[Late September], Zurich
Wilder to Alice Toklas: “As Gertrude says: [‘]The world’s full of plots. Your life’s full of plots; my life’s full of plots. Plots aren’t interesting anymore’” (TW 181).
September 29, Bilignin
Stein to Van Vechten: “I am writing an American novel called Ida, it begins well, but then it begins to get too funny and one must not be too funny” (CVV 570).
October 4, Zurich
Wilder to Stein: Writing the plays Our Town and The Merchant of Yonkers has his full attention, and he writes, “It’s too late. I dare not turn aside now, not even for Ida. Besides, she obstinately refuses to give up the secret of her ‘action.’ There she is: glorious as ‘description’ and like Aristotle’s god: the mover—unmoved. / Perhaps her description is all her narration. / Perhaps just as poetry now gives way to prose; so narration gives way to description” (TW 182).
October 5, Bilignin
Stein to Van Vechten: “[A]nd just what is the sadness of America and its [sweetness?] I am awfully interested in it, and trying to do it in Ida” (CVV 571).
October 16, Bilignin
Stein to Wilder: “[A]nd Thornton have you by any chance on your person and could be parted from it a map of these United States I kind of need it to make Ida go on, she is going on some, but a map would help, and here there are none” (TW 187).
October 20, Zurich
Wilder to Stein: “The best bookstore in Zürich is sending you a map of the greatest country in the world. Love it dearly. Someday we’ll drive all over it together pointing out BEAUTIES to left and right. [. . .] I feel all funny and ants-in-my-. . . . . . . shirt to think that IDA is leaning on that glorious map and going on. If I see light on Ida, the light on Ida that I’ve been groping for two-and-a-half months I shall become very obstreperous and wish to share it with you” (TW 188).
October 22, Bilignin
Stein to Wilder: “Thanks for the map, the big one was not right but on the back some little ones with the straight lines of the states and they are inspiring they are so good for Ida” (TW 190).
October 26, Bilignin
Stein to Wilder: “[G]etting ready to go [back to Paris] and so getting ready to see you, yes Ida needs helping she goes on but any kind thought is more than welcome” (TW 191).
November 3, Paris
Stein to Wilder: “[W]e forgot to talk about the ms for Yale, but we will on Thursday, I have an idea for rewriting Ida, lots of love” (TW 192).
November 4, Paris
Wilder to Stein: “So I read and reread IDA. / And often with bewitched delight; and sometimes in the dark—oh, yes, confident for her; but in the dark, for me. / But my incomprehensions are an old story. / I’m proud of being a slow-digester, a struggler-de-bonne-volonté and a ruminator. / Oh, Ida” (TW 193).
November 11, Paris
Stein to Wilder: “[A]nd there is lots xciting, Ida gently progressing but just now not so much” (TW 194).
December 8, Paris
Stein to Wilder: “I think I have a scheme for Ida which will pull it together, it came out of our last talk together the one about the difference between Making of Americans and Freud, I have an idea I have not yet had time to put it in order it is just commencing but in a couple of days I xpect to begin and then later we will send it to you” (TW 199).
1938
[March?], Paris
Stein to Wilder: “[A]nd you will do the novel yet yes we will, you know Thornton I find so many on the quays and I read them all and I begin to really know what a novel is, come Thornton come and I’ll tell you” (TW 211).
April 23, Tucson, Arizona
Wilder to Stein: “Is IDA A NOVEL still the chief work on the desk [?]” (TW 216).
May 11, Paris
Stein to Wilder: “Ida has become an opera, and it is a beauty, really is, an opera about Faust, I am dying to show it to you, I have the first act done [. . .] some day she will be a novel too, she is getting ready for that, but as an opera she is a wonder” (TW 217–218).
[June?], Bilignin
Stein to Cerf: “Here we are my opera is done and nothing else is yet begun but I have a scheme for a novel in my head a long one” (RHC).
