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
GILMORE
OF