Stein on Writing Revised

Gertrude Stein on Writing: a list [in process]

1926Compositon as Explanation/Descriptions of Literature1927An Elucidation1929An Acquaintance with Description1931Saving the Sentence/Sentences and Paragraphs/Arthur, a Grammar/A Grammarian/Sentences/Regular regularly, in narrative/Finally George, a vocabulary of Thinking/Forensics1935What is English Literature/Pictures/Plays/The Gradual Making of Making of Americans/Portraits and Repetitions/Poetry & Grammar/Narration, Lectures 1-4/How Writing is Written1937Why I Like Detective Stories1940What are Masterpieces1946A transatlantic Interview1895/1949Radcliffe Themes

1
“Composition as Explanation (1926) 6pp.
[Written and delivered as a lecture at Oxford, 1926. Published
in the Dial (October 1926) and in Composition as Explanation
(Hogarth Press, 1926). Text also included in What are Masterpieces (1940), Selected Writings (1946), Writings and Lectures, 1911-1946 (1967) and in the Library of America Gertrude Stein: Writings 1903-1932 (1999).

2
“Descriptions of Literature” (1926) 8pp.
[Published as Stable Pamphlet no. 2 by George Platt Lynes and Adlai Harbeck, Englewood New Jersey, also published in transition (Summer 1928) and in Reflections on the Atom Bomb in 1973]

3
“An Elucidation” (1927) 16pp.
[Originally published in transition no. 1 (April 1927) and published in a corrected version as a pamphlet the same year, also included in A Primer for the Gradual Understanding (1971)

4
"An Acquaintance with Description" (1929)
Published and hand set by Robert Graves and Laura Riding (Mallorca, Seizin Press, 1929, and included in Library of America Gertrude Stein: Writings 1903-1932 (1999).

5
How to Write (1931)
"A difference between a noun and a verb is not seen in wishes and wishes"
[This collection originally published in Paris by her own Plain Edition Press, and later (1973) reprinted by the Something Else Press and again in 1975 by Dover.] It includes, all first published here:
“Saving the Sentence”
“Sentences and Paragraphs”
“Arthur, a Grammar”
“A grammarian”
“Sentences”
“Regular regularly, in Narrative”
“Finally, George, a vocabulary of Thinking”
“Forensics”

6
Lectures in America (1935)
"Gerty Gerty Stein is Back Home Home Back" (newspaper headline).
[These lectures were written for Stein's American lecture tour of 1934-35. She and Toklas arrived in New York City on October 24, 1934 and in the course of six months Stein delivered over 40 lectures. Stein and Toklas left for Europe on May 4, 1935].
Included in this volume and first published here, are:
“What is English Literature”
“Pictures”
“Plays”
“The Gradual Making of Making of Americans”
“Portraits and Repetitions”
“Poetry & Grammar”
[All but “Plays” are included in Writings and Lectures, 1911-1946, no. 10 below]

7
Narration (1935)
[This collection of four lectures written while on her lecture tour in 1934-35 was first published by the University of Chicago Press in 1935. The Lectures are numbered 1 through 4]
Lecture 1 “The contrast between the English daily life and the American lack of a daily life”
Lecture 2 'Narrative in prose and narrative in poetry”
Lecture 3 “History and the newspaper as narrative”
Lecture 4 “The Audience and the Novel and the Mystery Story as narrative”

8
What are Masterpieces (1940)
[First published in Los Angeles by Conference Press in 1940, this includes addresses delivered before the Cambridge and Oxford Literary Societies]
Includes:
“Composition as Explanation” [originally published in 1926, see above]
“What are Masterpieces and why are there so few of them” [first published here]

9
Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein (1946)
[Edited by Carl Van Vechten and first published by Random House in 1946 in 10,000 copies and in 1962 as Modern Library Book ML322 in 7,500 copies]
Includes:
“The Gradual Making of the Making of Americans” [originally published in Lectures in America (1935),
see above]
“Composition as Explanation” [originally published in 1926, see above]

10
Writings and Lectures, 1911-1945 (1967)
[Edited by Patricia Meyrowitz published in Londoon by Peter Owen in 1967 and reprinted by Penguin in 1971 as Look at Me Now and Here I Am]
Includes:
“Composition as Explanation”[originally published in 1926, see above]
“What is English Literature”
“The Gradual Making of the Making of Americans”
“Portraits and Repetitions”
“Poetry and Grammar”
“What are Masterpieces and why are there so few of them” [originally published in 1940, see above]
“Henry James” [originally published in Four in America (1947)]
[All but “Composition as Explanation,” “What are Masterpieces” and “Henry James” published in
Lectures in America (1935), see above]

10
A Primer for the Gradual Understanding of Gertrude Stein (1971)
[Edited by Robert Bartlett Hass and published in Los Angeles by Black Sparrow Press in 1971]
Includes:
“A Transatlantic Interview” [interview done in 1946]
"Radcliffe Themes 91895)" [originally published in Gertrude Stein: Form and Intelligibility, by Rosalind S.
Miller. Exposition Press, 1949]
“An Elucidation” [originally published in transition, April 1927 with garbled text and reissued correctly as
a pamphlet in April 1927]

11
How Writing is Written (1974)
[Edited by Robert Bartlett Hass and published by Black Sparrow Press in 1974]
Includes;
“Why I like Detective Stories” [originally published in Harper's Bazaar,November 1937]
“How Writing is Written” [originally delivered as a lecture on January 12, 1935 at Choate School and
published in Choate Literary Magazine, February 1935]