Gertrude Stein

Three Lives: Stories of the Good Anna, Melanctha and the Gentle Lena (Dodo Press) Gertrude Stein

By the American writer, poet, feminist, playwright, and catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Increasingly, she developed her own highly idiosyncratic, playful, sometimes repetitive and sometimes humorous style. Three Lives (1909) was her first published work, followed by Matisse, Picasso and Gertrude Stein (1912) - which includes the stories "A Long Gay Book" and "Many Many Women". Many of her experimental, stream-of-consciousness works such as Tender Buttons (1914) have since been interpreted by critics as a feminist reworking of patriarchal language. These works were loved by the avant-garde, but mainstream success initially remained elusive.