Description
Book SynopsisAmericans, expatriates, and virtually orphans, Gertrude and Leo Stein, lived together for almost forty years, collaborating in one of the great artistic and literary adventures of the twentieth century. This biography tells the story of that adventure and relationship.
Trade Review“A luminous, harrowing achievement for which all students of literature and art, as well as of families, are in Brenda Wineapple's debt.”—Richard Howard
“Brenda Wineapple brilliantly disentwines the record of Stein's life from the image of it that Stein and her allies created. . . . Wineapple's narrative is fluent and clear . . . fascinating.”—
San Francisco Chronicle“Wineapple illuminates the distinct and tremendously influential personalities of Gertrude and Leo Stein as well as the intricate nature of their intense but doomed relationship.”—
Booklist“Wineapple tells a dramatically compelling story; her analysis is insightful, her meticulous documentation unobtrusive. She has written an absorbing account of two extraordinary siblings.”—
Washington Post Book World“Ms. Wineapple does an impressive job of setting down the facts of the Steins' eventful lives. . . . [An] ambitious biography.”—
New York Times Book Review“Drawing on rich archival sources, and interpreting them judiciously and sensitively, Wineapple gives us a fresh picture of Stein, many of her relatives, and especially the sibling to whom she was closest: her brilliant, intense brother Leo.”—Linda Simon,
Boston Globe“Sister Brother is a beautifully even-handed and penetrating treatment. This biography is indispensable for students of Gertrude Stein and of modernism, and will be a delight to lovers of art and to all those interested in what Wineapple calls ‘the romance of families.’”—
Toronto Globe and Mail“A riveting joint profile of Gertrude and Leo Stein. . . . A wild, Fauve-like canvas of a time before emotional color was muted by Prozac.”—M. G. Lord,
Elle“Wineapple’s book explores their partnership with humour and panache. Not the least of its virtues is that, while paying ample homage to Gertrude, it does justice perhaps for the first time at length and in detail, to Leo. . . . Scrupulous, sensitive, marvellous.”—
Daily Telegraph“Eloquent”—
ForwardTable of ContentsPrologue: And They Were Not WrongONE - DISORDER AND EARLY SORROW1. Bes Almon2. Tempers We Are Born With3. Too Darn Anxious to Be SafeTWO - BOTH ONES THAT QUITE ENOUGH ARE KNOWING4. To Know Thyself5. The Feminine Half6. Evolution7. Respectability8. New AmericansTHREE - SPEECH IS THE TWIN OF MY VISION9. Gilded Cages10. Brother Singular11. Quod Erat Demonstrandum12. Toward a More Quintessential Method, 1903-190513. In the Thick of ItFOUR - AN ALARM HAS NO BUTTON14. Quarreling15. Banquets16. I Could Be So Happy17. A Fine Frenzy18. Myself and Strangers, or The Inevitable Character of My ArtFIVE - RIPENESS IS ALL19. Two20. The Disaggregation21. Of Having a Great Many Times Not Continued to Be Friends: A FinaleEpilogue: A Family RomanceAppendixAcknowledgmentsNotes BibliographyIndex
