Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Memoir and Biography Longlisted for the Plutarch Award Named One Of the Best Ten Books of 2025 by Washington Post Book World and NPR''s Fresh Air Named a Best Book of the Year by Artforum , The Guardian , LitHub, The Independent (UK), and Air Mail "Superb.The biography of [Gertrude Stein] has been written several times already, though perhaps never so stylishly.[Wade] paints a vivid portrait of her striving, grasping subject.[this] book is leagues more readable than The Making of Americans , but in its own unassuming way, it too redefines its genre.marvelous, funny and frequently moving." --The Washington Post "A tour de force of managed evasion, Gertrude Stein''s deliciously twisted 1933 tribute to herself, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas , stands as a boldface taunt to the latter-day biographer-sleuth game enough to tackle the fabled couple''s zealously managed mythos. Francesca Wade''s Getrude Stein: An Afterlife rises to the challenge with laudable can-do.
Mercifully lean as literary biographies go.Wade''s ingenious tack foregrounds the herky-jerky reception of Stein''s work and chronicles the struggle to get and keep her oeuvre in print both during her lifetime and after.There is something modest, measured, even sweet (contra Janet Malcolm) about Wade''s account of these intertwined lives, delivered in sentences as readable as Stein''s were extravagant." --Artforum "[Wade] guides us attentively through all Stein''s writings.Her scholarly research is terrific, and she is astute in her use of hitherto unseen materials. Resisting hagiography, she has faced up to Stein''s more dubious characteristics, and has shown us vividly what she was like from the point of view of those who knew her. The result is a book that will forever be an essential tool for anyone studying or reading Gertrude Stein." --Hermione Lee, The New York Review of Books "Thoughtful and thorough, with insightful interpretations of her work embedded in a compelling narrative of her and Toklas''s life, Wade''s biography makes a convincing case that, while her status as a cultural figure is secure, her writing remains, if anything, underrated.
" --Bookforum "Francesca Wade''s lively and unconventional biography.digs deeper into Stein''s childhood, her early years in Paris and her relationship with Alice B. Toklas. Rather than ending the biography with Stein''s death in 1946, Wade devotes the second half of her book to the tale of those obsessive admirers who helped Stein achieve serious posthumous recognition." --Maureen Corrigan, "Fresh Air" "Wade''s book--both well researched and breezily readable--cannily reveals how Stein lived, and how we know how she lived.In this moment when humanistic study is under attack, defunded by the very institutions whose responsibility is to protect it, Wade has written a book that shows the importance of afterlives--the work of editing and publishing, of curation, of scholarly research, of new generations reading afresh--and how tending to them may open texts up in ways their authors might never have imagined." --The Los Angeles Review of Books "This new portrait of the life and legacy of the great literary modernist--a onetime medical student turned expat novelist, playwright, art collector, saloniste and confidante of Hemingway and Picasso--draws on previously unexamined archival material, emphasizing Stein''s talent for innovation and making the case that her greatest invention may have been herself." --The New York Times "Vibrant.
astute, honest, and open-minded.With great care and intelligence, Ward makes Stein''s writings appear to be far more coherent, far more full of human meaning and significance than many have found in them." --Jewish Currents "Well researched.intriguing.Wade comes into her own, using hitherto unavailable material to develop fresh ideas about the relationship between Stein and Toklas.I came away from reading it with a feeling for Stein''s distinctive intellect and her dizzying thoughts about writing.as well as her ambition to upend literary tradition by taking prose on a path beyond plain representation." --The Atlantic "Original: a narrative about literary scholarship, and the discomforts it can cause those left behind to tend a legacy.
Wade''s discussion of.scholarly intrigues is deft and will be fascinating to connoisseurs of literary history." --New Republic "An exemplary biography, looking at both an artist, and the creation of that artist''s legacy--itself a sort of art form." --The Millions "Not only a fresh look at the quintessential American in Paris but also an investigation into what it takes to build a literary legacy." --Town and Country "Nuanced.stylishly written" --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Invigorat[es] the genre . Wade''s book is excellent, authoritative in its way because it leaves her controversial subject properly controversial." --Hudson Review "Wade approaches biography as a detective, piecing together the story of not only Stein''s life, but also her posthumous literary reception.
In the stunning second half of the book, Wade explores Toklas'' role as a widow and the keeper of Stein''s fame.Wade''s access to a previously unattainable notebook containing interviews with Toklas after Stein''s death provides profound insight into their lives together. Wade introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters.It is a joy to watch Wade fit the pieces of Stein''s life into place." --BookPage (starred review) "[An] innovative biography.Wade explores how scholars constructed Stein''s posthumous legacy. [Her] knowledgeable insights and clear affection for her subject, warts and all, make this a thoroughly captivating portrait. Anyone intrigued by the legend of Stein and Toklas will find this a windfall.
" -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Wade''s revelations contribute to a nuanced portrait of Stein, Toklas, and their relationship.A probing examination of an enigmatic writer." -- Kirkus Reviews "Highly recommended to researchers, but Wade provides a wealth of material for general readers too." --Library Journal (starred review).