Ida a Novel (27 page)

December 23, New York

Van Vechten to Stein: “I see you are in the Oxford Dictionary of American Literature [with “How Writing Is Written”] & I
love
Ida!—one of my favorites” (
CVV
619).
⁷

December 26, Paris

Stein to Van Vechten: “[A]nd now I am going on with the great American novel which I have begun so often and under such different titles—now I have forgotten just which it is now but I think it is Jenny and Arthur, it was Ida but it is not Ida any longer” (
CVV
620).

1939

January 1, Paris

Stein to Van Vechten: “I am once more in the throes of writing the great American novel, now it is called Jenny and Arthur” (
CVV
621).

January 16, New York

Van Vechten to Stein: “Jenny & Arthur is a good name for a great American novel, & I am sure it will be. Is this going to be long?” (
CVV
623).

February 8, Paris

Stein to Van Vechten: “I am going on with my novel, it goes better in the summer than in the winter, winters seem more occupying than they used to be” (
CVV
624).

[April?], Paris

Stein to Cerf: “I am working on my novel, often typing it half a dozen times to seem to really have it started, and the Baby Basket is keeping us busy” (RHC).

[July?], Bilignin

Stein to Cerf: “My novel is getting on, it is a kind of a novel of The Duchess of Windsor in relation to publicity, I like it, it is about a third done” (RHC).

September 18, Bilignin

Stein to Wilder: “[W]e have now settled down to go on, Alice is type-writing Ida I am writing, Basket and Pepe are asleep the rain is raining and the fire is crackling” (
TW
244).
⁸

[Early December], Bilignin

Stein to Cerf: “I have just finished my book Paris, France, and now I am back to the novel, you do or at least I do always feel like writing a lot in war-time, I do wish you were doing something of mine, you know I do, well here I go to saw the family wood” (RHC).

December 28, Bilignin

Stein to Van Vechten: “I like wintering in the country, I had no idea there would be so much to do, and that I could walk so much as I do, the new Basket jumps and walks, but he does not care for the moon, he says it is too bright, and too unxpected” (
CVV
661).

1940

January 11, New York

Cerf to Stein: “I hope that you are going to let us see both your book about Paris and the novel that you are working on. I agree with you that it is high time that a new book by you appears under the Random House imprint!” (YCAL 101.1950).

[February?], Bilignin

Stein to Cerf: “[T]he book Paris, France is just a short one that I have written for Batsford, sort of France and the village in war-time, and the novel, I tell you Bennett I do not know anything about that novel. I have worked at it and written it over and over again and now it is about half or three quarters done and I really do not know a thing about it, usually you know I know what I know and I put it down but this time I have worked at it until I am all bothered, it was based originally on the idea of a character like the Duchess of Windsor, what is publicity, and then it kind of is something else, well anyway I am sending you as much as is more or less done, but do not think if you and Donald [Klopfer] do not like it that I will mind, I do not know what it is like, and it might easily not be anything, I dropped it to finish the book for Batsford and now I want to know what you think, it troubles me, I always want to begin it again, I never felt like that before, well anyway there it is as much as is done, now do tell me just what you think” (RHC).

February 28, New York

Random House to Stein: Random House sends sales figures for two years of selling her Plain Edition books:
Matisse Picasso And Gertrude Stein
, seventeen copies sold;
How To Write
, eight copies sold;
Operas And Plays
, three copies sold;
Lucy Church Amiably
, one copy sold. Stein is due 50 percent of the total sale price, $72.50. She is also due royalties for
The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas
($15.21);
Four Saints In Three Acts
($10.00);
Three Lives
($2.36);
Everybody’s Autobiography
($2.25); and
Portraits And Prayers
($0.75) (YCAL 101.1950).

March 19, New York

Van Vechten to Stein: About the possibility of Hollywood making a movie version of
The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas
, Van Vechten writes, “Of course you both would have to appear in the picture. Even Greta Garbo and Lillian Gish couldn’t be you and Alice. [. . .] Bennett [Cerf] says he has part of a novel by you. You haven’t written me about this” (
CVV
670).

March 25, Bilignin

Stein to Wilder: “Bennett Cerf sounds as if he would very much like to do a book of mine again” (
TW
260).