June [27?], Bilignin
Stein to Wilder: “[A]nd now once more I am going to do the novel Ida, I am beginning all over again just as if it never had been done” (TW 220).
[July?], Bilignin
Stein to Cerf: “I have just begun a longish novel, simple and I hope will turn into an adventure story, I am now on the second chapter, Alice likes it very much, she says it is like early America” (RHC).
July 26, Bilignin
Stein to Van Vechten: “I garden and I have started a novel that Mama Woojums [Toklas] says is early American” (CVV 601).6
August 15, Bilignin
Stein to Van Vechten: “I am going on writing a long novel so I am busy [. . .] I have been working a lot, nobody in the house just lots of friends around, and that makes everything peaceful” (CVV 604).
August [25?], Bilignin
Stein to Wilder: “[A]nd now about Faust, here it is and I think a wonderful play, and please get somebody to play it cinema stage but somewhere, it is our old friend Ida but I think completely created, and I think it would be very popular, I judge from the people who love it” (TW 222).
November 25, Paris
Stein to Van Vechten: “I am afraid Bennett [Cerf] is getting solemn, he is just and sweet and kind but I think he is beginning to believe in the importance of being earnest, and alas, I seem to see its importance less rather than more” (CVV 616).
December 23, New York
Van Vechten to Stein: “I see you are in the Oxford Dictionary of American Literature [with “How Writing Is Written”] & I love Ida!—one of my favorites” (CVV 619).7
December 26, Paris
Stein to Van Vechten: “[A]nd now I am going on with the great American novel which I have begun so often and under such different titles—now I have forgotten just which it is now but I think it is Jenny and Arthur, it was Ida but it is not Ida any longer” (CVV 620).
1939
January 1, Paris
Stein to Van Vechten: “I am once more in the throes of writing the great American novel, now it is called Jenny and Arthur” (CVV 621).
January 16, New York
Van Vechten to Stein: “Jenny & Arthur is a good name for a great American novel, & I am sure it will be. Is this going to be long?” (CVV 623).
February 8, Paris
Stein to Van Vechten: “I am going on with my novel, it goes better in the summer than in the winter, winters seem more occupying than they used to be” (CVV 624).
[April?], Paris
Stein to Cerf: “I am working on my novel, often typing it half a dozen times to seem to really have it started, and the Baby Basket is keeping us busy” (RHC).
[July?], Bilignin
Stein to Cerf: “My novel is getting on, it is a kind of a novel of The Duchess of Windsor in relation to publicity, I like it, it is about a third done” (RHC).
September 18, Bilignin
Stein to Wilder: “[W]e have now settled down to go on, Alice is type-writing Ida I am writing, Basket and Pepe are asleep the rain is raining and the fire is crackling” (TW 244).8
[Early December], Bilignin
Stein to Cerf: “I have just finished my book Paris, France, and now I am back to the novel, you do or at least I do always feel like writing a lot in war-time, I do wish you were doing something of mine, you know I do, well here I go to saw the family wood” (RHC).
December 28, Bilignin
Stein to Van Vechten: “I like wintering in the country, I had no idea there would be so much to do, and that I could walk so much as I do, the new Basket jumps and walks, but he does not care for the moon, he says it is too bright, and too unxpected” (CVV 661).
1940
January 11, New York
Cerf to Stein: “I hope that you are going t
o let us see both your book about Paris and the novel that you are working on. I agree with you that it is high time that a new book by you appears under the Random House imprint!” (YCAL 101.1950).
[February?], Bilignin
Stein to Cerf: “[T]he book Paris, France is just a short one that I have written for Batsford, sort of France and the village in war-time, and the novel, I tell you Bennett I do not know anything about that novel. I have worked at it and written it over and over again and now it is about half or three quarters done and I really do not know a thing about it, usually you know I know what I know and I put it down but this time I have worked at it until I am all bothered, it was based originally on the idea of a character like the Duchess of Windsor, what is publicity, and then it kind of is something else, well anyway I am sending you as much as is more or less done, but do not think if you and Donald [Klopfer] do not like it that I will mind, I do not know what it is like, and it might easily not be anything, I dropped it to finish the book for Batsford and now I want to know what you think, it troubles me, I always want to begin it again, I never felt like that before, well anyway there it is as much as is done, now do tell me just what you think” (RHC).
