The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson: Composition as Conversation (review)

The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson covers an era of growing success for Stein and Thomson. Editors Holbrook and Dilworth's meticulous archival sourcing and discursive footnotes present two formidable artistic figures, often at their most charismatic and uncensored. Of interest will be the editors' introduction, which offers readers without much acquaintance with either figure enough information about cultural, artistic, and biographical developments to navigate the intrigues and divided loyalties of the period. Also enlightening are the editors' notes about Bernard Faÿ and about Thomson's post-war correspondence with Alice B. Toklas, who became grievously isolated and poverty-stricken after Stein's death. Holbrook and Dilworth's sure-footed presence throughout this collection frees the reader to enjoy the banter and casual intimacy between Stein and Thomson. Particularly wonderful are exchanges between Dilworth himself and Thomson, which include such witty gems as Thomson's description of Stein's "aura of sex" (8). Thomson's comment calls to mind Hemingway's sexual attraction to Stein, which he glosses with confusion and shame in his memoir A Moveable Feast.

The first half of the book reveals a complex artistic community, at once supportive and critical of its members. Stein, both celebrated and hated, was embraced by the Duchesse de Clermont-Tonnerre, Nathalie Barney, George Hugnet, and Tristan Tzara (the latter two until a break). Though she had rivalries with some male writers, namely James Joyce and T.S. Eliot, Stein could praise others with conviction, calling, for instance, Ford Madox Ford's writings on Paris "masterpieces" (33). As for Thomson, who first came to Paris in 1921 to study counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger and returned in 1925, he quickly tapped into Paris's music scene through his acquaintanceships with Fay¨, Jean Cocteau, Henri Sauguet, and George Antheil. But he intuited disapproval from the French musical establishment; this kept him "American" (67). When Stein and Thomson met in January 1926, Thomson gained Stein's affection by speaking of Harvard, American doughboys, and his admiration for her Tender Buttons. Their letters tell of a friendship that, for many years, nourished and vitalized one and the other, with cakes sent to and fro and Stein's keeping "an eye peeled for millionaires" for Thomson (30). They talked of food, music, politics, travel, domestic life, and work. But their affection was tested when Stein and Hugnet disagreed over their book collaboration and Stein felt that Thomson's loyalties were unclear. Dilworth and Holbrook kindly fill in the gaps in recounting this break for the reader and attribute the severing of ties to the heavy hand of Toklas.

Stein and Thomson's correspondence resumed two years later only when W.H. Bradley brokered their reconciliation in order to move forward a production of Four Saints in Three Acts, for which Stein would provide the libretto and Thomson the score. Dilworth and Holbrook usefully include Bradley's letters between January 1933 and July 1934. These letters form a second act in Stein and Thomson's friendship, which would not return to the "intensity" and "loving" of the early days (4). Contractual and production details related to Four Saints constitute the primary concerns of these later letters, with Stein and Thomson being surprisingly punctilious and stubborn in their contractual dealings. Bradley, despite his primary role as Stein's literary agent, acted as a calm mediator between Stein and Thomson. However, Stein's dissatisfaction with Bradley over arrangements for her American lecture tour brought to an end their professional and personal relationship. With the end of Stein and Bradley's relationship, Stein's friendship with Thomson warmed, and they continued to collaborate profitably on Four Saints, Capital Capitals, "Susie Asado," and The Mother of Us All. Stein amusingly admits that the duo want to be "as popular as Gilbert and Sullivan if we can" (254). The Four Saints collaboration between Stein, a notoriously abstruse literary modernist, and Thomson, an emerging...