Gertrude Stein: an Afterlife by Francesca Wade – how a literary legend was made

When The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas was published in 1933, it made 60-year-old Gertrude Stein famous after decades of obscurity. After decades of pushing language to its limits, Stein had written The Autobiography in a comparatively accessible style with jokes and anecdotes and full sentences. Or, as one relieved critic noted at the time, Gertrude Stein had finally started making sense. Their job, as she saw it, would be to restore “Gertrude Stein” to her rightful place as the true originator of what she called “modern writing”. By giving her book the subtitle “An Afterlife”, Wade signals that it is this process of making and remaking Gertrude Stein’s posthumous reputation that is her main focus.