How to Write

Copyright © 1975 by Dover Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved under Pan American and International Copyright Conventions.

This Dover edition, first published in 1975, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work originally published by Plain Edition, Paris, in 1931, in an edition limited to 1000 copies.

9780486121765

The present edition contains a specially written new Preface and Introduction by Patricia Meyerowitz.

International Standard Book Number: 0-486-23144-5 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-17880

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dover Publications, Inc.

31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501

PREFACE TO THE DOVER EDITION

When I was asked to write an introduction to this book I accepted gladly without knowing at all how I would approach it. Open the book anywhere you like and if you are unfamiliar with the work of Gertrude Stein you will very likely give up before you have gone very far. And even if you are familiar with her work this book will have no immediate meaning to you because it certainly does not tell you how to write. What it does tell you is how Gertrude Stein was writing at the time that she wrote it.

And so the question that presented itself was how could an outsider who was not writing creatively in the same way as Gertrude Stein describe exactly what she was doing. Having stated the question the answer was immediately apparent. It really is impossible to do it because to describe it in another way would be to make it into something different for its meaning is contained within its method and moment of creation. So then I decided to use the words of Gertrude Stein together with my own comments to see whether I could convey some of the ideas which occupied the thoughts of Gertrude Stein and also how she approached writing as a creative activity. This is contained in the first part of the introduction. The second part is more specifically related to HOW TO WRITE. Again I have used her own words in an effort to illustrate how one can approach an understanding of this book—a book which at first seems to make so little sense.

It is useful to remember that the innovative works of an artist are explorations and therefore cannot easily be understood by those who are not explorers in one of the art forms. Nevertheless with a little effort it is possible to understand the direction and the intentions of the artist which is all that is necessary. Total comprehension would mean total involvement.

Gertrude Stein was born in 1874 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. From 1903 until she died in 1946 she lived in France returning only once to her native land during 1934-5 for a highly successful lecture tour. Her apartment in Paris became famous as a meeting place for artists and writers who came to look at her large collection of contemporary paintings or to talk and listen to her. During her lifetime at least 26 of her books were published with twelve more following after her death.

HOW TO WRITE was written in separate parts during the period 1927-31. In this latter year the parts were collected and published together in one volume by Alice Toklas who had decided to become Gertrude Stein’s publisher in order to get the books into print. The name given to this publishing venture was Plain Edition.

Gertrude Stein was over 50 when this present volume was begun and there is no doubt that it represents part of the full flower of her creative life.

P.M.

INTRODUCTION TO THE DOVER EDITION

When anyone writes about a painting what has he got after the writing. A collection of words on paper but the painting is not there. It is still hanging on the wall. GS said about painting that she liked to look at it and perhaps that is all there is to do with a painting once it has its existence. Look at it. Well that is how I feel about the writing of GS. I like to read it. I like it very much.

What is there to know about the writing of GS and the thoughts and the feelings of GS and her life as an artist as a creative writer. One most important thing to know is that there is no separation between thinking and feeling and the act of writing. It is all done at the same time.

The business of Art as I tried to explain in Composition as Explanation is to live in the actual present, that is the complete actual present, and to completely express that complete actual present. (Plays, LIA 104)1

It is interesting how most people write with their heads. That is to say there is a separation between thinking and writing. When this happens there is almost no feeling in the writing.