Gertrude Stein's Brain Work

Strange Anatomy: Gertrude Stein and the Avant-Garde Embryo

“…When she finally submitted her model, it was judged unintelligible and swept into the trash. Stein fled to Europe and the rest, as they say, is history (Farland 2004; Meyer 2001; Wineapple 1996). Although Stein failed to make a name for herself in medicine or embryology, it is my contention that she embodies the transition from literal to visual embryos, from the empirical to the aesthetic.…”

The Embryography of Alice B. Toklas

“…Stein's medical career has been reconstructed over the years as new evidence has been discovered, pieced together, and interpreted by Stein biographers and historians includingBensley 1984;Bridgman 1970;Farland 2004;Gallup 1953;Meyer 1992 Meyer , 2001 Nakajima n.d.;Sander 2002;Schoenberg 1988; Sprigge 1955;Wilson 1971; and Wineapple 1996. 4 In a coincidence that would interest only someone with an embryo-centric view of the world, Stein's Latin tutor was sixteen-year-old Margaret Adaline Reed (1881-1970), who went on to become an eminent embryologist and a specialist in tissue culture as the collaborator and spouse of Warren Harmon Lewis (seeLandecker 2004); the couple worked for many years inMall's lab (cf.…”

“…21). Some saw modeling as busywork unfit for serious scientists (seeFarland 2004). In an oft-repeated line, Leo said Gertrude reported that a visiting German scientist had once observed that model making was "an excellent occupation for women and Chinamen" (L.Stein 1950: 148; Wineapple 1996: 124).6 According to Gray's Anatomy in 1918, "The posterior commissure is a rounded band of white fibers crossing the middle line on the dorsal aspect of the upper end of the cerebral aqueduct.…”

“…Literary scholars have examined the effect of Stein's medical training on her narrative forms and themes as a way to pre-figure her later career and to analyze the relationship between science and artistic modernism (see Chodat 2005; Farland 2004; Henderson 2004; Wineapple 1996). This essay, by contrast, takes advantage of Stein's fame to read back into the historical constitution of embryos as social and scientific artifacts.…”

“… 3 Stein's medical career has been reconstructed over the years as new evidence has been discovered, pieced together, and interpreted by Stein biographers and historians including Bensley 1984; Bridgman 1970; Farland 2004; Gallup 1953; Meyer 1992, 2001; Nakajima n.d.; Sander 2002; Schoenberg 1988; Sprigge 1955; Wilson 1971; and Wineapple 1996.…”