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Paris 1944
Gertrude Stein lived at #27 Rue de Fleurus, a quick walk to the nearby Jardin du Luxembourg, where she often spent leisurely afternoons playing with her dog Basket, along with her companion, Alice B. Toklas. We lived several blocks over, in the hotel Acadamie Saint Germaine, across from the Universite Paris, along the Rue des Saints-Peres. Gertrude was a large, masculine looking woman—American by birth—as well as Jewish, but then, so was Alice, an American Jew I mean; not that I have any issues with the Jews, they have enough problems. As for being Americans, I don’t know any others, so I may be biased based on what followed.
From what I know about her early life though, Gertrude’s parents were originally German, or maybe they were of German descent, if not wholly German; I can’t say one way or the other. They were part of the American nouveau riche though—another name for so…
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