Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein

by Brenda Wineapple (Author)

• New

  Illustrated
  2008

  $35.77

  Devoted, eccentric, and compelling, Gertrude and Leo Stein were constant companions, from childhood to adulthood, until, finally, they spoke no more. Americans, expatriates, and virtually orphans, they lived together for almost forty years, collaborating in one of the great artistic and literary adventures of the twentieth century. Sister Brother tells the story of that adventure and relationship. With a personality that drew people toward her-regardless of what they thought of her inventive, hermetic prose-Gertrude Stein dazzled and perplexed. Enigmatic, intelligent, and self-absorbed, Leo also dazzled but in his own way. One of the crucial figures in Gertrude's early years, he was the original guiding spirit of the famed salon at 27 rue de Fleurus, which continued for almost two decades. From her early days as a medical student to her first days in Paris, Gertrude was passionately driven toward the career in which she distinguished herself, demanding appreciation as an exceptional writer who knew precisely what she intended. This book shows how Gertrude slowly struggled with what became a unique voice-and why her brother spurned it. With its wealth of new and rare material, its reconstruction of Leo's famed art collection, and its array of characters-from Bernard Berenson to Pablo Picasso-this biography offers the first glimpse into the smoldering sibling relationship that helped form two of the twentieth century's most unusual figures.

• Used

  Paperback
  1997

  $3.25

  This volume presents an insight into Gertrude Stein's life, and provides a portrait of her gifted brother, Leo. It is the story of the relationship between a brother and a sister, shedding light on a beguiling and complex couple. The name Gertrude Stein conjures up the romanticized Paris of the 1920s. However, for almost two decades before that, Leo and Gertrude Stein had held court to writers and painters at 27, Rue de Fleurs in a salon filled with the bright, bold canvases they were purchasing. Brilliant, voluble and profoundly insecure, brother and sister spent most of their lives shoring up their images, each helping to create the other. A complementary and devoted couple, eccentric and compelling, they were constantly together from childhood to adulthood. And then their mutual dependence proved too painful. Leo denounced his sister's work, denounced the painters he had once supported and, in 1914, denounced Paris for a life of uninterrupted solitude.