February 28, New York
Random House to Stein: Random House sends sales figures for two years of selling her Plain Edition books: Matisse Picasso And Gertrude Stein, seventeen copies sold; How To Write, eight copies sold; Operas And Plays, three copies sold; Lucy Church Amiably, one copy sold. Stein is due 50 percent of the total sale price, $72.50. She is also due royalties for The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas ($15.21); Four Saints In Three Acts ($10.00); Three Lives ($2.36); Everybody’s Autobiography ($2.25); and Portraits And Prayers ($0.75) (YCAL 101.1950).
March 19, New York
Van Vechten to Stein: About the possibility of Hollywood making a movie version of The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas, Van Vechten writes, “Of course you both would have to appear in the picture. Even Greta Garbo and Lillian Gish couldn’t be you and Alice. [. . .] Bennett [Cerf] says he has part of a novel by you. You haven’t written me about this” (CVV 670).
March 25, Bilignin
Stein to Wilder: “Bennett Cerf sounds as if he would very much like to do a book of mine again” (TW 260).
April 2, New York
Cerf to Stein: “I am delighted that you have gotten so much of a novel written. It must be many years now since you have written a novel, and everybody who loves you and admires you will be impatient to read it. I enjoyed everything that I understood about the part that you have sent us and I really understood a lot of it, which, as you know, is a new record for me. In fact, I have fallen in love with Ida and can’t wait to hear the end of her adventures. Please hurry up and finish the book. / I’m returning the part of the manuscript that you sent me and ask you to go over it very carefully, because there are a lot of words missing where Alice, for very understandable reasons, probably couldn’t figure out your handwriting. There are also a number of typographical errors that I think you will want to correct yourself. I hope that you will write just about as much more to finish the book as you have sent us here, because that will make just about the right size from a commercial point of view. Get it finished and send it to me, and we’ll publish it in just as lovely a format as we can devise for it. It’s a long time since we’ve had a new Gertrude Stein book on our list and I’m rarin’ to go!” (FF 350–351).9
April 21, Bilignin
Stein to Van Vechten: “Yes you know about the novel, don’t you remember oh about three years ago I told you I was doing a novel about the Duchess of Windsor and it was to be called Ida, I worked at it and then I wrote it over and I have written it over almost three times completely and now Bennett likes it and so I am finishing it for him and he will do it in the fall” (CVV 672).
[April?], Bilignin
Stein to Wilder: “I sent Bennett Cerf the first half of Ida and he liked it, so I am finishing it for him” (TW 265).
[April], Bilignin
Stein to Cerf: “My dear dear Bennett, / I am as happy as happy can be that it will be one, and that it will come out at Random House, I am a faithful soul and I have always liked everything you ever did for me and you did an awful lot for me, and so I am hard at work, and getting the whole book ready for you. It was originally inspired by Mrs. Simpson Duchess of Windsor and a girl in this village and the two became one and she was called Ida, they are still one and they are going on being, and now you like it and it’s fine, I have worked very hard at it going over it and over it to simplify it, and now if you understood a lot that much was worth it, it is lovely spring weather and we have been very peaceful and I am working steadily and I hope to have it all done for you in a couple of months but I work at it very slowly and carefully so Bennett will understand” (RHC).
May 13, New York
Cerf to Stein: “I have just received your cheerful note telling me that you are going to finish your novel as quickly as possible. I will be looking forward to getting the complete manuscript” (YCAL 101.1950).