April 2, New York

Cerf to Stein: “I am delighted that you have gotten so much of a novel written. It must be many years now since you have written a novel, and everybody who loves you and admires you will be impatient to read it. I enjoyed everything that I understood about the part that you have sent us and I really understood a lot of it, which, as you know, is a new record for me. In fact, I have fallen in love with Ida and can’t wait to hear the end of her adventures. Please hurry up and finish the book. / I’m returning the part of the manuscript that you sent me and ask you to go over it very carefully, because there are a lot of words missing where Alice, for very understandable reasons, probably couldn’t figure out your handwriting. There are also a number of typographical errors that I think you will want to correct yourself. I hope that you will write just about as much more to finish the book as you have sent us here, because that will make just about the right size from a commercial point of view. Get it finished and send it to me, and we’ll publish it in just as lovely a format as we can devise for it. It’s a long time since we’ve had a new Gertrude Stein book on our list and I’m rarin’ to go!” (
FF
350–351).
⁹

April 21, Bilignin

Stein to Van Vechten: “Yes you know about the novel, don’t you remember oh about three years ago I told you I was doing a novel about the Duchess of Windsor and it was to be called Ida, I worked at it and then I wrote it over and I have written it over almost three times completely and now Bennett likes it and so I am finishing it for him and he will do it in the fall” (
CVV
672).

[April?], Bilignin

Stein to Wilder: “I sent Bennett Cerf the first half of Ida and he liked it, so I am finishing it for him” (
TW
265).

[April], Bilignin

Stein to Cerf: “My dear dear Bennett, / I am as happy as happy can be that it will be one, and that it will come out at Random House, I am a faithful soul and I have always liked everything you ever did for me and you did an awful lot for me, and so I am hard at work, and getting the whole book ready for you. It was originally inspired by Mrs. Simpson Duchess of Windsor and a girl in this village and the two became one and she was called Ida, they are still one and they are going on being, and now you like it and it’s fine, I have worked very hard at it going over it and over it to simplify it, and now if you understood a lot that much was worth it, it is lovely spring weather and we have been very peaceful and I am working steadily and I hope to have it all done for you in a couple of months but I work at it very slowly and carefully so Bennett will understand” (RHC).

May 13, New York

Cerf to Stein: “I have just received your cheerful note telling me that you are going to finish your novel as quickly as possible. I will be looking forward to getting the complete manuscript” (YCAL 101.1950).

[May?], Bilignin

Stein to Cerf: “Ida is getting on, just getting on, in these dark days I seem to like to write, it leads one on and on, Ida is not done but it very well might be in a week or so and then Alice will type it all and we will correct carefully carefully and send it to you and I hope you will like the way Ida goes on, she does go on even when she does not go on any more, and it will be wonderfully nice to have Random House doing a book again, nicer than I can say, I know you will be pleased that the Yale University library is going to have an xhibition of all my ms. they have and all the books they have of mine and everything including a complete bibliography that Robert Haas is doing for them, and which they are printing” (RHC).

May 18, Bilignin

Stein to Wilder: “Bennett [Cerf] is doing Ida this fall, it has finally gotten itself done, and now I am xciting myself with a child’s book called To Do” (
TW
265).
¹⁰

June 3, Bilignin

Stein to Van Vechten: “[I]n about a week I will send you the copy of the Novel Ida and will you let Bennett know you have Ida when you have her in case he has not had his. Thanks so much, we are going through some pretty awful days, but we have lots of friends around and we all console each other” (
CVV
676).

[June?], Bilignin

Stein to Cerf: “Ida is done and is leaving to-morrow to go to you, I hope you will like her to the end. I am sending a duplicate copy to Carl so in case yours does not turn up, you can get his, I do hope you like it. I am starting another novel called Mrs. Reynolds, and if you like one well the other may get done, but it takes a long time to write a novel, Ida took about three years, we are having dark days but I guess it will all be better and better soon, anyway we love you we go on loving you, and I can not tell you how pleased I will be to be in a Random House catalogue again, you were my first true publisher, who really believed in the whole of one and do not think I ever can forget that” (RHC).

June 25, New York

Cerf to Stein: “This morning I received your letter telling me that
IDA
would soon be finished. It is good to learn this and it was better still to see your familiar handwriting again. We have been thinking about you constantly and praying that you and Alice were safe and happy in Bilignin” (YCAL 101.1950).

July 15, New York

Cerf to Stein: “Just a line to tell you that the manuscript of
IDA
has arrived. I will write you again just as soon as we have had a chance to read the book. / I too am happy that you are going to be back on the Random House list and hope that you will stay there for the rest of all of our lives” (YCAL 101.1950).

July 29, New York

Van Vechten to Stein: “
Ida
is
here!
I just got Bennett [Cerf] on the phone &
Ida
is
here!
” (
CVV
677).

August 5, New York

Cerf to Stein: “
IDA
is here, primping herself in preparation for a nice little trip to the printers, so you needn’t send a duplicate copy” (YCAL 101.1950).

September 6, New York

Cerf to Stein: “Ida is on the Spring list of Random House, and is already at the printer’s” (YCAL 101.1950).

October 8, New York

Cerf to Stein: “We are expecting to have the book ready for publication right after the beginning of the New Year” (YCAL 101.1950).