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Flowers of Friendship: Letters Written to Gertrude Stein

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Exactly as the title suggests, this 1953 book contains a collection of letters sent to Stein, as edited by Donald Gallup.

The selection is an interesting one, but I frequently found myself annoyed that Gallup excerpted so many of the letters. I would much rather have had a smaller collection that was complete than having so many fragments. As a result of the edits, there were often sections where I had the feeling that he was (consciously or unconsciously) using ellipses to create a kind of underwater narrative-- suggest aspects of biography.

The letters are quite a cross-section of Stein's life. They range from college friends to fellow writers to painters to editors who consistently refused her work. Some of them were interesting. Some of them were witty. Some of them were funny. Some of them were sad. Ultimately I guess that I would have liked them better if I'd had a little bit of Stein herself back; the silence of the subject was occasionally eerie.

I suspect that you need to know at least a little bit about her life to really appreciate this book. Stein completists should get a kick out of it. It's a little bit difficult for me to imagine how the experience would be for a totally casual reader.

I liked it. But then, I love Gertrude Stein.