.MTU5MQ.MTM5ODkz

Los Angeles, Calif. December 4, 1933 Dear Mr. Anderson; From quite a few sources I have read of your friends hip with Gertrude Stein and have been told that your writing was influenced in some degree by Miss Stein. For that reason I am writing to you. I'm really begging you for some information that I need. You see, I'm writing a University English term paper on the subject of Gertrude Stein. The dickens of it is that I can't find enough genuine estimates of Miss Stein's work, or more important still, her influence on other writers of the day. To what extent has she affected the work of you or Ernest Hemmingway? Is it that Miss Stein is just an extraordinary personality that makes her important? Or has she really something fundamental to impart thru her writings? If it is merely her personality, what is there so distinguishing about her? Is she just infatuated with her new form of writing and is losing her self in the style rather than in the subject matter? Or is Miss Stein just interested in breaking as far away from traditionalism in literature as possible? Do you believe she is really contributing something worthwhile, or is she merely creating a disturbance. Finally, and above all, have you found in your contacts with Miss Stein, a new stirring note which will radically affect the writing of the future. I will anxiously await your comments on my dilemna. Your friend, Gilbert Harrison 16250 Lucerne Blvd.