A Washington Post Top 10 Book of the YearFresh Air Top 10 Book of the YearThis critically acclaimed, “superb” (The Washington Post) biography of one of the most influential and mythologized literary figures of the 20th century examines both Gertrude Stein’s life and her partner’s emergence from the shadows after her death, in the decades-long fight to ensure her legacy.Gertrude Stein’s salo...

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...