Description

In 1933, Gertrude Stein published her groundbreaking memoir The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, which gained her instant celebrity. The following year she was invited to return to the United States for the first time since she left for France in 1903, to give a series of lectures on art and literature. Newly famous, Stein delivered her lectures, which double as a manifesto for her own, notoriously difficult work, to packed audiences at universities, galleries, members’ clubs and public spaces up and down the country. The lectures are vital and provocative works which articulate the legendary writer’s thoughts on the effect of modernism on literary form, the relationship between narrative and history, and between a writer, their work and its audience. In her trademark style she meditates on the creative possibilities of repetition, as well as her ambivalence toward her own literary fame and the destabilizing effect that notoriety had on her daily life. Listen to Me brings Stein’s sparklingly witty, illuminating lectures together in one volume for the first time, selected and introduced by her acclaimed biographer, Francesca Wade.

Publisher Review

‘This is the perfect Stein book for those who have been formed by Lectures in America since their first encounter, and for those who’d like to get acquainted with an inimitable and on the hoof presentation of the writer who changed twentieth century literature and beyond, plus a few other Stein gems. It’s all here in this exquisite little volume and I’m glad I don’t have to keep looking for any of it. Such a mind, what a feat, this is beautiful writing, thinking, being.’

– Eileen Myles, author of a “Working Life” ‘[E]very writer who lingers over Stein’s sentences is apt to feel a little stab of shame over the heedless predictability of his own.’

– Janet Malcolm, New Yorker ‘A treasure chest of pioneering, valuable, mind-expanding writing.’

– Deborah Levy, author of My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein ‘There has rarely been a writer as pleasurable or charming as Stein.’

– Adam Thirlwell, London Review of Books ‘It’s high time Gertrude Stein’s wonderful essays and talks on composition and craft were widely read and appreciated. These works challenge us to slow down, pay attention, follow the iterations of Stein’s language – you never know where it’s going to go and that is one of its many joys. Gertrude has much to tell us! We should all be listening to Gertrude!’

– Lauren Elkin, author of Scaffolding