“Place Gertrude Stein?” you’ll say, looking around. “Just a small square, right?” Yes, a simple square, yet it holds the spirit of a literary giant, Gertrude Stein, who graced Paris’s streets with her words and her presence. Place Gertrude Stein, located in the 12th Arrondissement of Paris, commemorates a woman who defied convention and embraced avant-garde art and literature.
Her home, a cozy apartment in the heart of Paris, served as a haven for artists and writers from across the globe. The legendary Stein salon hosted luminaries like Ernest Hemingway. It was here, surrounded by the rich literary heritage of Paris, that Hemingway was so captivated by Stein’s work. In fact, it was Sherwood Anderson who persuaded Hemingway to meet Gertrude Stein and settle in Paris, saying it was “the best place to be for a serious writer.” But it was Hemingway’s time in the Luxembourg Gardens, those serene green spaces, that provided him with the inspiration for his masterpiece, “A Moveable Feast.”
Hemingway described Stein’s salons as vibrant and bustling, with an air of creative energy. He wrote about the “good things to eat and tea and natural distilled liqueurs made from plums, yellow plums or wild raspberries,” served up in a spacious studio adorned with paintings. He even described Stein’s strong character, a “very big but not tall” frame, “heavy built like a peasant woman” with “beautiful eyes and a strong German-Jewish face.” But despite their close friendship, their relationship eventually soured. Hemingway felt offended when Stein referred to young American writers as a “lost generation.” With Stein, he felt a sense of connection, a shared love for the Parisian streets, the vibrant artistic pulse of the city, yet something, perhaps her bluntness, perhaps her unconventional ways, chipped away at their friendship.
Place Gertrude Stein today is a testament to a woman who changed the literary landscape. Her work and legacy continue to resonate in the streets of Paris, and in the hearts of those who seek to understand the currents of artistic evolution that swept through the city’s cultural scene.