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Gertrude Stein
1874–1946
BFF of Picasso and a major figure in modernist literature, writer Gertrude Stein might have been best known in her lifetime for the legendary salons she would host at her Paris home during the 1920s and 30s.
Attracting the likes of Picasso, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Matisse, 27 Rue de Fleurus was the place to be on a Saturday night (see: Midnight in Paris). There, Stein lived with her longtime companion Alice B. Toklas (referred to by Hemingway as Stein’s “wife”), who was charged with entertaining the wives and lovers of Stein’s male friends.
Among Stein’s most famous books are Tender Buttons, a titillatingly-titled work of “verbal cubism,” and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, which told the story of their life in Paris (and Stein’s genius) from Toklas’s point-of-view