Summary
Gertude Stein, American poet, writer and art collector, lived most of her life in France.
She was one of the first people to spot the genius of Picasso, Cezanne and Matisse, and she believed she was a genius too. Opinion on that score remains divided.
Erin Pizzey nominates Stein because she inspired her to ‘live a life without compromise’.
Since setting up the world's first refuge for battered women in 1971, Pizzey has campaigned and written about domestic violence, publishing ‘Scream Quietly Or The Neighbours Will Hear’ and her autobiography ‘This Way To The Revolution’.
Joining presenter Matthew Parris in the studio is Diana Souhami, author of ‘Gertrude and Alice’.
Producer: Isobel Eaton
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2012.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading this Great Lives podcast from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:04.0 | For more information and details of other podcasts, just visit BBC. |
| 0:08.0 | co-dot UK slash Radio 4. |
| 0:12.0 | Today's Great Life was an American... Radio 4. |
| 0:19.0 | Today's Great Life was an American poet, writer and art collector who spent most of her life in France. She was one of the first to spot the genius of Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse, and she amassed an extraordinary |
| 0:25.7 | collection of their paintings in her house in Paris. |
| 0:29.0 | Gertrude Stein believed she was a genius too. Opinion on that score remains divided, but one thing is certain. |
| 0:35.7 | She made a profound impression on everyone she met. |
| 0:39.1 | Here's the author Sir Harold Acton, talking to Derek Robertson about her in 1979. |
| 0:45.0 | She looked like a Mexican goddess, a sort of Inca figure, very solid with features that we connect really with Indians, with Mexican Indians. |
| 1:01.0 | Nothing feminine about her. Except, well, except a warmth. She had a |
| 1:08.0 | warmth, a bosomy warmth. She was a large large breast, but she dressed in a very rough sort of way, though she had |
| 1:20.4 | one of the leading Parisian maudiste to design her dresses. She got all her |
| 1:26.6 | dresses from him, but she looked like a sack. My guest who's chosen Gertrude Stein |
| 1:31.8 | as her great life is Erin Pitzi, founder of the |
| 1:35.3 | world's first refuge for battered women in London in 1971. She went on to |
| 1:40.0 | establish an international movement for victims of domestic violence, including in 2007 a refuge |
| 1:46.0 | in Bahrain. She's an award-winning journalist and a successful novelist. Last year she published |
| 1:52.0 | her autobiography, This Way to the Revolution. |
| 1:55.0 | Erin, I think it was actually a book by Gertrude's lifelong partner, Alice B. Tocles, that first |
| 2:05.0 | that first brought her to your attention. That's a very good way to first learn about Gertrude because I was going to Spain and I'd been looking for this cookbook, |
| 2:11.0 | because this was the 60s, and there was this talk about hash brownies and lots of a |
... |
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