Gertrude Stein

'Think of the Bible and Homer, think of Shakespeare and think of me,' Stein said. Admirers called her a genius, sceptics a charlatan: she remains one of the most confounding - and contested - writers of the twentieth-century. In this literary detective story, Francesca Wade delves into the creation of the Stein myth. We see her posing for Picasso's portrait; at the centre of Bohemian Parisian life hosting the likes of Matisse and Hemingway; racing through the French countryside with her enigmatic companion Alice B. Toklas; dazzling American crowds on her sell out tour for her sensational Autobiography. - a veritable celebrity. Following her death, however, a different Stein begins to emerge from the archive, one Toklas had worked tirelessly to contain. But what was the real life behind the legend. And how did she and Toklas - two Jewish lesbians living in occupied France - escape the notice of the Nazis. Using astonishing never-before-seen material, Wade depicts Stein as yet unseen, vulnerable and contemplative, with Toklas far from passive at her side. This is Gertrude Stein as she was when nobody was watching: captivating, complex and human.