot of people.
To Gertude Stein
31 December 1941 [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dear Baby Woojums,
Happy New Year in these dark days! WE WISH YOU WERE HERE. Margot Johnson telephoned me today that Harrison Smith has found an illustrator and agreed to publish To Do, probably
in the Spring. . As it would be wellnigh impossible to get a contract to you and back just now, I told her I thought it would be okay with you (tho I reminded her I had no official authority to do this) for the Ann Watkins office to sign a contract for you. She is writing you and will also explain why no advance. . There is also talk of his doing the First Reader. As he is editor now of the Sat[urday] Review of Lit[erature] this is all good news, I HOPE. So Happy New Year and Love to you both and I hope this will reach you safely. . Fania sends love too.
Papa W!
Ann Watkins address is 77 Park Ave. NYC.
Harrison Smith’s address is 25 West 45 St. N.Y.C.
To Gertrude Stein
9 January 1942 [101 Central Park West
New York]
Dearest Baby Woojums,
NOW Margot [Johnson] writes me she is trying to get a contract for To Do through for you to sign and she is sending it in duplicate.1 I hope all this happens without a hitch. She is NOW looking at the First Reader! It is unbearably cold and Fania is busy with first aid lessons and soon will be able to strap anybody up, no matter how badly splintered. I enclose a clipping concerning a friend of yours2
and my love to both of you,
Carlo (Papa Woojums!)