Ida a Novel (28 page)

December 18, Bilignin

Stein to Wilder: “[W]e see a good many people, and I work quite a bit, I am on a new novel now, Mrs. Reynolds it is called, Ida you know is to be published in January, and now I wonder is this Mrs. Reynolds more a novel than Ida. Sometimes I dream that I have found a way to write a novel and sometimes I dream that I only dream it, but I like novels bad novels, poor novels, detective novels, sentimental novels, these days I read all the wishy washy novels of the end of the last and the beginning of this century” (
TW
276–277).

1941

January 2, New York

Cerf to Stein: “
IDA
is scheduled for publication on February 15th, and I will have copies to send you in a very short while [three packages with two copies each, in case any of them go astray. . . .] It is going to be a fine looking book and I am sure that you will be pleased with it” (YCAL 101.1950).

January 24, New York

Van Vechten to Stein: “I
LOVE
Ida. It is gay and ironic and delightful and in a new vein for you. In the series of letters I have been collating there are many references to this book, sometimes called Jennie and Arthur, and one of these references is worth quoting [from September 29, 1937]: ‘Ida begins to be funny and we mustn’t be too funny!’ Well, it isn’t
TOO
funny, but of course it is funny. The dog passage is epic and will be used in anthologies till the end of time” (
CVV
697).

February 20, Bilignin

Stein to Van Vechten: “I am so xcited about Ida, it has not come yet and I am so pleased you like it. I am working steadily on a new one, Mrs. Reynolds, Ida and Mrs. Reynolds both were each one suggested by somebody in the village, and when you come they will pose for you, Mrs. Reynolds is turning out to be a bit of a mystic, it goes slowly I have about 50 pages done, Ida you know was done over and over again, before it finally became what it is” (
CVV
705).

March 5, Bilignin

Stein to Cerf: “My dearest Bennett, / The first two copies of Ida have come and it is the very prettiest book that was ever made, I am mad about it [
Figure 12
], I think the title page with its powdered color and the lettering is marvelous [
Figure 13
], who did it, will you thank them for me and thank them again and the printed page with the lovely dancing three letters of Ida on top [
Figure 14
] and the really heavenly color of the binding, I do really believe it to be the prettiest book I ever saw, it is really a museum piece, and the shape, do tell me who designed it, it is too lovely, and then I am reading it and I do think it is awfully funny, really funny, it is a nice ushering in of spring-time, because the prim roses are in blossom over in the woods and meadows, and I feel very Wordsworthian indeed, bless you Bennett” (Bennett Cerf Collection, box 2, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University).

Figure 12:  Book jacket for
Ida A Novel
(Random House, 1941). The inset box color is light blue.

Figure 13:  Title page of
Ida A Novel
(Random House, 1941). The “powdered color” (as Stein says) is green. Having Ida’s name in powder or sand captures her evanescent aspect.

Figure 14:  First page of
Ida A Novel
(Random House, 1941).

March 6, Bilignin

Stein to Wilder: “[A]nd now there is Ida. Have you seen the book, it has just come and I am all xcited because it is a novel it really is, and it has characters just like a real novel” (
TW
284).

March 6, Bilignin

Stein to Van Vechten: “Ida has just come and they have made a lovely book of it, I am so pleased and happy about it and it is funny, funnier than I remembered it” (
CVV
706).

March 13, New York

Van Vechten to Stein: “Ida is getting some fine reviews” (
CVV
710).

March 19, New York

Cerf to Stein: “I wonder if you have seen any of the reviews of
IDA
. If not, please let me know, and I will make a collection of the more important ones to send to you. There have been, of course, the usual number of smart alecks who have tried to imitate your style but, on the whole, I think that you will be really pleased with the reception that has been accorded the book. / And I am still waiting to hear how you like the looks of the volume” (YCAL 101.1950).

March 25, New York

Cerf to Stein: “I am so very, very happy that you liked the looks of
IDA
. It has been reviewed beautifully all over the country and it is selling very nicely. People seem to have been vastly amused that a publisher should admit in print that he doesn’t understand one of his own books, and they laugh still harder when I tell them that you said from the very start that I was ‘nice but dumb’” (YCAL 101.1950).

April 1, Medellín, Colombia

Wilder to Stein: “You should have seen the beauty and wit and thoroughness and dignity of the Exhibition at Yale [University Library]. / And forgive me if I say I spoke all right. The Librarian says it was the best speech he ever heard. Many said that you were in the room: wise, good, beautiful, earnest, playful and great. [. . .] From Ecuador, I hope to write to you [. . .] a letter about
Ida
” (
TW
285–286).
¹¹

[April], Bilignin

Stein to Cerf: “Some one has just sent me the New York Times Book Review of Ida and it does please me, will you thank Marianne Hauser for me I liked her describing Ida as being equipped with beauty conversational charm and herself, and Bennett might one send a copy to the Duchess with the compliments of the author. She was [included?] in an interview I once gave the Paris Herald Tribune, in which I told about the novel I was writing and described the heroine as everything I called a publicity saint, the modern saint being somebody who achieves publicity without having done anything in particular everybody told me I could not do it, without making her do something, but by God I did and I am proud of it and I did it enough so reviewers knew it, so I am proud, bless you Bennett, I was to meet the Duchess a propos of this just before leaving Paris, and then it was put off to our return and then we did not return, so if you think it would be alright to do send her a copy with the compliments of the author” (RHC).
¹²

May 5, Bilignin

Stein to Van Vechten: “Bennett says Ida is selling nicely” (
CVV
720).

May 14, New York

Cerf to Stein: “Of course we will send a copy of
IDA
at once to the Duchess—and I will let you know immediately how and if she replies” (YCAL 101.1950).

May 15, Bilignin

Stein to Wilder: “Everybody says it [his Yale lecture] was like that, just as good as you said it was and helas it was not recorded, it just bloomed like a flower, bless it and you. [. . .] Bennett says Ida is selling quite nicely and that is a pleasure” (
TW
288).

June 13, New York

Cerf to Stein: “Wally Windsor was evidently very pleased to receive a copy of
IDA
. In her note of thanks she wrote: ‘I hope to emerge from the literary labyrinth with some idea of Ida’s thoughts and ways! Will you say to Miss Stein how pleased I am that she should have thought of sending me the book, and how fortunate I think she is
still
to be in her own villa. We had to leave ours and all our possessions last June’” (YCAL 101.1950).

September 16, New York

Cerf to Stein: “
IDA
has sold over 1700 copies so far, and we think that is mighty good” (YCAL 101.1950).

October 7, New York

Cerf to Stein: Random House owes Stein $406.69 (YCAL 101.1950).

Intertexts

These texts represent some of the family relations of
Ida A Novel
. Included are two older texts that Stein incorporated, in modified form, into the novel, one that indirectly relates to the novel, and three that grew out of the
Ida
manuscripts and returned to them.

The eponymous character in “Hortense Sänger” suffers from a lack of what she calls “sufficient company.” She prefers her own company—she likes reading and walking—but the overall insufficiency of that relationship leads to misbehavior in the eyes of her family. Stuck between her desire to be with others and her short temper with those who moralize, she may be, by the end, permanently adrift. One point of difference between Hortense and Ida is that the former is “dark-skinned” and the latter would appear to be white. For instance, Ida encounters a racist woman who, we can assume, would say what she says only if she believed Ida shared her prejudice:

A woman said to Ida, I only like a white skin. If when I die I come back again and I find I have any other kind of skin then I will be sure that I was very wicked before.

This made Ida think about talking.

Ida’s silence implies that she regarded this woman as yet another who was not “sufficient company.”