Gertrude Stein: Selections (Poets for the Millennium)

This selection of Gertrude Stein s work is taken from the period between 1905 and 1936, when the iconic modernist poet was engaged in an astounding number of still-surprising literary experiments, whose innovations continue to influence all the arts. Editor Joan Retallack has chosen complete texts or selections that lend themselves to a clarified vision of Stein s oeuvre. In her brilliant introduction, Retallack provides the historical and biographical context for Stein s lifelong project of composing a "continuous present," an effort which parallels many of the most important technological and scientific developments of her era—from moving pictures to Einstein s revision of our understanding of space and time. Retallack also addresses persistent questions about Stein s work and the best way to read it in our contemporary moment. In suggesting a performative "reading poesis" for these works, Retallack follows Stein s dictum by arguing that to actively experience the work is to enjoy it, and to enjoy it is to understand it.