Books: Stein Way, Grand

PORTRAITS AND PRAYERS—Gertrude Stein—Random House ($2.50).

When Gertrude Stein’s Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas appeared last year, readers discovered to their surprise that Author Stein could write plain, understandable English. When she landed in the U.S. last month for her first visit in 31 years, newshawks and newsreel audiences were further chagrined at her shrewd and sensible remarks (TIME, Nov. 5). Even listeners at her strictly limited lectures understood more than half of what she said. But the publication of Portraits and Prayers made it plain that in the Autobiography, in her public appearances. Author Stein had merely been showing off. When she is really performing, her instrument is still the Stein way, grand manner.

Portraits and Prayers, a collection of 58 pieces which date from 1909 to 1933, is pure Stein. A gallery of word-portraits of Stein friends and acquaintances, it is mostly concerned with literary and artistic figures: Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Carl Van Vechten (to whom the book is dedicated), Sherwood Anderson, Jo Davidson, Edith Sitwell et al. Persevering readers may puzzle long to discover whether these portraits are flattering or otherwise; presumably they are as objective as Author Stein can make them. The reader who wins to p. 105 will discover a portrait of one Harriet which is egregiously clear. Some of it: “She said she did not have any plans for the summer. No one was interested in this thing in whether she had any plans for the summer. That is not the complete history of this thing, some were interested in this thing in her not having any plans for the summer. She was interested in this thing in her not having any plans for the summer. Some to whom she told about this thing were interested in this thing. Her family were interested in this thing in her having not yet made any plans for the summer. Others were interested in this thing, her dressmaker was interested in this thing and her milliner. Some then were interested in this thing in her not having made any plans for the summer. Some were not interested in this thing in her not having made any plans for the summer. Some who were not interested in this thing in her not having made any plans for the summer would have been interested in this thing in her not having made any plans for the summer if she had made plans for the winter….”

But readers will wander through hopeless mazes before they find another such straightforward stretch. More typical is the “Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia”: “The days are wonderful and the nights are wonderful and the life is pleasant. Bargaining is something and there is not that success. The intention is what if application has that accident results are reappearing. They did not darken. That was not an adulteration….”

Author Stein says her words are to be taken in their literal sense, says they make sense. Unfortunately for the reader, however, as she herself says: “No one sees the connection between Lily and Louise, but I do.”