[May?], Bilignin
Stein to Cerf: “Ida is getting on, just getting on, in these dark days I seem to like to write, it leads one on and on, Ida is not done but it very well might be in a week or so and then Alice will type it all and we will correct carefully carefully and send it to you and I hope you will like the way Ida goes on, she does go on even when she does not go on any more, and it will be wonderfully nice to have Random House doing a book again, nicer than I can say, I know you will be pleased that the Yale University library is going to have an xhibition of all my ms. they have and all the books they have of mine and everything including a complete bibliography that Robert Haas is doing for them, and which they are printing” (RHC).
May 18, Bilignin
Stein to Wilder: “Bennett [Cerf] is doing Ida this fall, it has finally gotten itself done, and now I am xciting myself with a child’s book called To Do” (TW 265).10
June 3, Bilignin
Stein to Van Vechten: “[I]n about a week I will send you the copy of the Novel Ida and will you let Bennett know you have Ida when you have her in case he has not had his. Thanks so much, we are going through some pretty awful days, but we have lots of friends around and we all console each other” (CVV 676).
[June?], Bilignin
Stein to Cerf: “Ida is done and is leaving to-morrow to go to you, I hope you will like her to the end. I am sending a duplicate copy to Carl so in case yours does not turn up, you can get his, I do hope you like it. I am starting another novel called Mrs. Reynolds, and if you like one well the other may get done, but it takes a long time to write a novel, Ida took about three years, we are having dark days but I guess it will all be better and better soon, anyway we love you we go on loving you, and I can not tell you how pleased I will be to be in a Random House catalogue again, you were my first true publisher, who really believed in the whole of one and do not think I ever can forget that” (RHC).
June 25, New York
Cerf to Stein: “This morning I received your letter telling me that IDA would soon be finished. It is good to learn this and it was better still to see your familiar handwriting again. We have been thinking about you constantly and praying that you and Alice were safe and happy in Bilignin” (YCAL 101.1950).
July 15, New York
Cerf to Stein: “Just a line to tell you that the manuscript of IDA has arrived. I will write you again just as soon as we have had a chance to read the book. / I too am happy that you are going to be back on the Random House list and hope that you will stay there for the rest of all of our lives” (YCAL 101.1950).
July 29, New York
Van Vechten to Stein: “Ida is here! I just got Bennett [Cerf] on the phone & Ida is here!” (CVV 677).
August 5, New York
Cerf to Stein: “IDA is here, primping herself in preparation for a nice little trip to the printers, so you needn’t send a duplicate copy” (YCAL 101.1950).
September 6, New Y
ork
Cerf to Stein: “Ida is on the Spring list of Random House, and is already at the printer’s” (YCAL 101.1950).
October 8, New York
Cerf to Stein: “We are expecting to have the book ready for publication right after the beginning of the New Year” (YCAL 101.1950).
December 18, Bilignin
Stein to Wilder: “[W]e see a good many people, and I work quite a bit, I am on a new novel now, Mrs. Reynolds it is called, Ida you know is to be published in January, and now I wonder is this Mrs. Reynolds more a novel than Ida. Sometimes I dream that I have found a way to write a novel and sometimes I dream that I only dream it, but I like novels bad novels, poor novels, detective novels, sentimental novels, these days I read all the wishy washy novels of the end of the last and the beginning of this century” (TW 276–277).
1941
January 2, New York
Cerf to Stein: “IDA is scheduled for publication on February 15th, and I will have copies to send you in a very short while [three packages with two copies each, in case any of them go astray. . . .] It is going to be a fine looking book and I am sure that you will be pleased with it” (YCAL 101.1950).
January 24, New York
Van Vechten to Stein: “I LOVE Ida. It is gay and ironic and delightful and in a new vein for you. In the series of letters I have been collating there are many references to this book, sometimes called Jennie and Arthur, and one of these references is worth quoting [from September 29, 1937]: ‘Ida begins to be funny and we mustn’t be too funny!’ Well, it isn’t TOO funny, but of course it is funny. The dog passage is epic and will be used in anthologies till the end of time” (CVV 697).