Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein and Company

by James R. Mellow

Book Overview

Spanning the years from 1903, when Gertrude Stein first arrived in Paris, to her final days at the end of World War II, "Charmed Circle" is a penetrating and lively account of a writer at the heart of modernity. Four 8-page photo inserts.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395479827
• ISBN13: 9780395479827
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Gertrude: sometimes charming, sometimes not

Following a recent trip to Paris, I was inspired to learn more about the Americans who lived there in the early twentieth century. Some got their first taste of Paris at Gertrude Stein's Saturday night salon at 27, rue de Fleurus; others by being members of Sylvia Beach's lending library and bookstore, Shakespeare and Company. James Mellow in his Acknowledgements to Charmed Circle, says he wants to counter the legend of Stein and present her as an honest woman. I believe that he has achieved his goal. There is a tender side to Stein, being supportive and helpful to young writers and artists; but no doubt she could be arbitrary, rude and mean-spirited to others--sometimes those she had helped earlier. It is fascinating that her best-selling books: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and Wars I Have Seen were also her most accessible books, and not the abstruse, repetitive, strangely punctuated books that publishers avoided for years. She and Picasso had a friendship that blew hot and cold over the years and she generally avoided friendships with successful American or English writers. Mellow doesn't spare presenting her warts, but it's clear that she has a creative spark and a hugely independent spirit. The human side of her seems to come out during the two world wars she lived through, especially during World War II when she and Alice lived in the countryside with ordinary French people. A long book: 570 pages of small print in my paperback edition, plus 70 pages of notes and index, but well-written and informative. Also consider: Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation by Noel Riley Fitch; Paris Was Yesterday by Janet Flanner; Memoirs of Montparnasse by John Glassco; and, of course, A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway.

circle of friends and rivals of stein

for anyone who loves to be introduced from one book to another from one writer to another from one artist to anotherfrom one person to another.it's one big ball of yarn that was carefully untangled to present the reader with two ends of the string.

Gertrude, Alice and the gang!

This book gives one of the best overviews of Gertrude Stein and her crowd! When it first came out almost 30 years ago, I read it and have been hooked on Stein and Alice and Picasso and Hemingway and Anderson and Wilder and on and on. Mellow provides very detailed information about the lives of all these greats and some have criticized him for his almost gossipy, "Entertainment Tonight" style. But what better way to feel a part of this circle of extraordinary people? Had more high school and college English and Art teachers used this book, there would be more readers and fans for this amazing artistic period! Hats off to the publisher for re-issuing this book!

Get to Know Gertrude Stein

Mellow introduces the reader to a person and a period of time that makes the book a vacation from our modern world.He introduces us to personalities of the nineteenth and early twentieth century who remain names to most of us. How delightful to attend the parties, hear the gossip, and take part in pre-World War I Paris, with this astonishing woman and her friends whose literature and paintings are recognized the world over.