Gertrude Stein, Tender Buttons

Michel Delville (Université de Liège)

Ed. by Matthew Hofer, University of New Mexico
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1914

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons (1914) is a volume of prose poetry divided into three sections devoted to “Objects”, “Food”, and “Rooms”. The first two contain 108 short prose entries whose length ranges from a few words to a couple of pages, whereas the third one is a long, uninterrupted prose sequence consisting of relatively autonomous paragraphs. A collection of poetic “still lifes”, the titles of Stein’s entries prepare the reader for a description of domestic interiors. The still lifes of the first section, for instance, include “descriptions” of a carafe, a cushion, a box, a piece of coffee, a red stamp, a cloak, a red dress and an umbrella. The …

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1763 words

Citation: Delville, Michel. "Tender Buttons". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 August 2018 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1686, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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