LETTER: ALS to Gilbert Seldes.
Stein, Gertrude. Autograph Letter Signed (ca. December, 1938). Paris: To Gilbert Seldes, [ND, but Ca. December, 1938]. Autograph Letter Signed to Gilbert Seldes.
Single sheet: 8 x 10,” on Gertrude Stein’s Paris letterhead. Folded twice to fit an envelope; paper slightly aged; tiny puncture holes from a removed staple at upper left corner; very good. A carbon copy of Gilbert Seldes' reply accompanies.
Gertrude Stein writes of a recent broadcast by Seldes:
Thanks for sending me the broadcast. I did like it. I like it about myself but I liked it ... I was much interested in the Coolidge stories. When you do some more like that do ... send it to me again. I have just done my first child story The World is Round and I am pleased with that But then I am easily pleased perhaps, well anyway Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Always Gertrude Stein.
The letter touches upon one of her most appealing books, her children’s title The World Is Round published in 1939. Her correspondent Gilbert Seldes (1893-1970), artist, journalist and writer, had a long and varied career. One authority describes him as “one of America’s first systematic students of the popular arts.” He started as a music critic, foreign correspondent and then editor for Collier’s and The Dial. He wrote three books on film, The Movies And The Talkies (1929), The Movies From America (1937) and The Great Audience (1937). His translation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata ran for three years on Broadway. But perhaps his best known title is The Seven Lively Arts, a look at comic strips, vaudeville, movies and other forms of popular entertainment. Seldes had numerous friends and acquaintances among American writers living abroad. He helped support Emma Goldman after her deportation from the United States in 1919; and when Edward Titus published Hemingway’s second book, In Our Time, Seldes provided a testimonial. In his reply, Seldes tells Stein:
I am enchanted to hear that you have written The World in Round. I would be very happy if you would let me know as soon as it’s published so I can get a copy. I have two children of my own who are rapidly approaching the post-Dickens and early Conan Doyle stage, but they have a sense for the genuine and I think they ought to see what you have written for them...
A charming letter by Stein, especially attractive for her visible pleasure in her new creation.
(#4917)
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