THE GERTRUDE STEIN-CARL VAN VECHTEN CORRESPONDENCE, 1913-1946. EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES.
Item
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Title
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THE GERTRUDE STEIN-CARL VAN VECHTEN CORRESPONDENCE, 1913-1946. EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES.
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Identifier
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AAI8409386
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identifier
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8409386
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Creator
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BURNS, EDWARD MICHAEL.
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Contributor
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Prof. Alfred Kazin
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Date
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1983
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, American
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Abstract
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This edition collects all of the extant correspondence (almost 1,000 letters) between Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten. For the sake of completeness letters written to or from both Alice Toklas and Fania Marinoff during the years covered by this correspondence have been included. The transcriptions of these letters remain as faithful as possible to the texts. They retain the original punctuation; inconsistencies in the titles of books, newspapers, and articles; ampersands; such compoundings as "alright" and "to-day"; and Stein's idiosyncratic "x" instead of "ex," as in "xcited." Return addresses and dates have been standardized and placed in fixed positions at the head of the letter. Signatures appear as they appear in the letters; they have, however, been placed in fixed positions. Postscripts, regardless of where they appear on the letter, are placed after the closing. All editorial additions have been placed in brackets.;The importance of these letters for an understanding of Stein's work is immense. Stein's subject matter is most commonly taken from her daily concerns, from the events, people, landscape, and objects at hand. Even public figures about whom she sometimes writes are observed not from a public vantage point, but from a private and intimate one, having to do with flashes of insight into personality. This correspondence often brings to light the nearby objects and people and places that were grist for Stein's writing. To unlock the intricate and complex rhetorical structures in Stein's work requires an immense knowledge of detail. Some of that detail, perfunctorily mentioned or only alluded to in passing, is in her correspondence. Often a small, seemingly insignificant phrase sheds unexpected light on a composition.;These letters are of interest as documents of cultural history. They are also significant for the light they shed on the personality of each correspondent. They are rich in biographical detail, they help to clarify the chronology of Stein's writings, and they chronicle Van Vechten's varied careers: music and dance critic, essayist, novelist, photographer, participant in the Harlem Renaissance, and unceasing champion of Gertrude Stein.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy Restricted.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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English