Wars I Have Seen

[Cecil Beaton. Gertrude Stein]


During the Second World War Gertrude Stein, her partner Alice B. Toklas and their pet poodle Basket retired from Paris to Bilignin, their country house in Vichy France. In Wars I Have Seen Stein recounts her and her neighbours’ experiences of the war. The book includes anecdotes of everyday life for the French people, their struggles and their resistance, and ends with a growing sense of euphoria as Stein’s fellow Americans begin to arrive. The book is not without its controversies. During the war Stein lived in relative safety in France and her art collection remained intact, despite her Jewish identity. Stein has been criticised for collaboration with the Vichy government and for her vocal support of Pétain. No signs of these problematic elements are visible in Beaton’s dust jacket to the book. The wrap-around design depicts a bucolic scene of the Bilignin house and garden with Stein, Toklas and Basket greeting the sight of rescuing parachutists.


Gertrude Stein. Dust jacket and photographs by Cecil Beaton. B. T. Batsford. London. Autumn 1945. First British edition. Hardback, octavo; blue cloth-bound boards, blue title to spine, top edge blue, dust jacket. 191 pages. Dust jacket design by Beaton; portrait frontispiece and 3 hors-texte plates reproducing photographs by Beaton. English. 220 x 150mm. 0.35kg. . Very good, in very good dust jacket; light shelf wear to jacket, slight ruffling to forecorners and spine ends, slight loss to head of spine, browning to spine, not price-clipped; slight dustiness to edges, previous owner's signature to front pastedown.