Alright, so I've been spending a good chunk of my time trying to really get what was going on with Gertrude Stein and Hemingway. You hear the names together, but man, the actual story is a bit of a journey.
You know, you pick up Hemingway, maybe The Sun Also Rises, and you see that epigraph: "You are all a lost generation." And for years, I just figured, yeah, Hemingway, cool line, sums up that whole post-war vibe. Didn't think much beyond it, to be honest.
But then, I kept tripping over Gertrude Stein's name whenever I’d read anything about Hemingway or that period. It was like a little breadcrumb trail. And the big kicker? Turns out, she’s the one who actually dropped that "lost generation" bomb first! Hemingway just ran with it, made it famous. That got me thinking, okay, what’s the real story here? I had to dig in.
So, I started looking into Stein. And wow, this woman was something else. Born way back in 1874, a real pioneer. Her writing style? Totally out there, experimental, not like anything else people were doing. She was holding court in Paris, on the Left Bank, and her place was like a magnet for all these artists and writers. Hemingway, he was in that mix. She sort of took him under her wing for a bit. They were pen pals, helped each other with their careers. I even read that Alice Toklas, her partner, had a nickname for Stein – think it was 'Goddy' or something like that. And Stein, she was actually godmother to Hemingway’s son. So, there were real personal ties there, at least for a while.
Their relationship, though, it wasn't just simple mentor-student stuff. It got messy. Like, really messy. Started out supportive, but like a lot of those intense friendships between creative types, it went south. Big time. It’s one of those things where you read about it and you're like, "Man, how did it go from A to B?" Just a whole lot of ego and art mixed up together, I figure.
And that "lost generation" phrase. Stein coins it, right? Then Hemingway puts it in his book, and bam, it becomes THE definition for everyone feeling adrift after the war. That feeling of being 'disoriented, wandering,' as the saying goes. Once I understood Stein's role in that, it was like a lightbulb went on. It wasn’t just Hemingway being insightful; it was him picking up on something powerful Stein had identified.
Why did I even get so deep into this? It’s kinda funny, actually. I was supposed to be working on this big, boring project for my actual job – something totally unrelated, spreadsheets and soul-crushing meetings, you know the drill. And I just hit a wall. Couldn't focus. So, as a way to procrastinate, I guess, I picked up an old Hemingway book I had lying around. One thing led to another, and suddenly I’m reading about Stein. Before I knew it, I’d spent like two weeks, every spare minute, evenings, weekends, just devouring everything I could find about them. My actual work project? Totally tanked. Got a slap on the wrist for it. But man, I learned a ton about these writers. It was like I’d accidentally stumbled into this whole other world that was way more interesting than what I was supposed to be doing. My own little rebellion, fueled by literary gossip and Paris in the 20s. So yeah, that's my 'practice' – a deep dive born out of pure, unadulterated avoidance of responsibility!
So, what I figured out from all this poking around is that you can't really get the full picture of early Hemingway without understanding Stein's shadow, or her light, depending on how you look at it. She was a massive force. And their whole complicated, up-and-down relationship, it’s a classic story of art, ambition, and how sometimes the most famous lines have these tangled, personal roots. It’s more than just names in a textbook; it's proper drama, you know?
