29 
NOCTURNE 
AS it the oysters 
Or the insidious 
Influence 
Of the moon 
Heavenly bodies 
In conjunction 
At any rate 
And at dawn 
The inexorable 
Dirty yellow 
LOUIS 
THE WORK 
GERTRUDE STEIN 
NE evening in the winter, some years ago, my brother 
came to my rooms in the city of Chicago bringing 
with him a book by Miss Gertrude Stein. The book 
was called “Tender Buttons” and, just at that time, 
there was a good deal of fuss and fun being made 
over it in American newspapers. I had already read a book of 
Miss Stein’s called “Three Lives” and had thought it contained 
some of the best writing ever done by an American. I was 
curious about this new book. 
My brother had been at some sort of gathering of literary 
people on the evening before and some one had read aloud from 
Miss Stein’s new book. The party had been a success. After 
reading a few lines the reader stopped and was greeted by loud 
shouts of laughter. It was generally agreed that the author had 
done a thing we Americans call ‘putting something across,’ the 
meaning being that she had by a strange freakish performance 
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