TO DO -- A BOOK OF ALPHABETS AND BIRTHDAYS

Stein, Gertrude

ISBN 10: 0300170971 / ISBN 13: 9780300170979

Published by Yale University Press - with Beinecke Rare Book and mss library, 2011

About this Item

Hardcover--- purple cloth covers, book is 9 1/4" x 8 1/4". 127 pages, with full page, full color illustrations.FINE NEW CONDITION- - dust jacket Fine -- a lovely charming book.

Seller Inventory # 054409

Bibliographic Details

• Title: TO DO -- A BOOK OF ALPHABETS AND BIRTHDAYS
• Publisher: Yale University Press - with Beinecke Rare Book and mss library
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300170971
• ISBN 13: 9780300170979
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Giselle Potter
• Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

The first ever illustrated edition of avant-garde writer Gertrude Stein's whimsical children's book

"Alphabets and names make games and everybody has a name and all the same they have in a way to have a birthday," muses Gertrude Stein in To Do: A Book of Alphabets and Birthdays. Written in 1940 and intended as a follow-up to her children's book The World Is Round, published the previous year, To Do is a fanciful journey through the alphabet. Each letter is represented by four names (including Gertrude for "G") and features a short story told in verse. "[This is] a birthday book I would have liked as a child," said Stein of To Do.

Publishers rejected the manuscript as too complex for children, and it remained unpublished during Stein's lifetime. A text-only version issued from Yale University Press in 1957. Now, more than seventy years after Stein penned the story, To Do is appearing with illustrations, realizing the author's original concept for the book. Giselle Potter's witty and stylish illustrations provide a perfect complement to Stein's uniquely whimsical world of words, creating a truly delightful, often hilarious book that adults and children alike can appreciate and love.

Published in association with the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

About the Author

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was at the forefront of the development of modern art and literature. Her archive is housed in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. Giselle Potter has worked for the New Yorker and has illustrated more than twenty children's books. Timothy Young is curator of modern books and manuscripts at the Beinecke.