Lifting Belly

About this book

Often considered the central erotic work of Stein's middle period, this love poem written to her longtime companion, Alice B. Toklas, reveals a vulnerability and tenderness unexpected of one so famous for caustic wit. Associative in structure, the work consists of alternately cryptic and conversational fragments detailing a shared domestic life. A very brief initial section observes the hardships of gay estrangement from society, while the body of the work applauds the decision to endure these for love's sake. Readers will welcome an unusual view of Stein in this first trade edition of a signal work in which "lifting belly"--signifying sexual union--comes to imply passionate commitment to another and acceptance of oneself. Mark is a professor of literature at Tulane University.

Themes & subjects

About the author

Gertrude Stein

3 February 1874 – 27 July 1946

Gertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein, from 1874-1914 (Gertrude and Leo), and the second with her partner Alice B. Toklas, from 1907 until Stein's death in 1946 (Gertrude and Alice). Stein shared her salon at 27 rue de Fleurus, Paris, first with Leo and then with Alice. Throughout her lifetime, Stein also cultivated significant relationships with well-known members of the avant garde artistic and literary world. ([Source][1].) [1]:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein