Ida a Novel (18 page)

This could be a thing that Ida would do. She would say yes and she was resting and nothing happened and nothing began but she could run away. Not everybody can but she could and she did.

What happened.

Before she ran away.

She did not really run away, she did not go away. It was something in between. She took her umbrella and parasol. Everybody knew she was going, that is not really true they did not know she was going but she went they knew she was going. Every- body knew.

She went away that is she did get away and when she was away everybody was excited naturally enough. It was better so. Dear Ida.

Little by little she was not there she was elsewhere. Little by little.

It was little by little and it was all of a sudden. It was not entirely sudden because she was not entirely there before she was elsewhere.

That is the way it happened.

Before it happened well quite a while before it happened she did meet women. When they came she was resting, when they went she was resting, she liked it and they did not mind it. They came again and when they came again, she was obliging, she did say yes. She was sorry she was resting, so sorry and she did say yes. She thought they liked it and they did but it was not the same as if she had ever said no or if she had not always been resting.

If she had not always been resting they would not have come nor would they have come again. They said thank you my dear when they went. She had said yes Ida had and she said yes again.

That is the way it was before going away, they had not really come nor had they said Thank you my dear.

That is really the reason that Ida ran away not ran away or went away but something in between. She was ready to be resting and she was ready to say yes and she was ready to hear them say thank you my dear but they had almost not come again.

So Ida was not there. Dear Ida.

She knew she would be away but not really away but before she knew she was there where she had gone to she was really away.

That was almost an astonishment, quite to her, but to all the others, not so much so once she was not there.

Of course she had luncheon and dinners to eat on the way.

One of the menus she ate was this.

She ate soft-shell crabs, she had two servings of soft-shell crabs and she ate lobster à la Newburg she only had one helping of that and then she left.

She often left after she ate. That is when she was not resting but she mostly was resting.

And so there she was and where was Andrew, well Andrew moved quickly while Ida moved slowly that is when they were both nervous, when each one of them was nervous. But he was not there yet. Not really.

Ida was resting. Dear Ida. She said yes.

Slowly little by little Andrew came, Andrew was still his name.

He was just as nervous as he was and he walked every afternoon and then he told about his walk that afternoon. Ida was as nervous as she was and she was resting.

For a little time she did not say yes and then she said yes again.

Gradually it was, well not as it had been but it was, it was quite as it was Ida was resting and she was saying yes but not as much as she had said yes. There were times when she did not say yes times when she was not resting not time enough but times.

It is all very confused but more confused than confusing, and later it was not interesting. It was not confused at all, resting was not confused and yes was not confused but it was interesting.

When any one came well they did Ida could even say how do you do and where did you come from.

Dear Ida.

And if they did not come from anywhere they did not come.

So much for resting.

Little by little there it was. It was Ida and Andrew.

Not too much not too much Ida and not too much Andrew.

And not enough Ida and not enough Andrew.

If Ida goes on, does she go on even when she does not go on any more.

No and yes.

Ida is resting but not resting enough. She is resting but she is not saying yes. Why should she say yes. There is no reason why she should so there is nothing to say.

She sat and when she sat she did not always rest, not enough.

She did rest.

If she said anything she said yes. More than once nothing was said. She said something. If nothing is said then Ida does not say yes. If she goes out she comes in. If she does not go away she is there and she does not go away. She dresses, well perhaps in black why not, and a hat, why not, and another hat, why not, and another dress, why not, so much why not.

She dresses in another hat and she dresses in another dress and Andrew is in, and they go in and that is where they are. They are there. Thank them.

Yes.

Contexts I

Stein’s Life and Publications

1864 Daniel Stein (b. 1832) and Amelia (“Milly”) Keyser (b. 1842) are married

1865 The Steins’ first child, Michael (“Mike”), is born (d. 1938), followed by Simon in 1867 (d. 1906), Bertha in 1870 (d. 1924), and Leo in 1872 (d. 1947)

1874 February 3: Gertrude Stein is born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania; late in the year, or early in 1875, the Stein family moves to Vienna, Austria

1877 April 30: Alice Toklas is born

1878 The Stein family (minus Daniel, who is back in America) moves to Paris

1879 After a few weeks in London, the family moves to Baltimore

1880 The family moves to Oakland, California

1888 Milly dies (cancer)

1891 Daniel dies (in his sleep); with Mike as guardian, the five children move to San Francisco

1892 Gertrude and Bertha move to Baltimore to live with a Keyser aunt; Leo begins studies at Harvard University

1893 Stein enrolls at Radcliffe College (then Harvard Annex, renamed Radcliffe in 1894), where her studies include literature, philosophy, psychology, and biology

1896 Summer: In Europe with Leo

           September: Stein’s article “Normal Motor Automatism,” co-written with Leon Solomons, is published in the
Psychological Review

1897 Stein leaves Radcliffe, but because of an unfulfilled Latin requirement does not receive her bachelor of arts degree until 1898

           Summer: In San Francisco with Mike and his wife, Sarah (“Sally”) Samuels (again in summer 1898 and summer 1899 as well)

           Fall: Stein enrolls at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where her studies include anatomy, pathology and bacteriology, surgery, pharmacology and toxicology, and gynecology

1898 May: Stein’s article “Cultivated Motor Automatism” is published in the
Psychological Review

1900 Summer: In Italy and France with Leo

1901 Stein leaves Johns Hopkins School of Medicine without degree

           Summer: In Morocco, Spain, and France with Leo

           Fall: In Baltimore doing biological studies

1902 Spring: In Italy with Leo

           Summer–Fall: In London with Leo

1903 Winter–Spring: In New York; begins
The Making Of Americans

           Summer: In Italy with Leo

           Fall: Stein moves to 27 rue de Fleurus, Paris, with Leo and they begin collecting Paul Cézanne paintings; Stein writes
Q.E.D
. (not published until 1950)

1904 Winter–Spring: In New York

           Summer: In Italy and then back to Paris (Stein does not return to the United States for thirty years)

1905 Spring: Stein begins
Three Lives
(finished by February 1906)

           Fall: Stein and Leo begin collecting Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse paintings

           Winter: Stein meets Picasso, who begins a portrait of her (finished by fall 1906)

1906 Stein continues writing
The Making Of Americans

           Summer: In Italy with Leo (these annual Italian holidays continue until 1912)

1907 Fall: Alice Toklas arrives in Paris and meets Stein

1908 Toklas begins secretarial work for Stein, typing
The Making Of Americans

1909 July: Stein’s first book,
Three Lives
(New York: Grafton Press), is published

1910 December: Toklas moves in with Stein and Leo

1911 Fall: Stein finishes
The Making Of Americans
(not published until 1925)

1912 Spring–Summer: Stein and Toklas in Spain and Morocco

           August: Stein’s first portraits, “Matisse” and “Picasso,” are published in the magazine
Camera Work

           September: In Italy (final Italian holiday)

1913 January: In England

           August–September: In Spain

           Fall: Leo moves to Italy (Stein and Leo never speak to one another again)

1914 June:
Tender Buttons
(New York: Claire Marie)

           July–October: In England

           August: War begins

           October: Stein and Toklas return to Paris

1915 March: Stein and Toklas go to Barcelona, then Palma, Majorca

1916 June: They return to Paris from Majorca

1917 March: Stein and Toklas drive a supply truck for American Fund for French Wounded

1919 June: They return to Paris after more than two years of relief work

1922 Fall–Winter: In Saint-Rémy

           December:
Geography And Plays
(Boston: Four Seas)

1923 March: Stein and Toklas return to Paris

           Fall: In Nice (visits Belley, France)

           Winter: In Paris

1924 Summer: In Belley (summer living at a Belley hotel continues until 1929)

1925 September:
The Making Of Americans
(Paris: Contact Editions)

1926 June: Stein reads “Composition As Explanation” at Cambridge and Oxford universities

           Fall: Stein finishes
A Novel Of Thank You
(not published until 1958)

           December:
A Book Concluding With As A Wife Has A Cow A Love Story
(Paris: Galerie Simon)

1928 September:
Useful Knowledge
(New York: Payson and Clarke)

1929 April:
An Acquaintance With Description
(London: Seizin Press)

           Summer: Stein leases a home in Bilignin, France, a mile from Belley, and for the next decade has a city-and-country lifestyle, living in Paris for the winter and spring, and in Bilignin for the summer and fall; Stein and Toklas get Basket, a standard poodle

1930 January:
Lucy Church Amiably
(Paris: Plain Edition); this marks the first of five books to be published under the Stein and Toklas imprint Plain Edition

           May:
Dix Portraits
(Paris: Editions de la Montagne)

1931 May:
Before the Flowers of Friendship Faded Friendship Faded
(Paris: Plain Edition)

           November:
How To Write
(Paris: Plain Edition)

1932 August:
Operas And Plays
(Paris: Plain Edition)

           Summer: Stein and Toklas get Byron, a Chihuahua; he dies in early spring 1933 and in May 1933 is replaced by another Chihuahua, Pépé (d. 1943)

1933 February:
Matisse Picasso And Gertrude Stein
(Paris: Plain Edition)

           August:
The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas
(New York: Harcourt, Brace) quickly becomes a best seller

           September: Stein finishes
Blood On The Dining Room Floor
(not published until 1948)

1934 February:
Four Saints In Three Acts
(New York: Random House)

           April: Stein finishes
Four In America
(not published until 1947)

           October 24: Stein and Toklas arrive in New York City; over the next six months, Stein gives more than seventy lectures in cities across the country, including New York, Chicago, St. Paul, Madison, Columbus, Cleveland, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Amherst, Cambridge, Philadelphia,

Baltimore, Washington, Charlottesville, New Orleans, Austin, Oklahoma City, Pasadena, San Francisco, and Oakland

           November:
Portraits And Prayers
(New York: Random House)

1935 March:
Lectures In America
(New York: Random House); Stein teaches for two weeks at the University of Chicago

           May 4: Stein departs for France

           December:
Narration
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press)

1936 February: Stein lectures again at Oxford and Cambridge (“What Are Master-pieces”)

           October:
The Geographical History Of America Or The Relation Of Human Nature To The Human Mind
(New York: Random House)

1937 April: In London for opening of ballet
A Wedding Bouquet

           Summer–Fall: Stein begins constructing archive of her writing at Yale University Library

           December:
Everybody’s Autobiography
(New York: Random House); after thirty-four years, Stein’s lease terminated at 27 rue de Fleurus by landlord

1938 January: Stein and Toklas move to 5 rue Christine, Paris

           October:
Picasso
(London: B. T. Batsford)

           November: Basket dies, and early in 1939, they get another standard poodle, Basket II (d. 1952)

1939 August:
The World Is Round
(New York: William R. Scott)

           September: War having begun, Stein and Toklas quickly visit the Paris apartment and then return to Bilignin