She was born on February 3, 1874, in
Allegheny, Pennsylvania to upper-class German Jewish parents. At the age of three, her family moved first
to Vienna and then to Paris. They returned to America in 1878 and settled in
Oakland, California. Stein attended Radcliffe College from 1893 to 1897 and was
a student of psychologist William James. After leaving Radcliffe she spent two
years at Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1901, she left Johns Hopkins without
obtaining a degree. In 1903, Stein moved to Paris, where she spent the rest of
her life. Stein’s home in Paris soon became gathering spot for many young
artists and writers including Henri Matisse, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso, Max
Jacob, and Guillaume Apollinaire. She ardently supported and encouraged the
“new” and avant-garde in art and amassed an amazing assemblage of
groundbreaking art, including works from Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne and other
notable artists. What these creators achieved in the visual arts, Stein
attempted in her writing.
Her
first book - Three Lives, a series of novellas about women - was
published in 1909. She followed it with Tender Buttons in 1914 – a true
masterpiece, where she briought images and words together in unexpected and
abstract ways, often similar to that of a cubist painting. Stein’s literary
style, characterized by its use of words for their associations and sounds
rather than their meanings, was praised by avant-garde artists and writers, but
did not find a wide audience. In fact, her only bestseller, The
Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, a memoir of Stein's life written in the
person of Toklas, was a standard narrative, conventionally composed. Among
Stein's other most influential works are The Making of Americans (1925);
How to Write (1931); and Stanzas in Meditation and Other Poems
[1929-1933] (1956).
Stein died at the American
Hospital at Neuilly on July 27, 1946, of inoperable cancer.
by Małgorzata Olsza
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