Gertrude Stein and World War I
During World War I, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas continued to provide a meeting place for the modernists in Paris, but they also worked to aid the war effort. Stein and Toklas delivered medical supplies, financing their efforts by selling pieces from Stein's art collection. Stein was awarded a medal of recognition (Médaille de la Réconnaissance Francoise, 1922) by the French government for her service.
Gertrude Stein Between the Wars
After the war, it was Gertrude Stein who coined the phrase "lost generation" to describe the disenchanted English and American expatriates who were part of the circle centered around Stein.
In 1925, Gertrude Stein spoke at Oxford and Cambridge in a series of lectures designed to bring her to wider attention. And in 1933, she published her book, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, the first of Gertrude Stein's writings to be financially successful. In this book, Stein takes on the voice of Alice B. Toklas in writing about herself (Stein), only revealing her authorship near the end.
Gertrude Stein ventured into another medium: she wrote the libretto of an opera, "four Saints in Three Acts," and Virgil Thomson wrote the music for it. Stein traveled to America in 1934, lecturing, and seeing the opera debut in Hartford, Connecticut, and be performed in Chicago.
Gertrude Stein and World War II
As World War II approached, the lives of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas were changed. In 1938 Stein lost the lease on 27, rue de Fleurus, and in 1939 the couple moved to a country house. They later lost that house and moved to Culoz. Though Jewish, feminist, American, and intellectual, Stein and Toklas were protected from the Nazis during the 1940-45 occupation by well-connected friends. For example, in Culoz, the mayor did not include their names on the list of residents given to the Germans.
Stein and Toklas moved back to Paris before the liberation of France, and met many American GIs. Stein wrote about this experience in another book.
After World War II
The year 1946 saw the debut of Gertrude Stein's second opera, "The Mother of Us All," the story of Susan B. Anthony.
Gertrude Stein planned to move back to the United States after World War II, but discovered that she had inoperable cancer. She died on July 27, 1946.
In 1950, Gertrude Stein's novel about lesbian relationships, written in 1903, was published.
Alice B. Toklas lived until 1967, writing a book of her own memoirs before her death. Toklas was buried in the Paris cemetery beside Gertrude Stein.
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