Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein was a writer and art collector who cultivated a social hub for modern artists in France. Much of her writing was inspired by her relationships with women, especially fellow Parisian-American Alice Toklas.

After moving from the United States to Paris at age twenty-nine, she began her role as a mentor for budding artists and writers. Naturally outgoing and engaged in the modern art world, Stein cultivated friendships with Matisse, Picasso, and literary greats Wilder and Hemingway. A few years after settling in Paris, she met her lifelong partner Alice Toklas. They were nearly inseparable until Gertrude's death in 1946.

Stein's work is known for its intentional lack of a political or social alignment; she preferred to describe rather than persuade. However, simply by being herself - a successful female writer in love with a woman - and writing stories that reflected her own experiences, she broke the social mold of her time. Stein wrote one of the earliest coming-out stories on record, although she chose not to publish it. Another coming-out story, “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene,” may be the first published piece to use the word “gay” to refer to a same-sex relationship. (Because the term wasn't well-known, the romance between Miss Furr and Miss Skeene went unnoticed by many readers.)

At the onset of World War II, Gertrude and Alice left the city for the countryside of eastern France. Both Jewish, they relied on the support of friends and neighbors to escape persecution. When the war ended, they were finally able to return to Paris. Stein died of cancer a few short years later, leaving a unique legacy of genre-defying literature and generous contribution to the arts.