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Devoted, eccentric, and compelling, Gertrude and Leo Stein were constant companions, from childhood to adulthood, until, finally, they spoke no more. Americans, expatriates, and virtually orphans, they lived together for almost forty years, collaborating in one of the great artistic and literary adventures of the twentieth century. 'Sister Brother' tells the story of that adventure and relationship. With a personality that drew people toward her& regardless of what they thought of her inventive, hermetic prose& Gertrude Stein dazzled and perplexed. Enigmatic, intelligent, and self-absorbed, Leo also dazzled but in his own way. One of the crucial figures in Gertrude's early years, he was the original guiding spirit of the famed salon at 27 rue de Fleurus, which continued for almost two decades. From her early days as a medical student to her first days in Paris, Gertrude was passionately driven toward the career in which she distinguished herself, demanding appreciation as an exceptional writer who knew precisely what she intended. This book shows how Gertrude slowly struggled with what became a unique voice& and why her brother spurned it. With its wealth of new and rare material, its reconstruction of Leo's famed art collection, and its array of characters& from Bernard Berenson to Pablo Picasso& this biography offers the first glimpse into the smoldering sibling relationship that helped form two of the twentieth century's most unusual figures.

Americans --- Art --- Authors, American --- Brothers and sisters --- History --- Collectors and collecting --- Family relationships. --- Stein, Gertrude, --- Stein, Leo, --- Stein family. --- Family. --- Paris (France) --- Intellectual life

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This volume is a dual biography of American author Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) and her brother, American art collector and critic Leo Stein (1872-1947). The author tells the story of their devoted and eccentric relationship as siblings. Gertrude and Leo were constant companions, from childhood to adulthood, until finally, they spoke no more. Siblings of German-Jewish ancestry with inherited incomes, Gertrude and Leo showed little motivation to succeed at anything. Leo would drop out of law school, Gertrude out of medical school. From their teens in Cambridge and Baltimore into their late 30s on the Continent, they remained close, often living together. In France, they collected Bohemian friends and avant-garde art while trying to find themselves. Gertrude grew fat and sloppy while bullying her lesbian set; Leo became neurotic and anorexic, his sense of inadequacy growing in proportion to his sister's success. By 1913, her experimental prose built upon repetition and rhythm was already being parodied. Going nowhere when Alice Toklas moved in, Leo moved out of the already famous Paris flat hung with Picassos, Matisses and Renoirs to a cottage in Italy, taking half the pictures. Leo's loyal but desperate mistress would follow him. Finally, just before his death, Leo published the single book on aesthetics by which he would be remembered. The year before, he had heard about Gertrude's death only from a newspaper. In a fascinating dual biography of these two American expatriates, Brenda Wineapple tells the story of a powerful, poignant relationship rooted in love, longing, and smoldering rivalry, a relationship so profound that when it ruptured in 1914, sister and brother never spoke to each other again. Wineapple reconstructs those exciting turn-of-the-century years when Gertrude and Leo fell in love with the people and ideas that later helped drive them apart. In this, the first biography to be written about Leo Stein - and the first completely researched book about Gertrude to appear in more than twenty years - Wineapple unearths a wealth of new and rare material, including an early Gertrude Stein manuscript, printed here for the first time.

Authors, American --- Art --- Americans --- Family relationships --- Collectors and collecting --- History --- Stein, Gertrude, --- Stein, Leo, --- Stein family. --- Stein, Gertrude --- Stein, Leo --- Family. --- Paris (France) --- Intellectual life

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