FIRST EDITION OF STEIN’S FOUR SAINTS IN THREE ACTS, INSCRIBED AND TWICE SIGNED BY GERTRUDE STEIN

STEIN, Gertrude. Four Saints in Three Acts, an Opera to be Sung. New York: Random House, 1934. Slim octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $2600.

First edition of Stein’s lyric drama, inscribed and twice signed: "For Gene Strauss who says and said what he feels so nicely, Gertrude Stein. Merry Christmas for you here here you are and Pauline will say Merry Christmas to you from us always, Gertrude Stein."

Composer Virgil Thomson met Gertrude Stein in Paris in the autumn of 1926, "and the two expatriates began to lay plans for an opera. They decided it would concern Spanish saints and the Spanish landscape… Stein completed the libretto for the opera, Four Saints in Three Acts, in June 1927, and Thomson finished the piano score a year later (it was orchestrated in 1933)… It is the composer's most famous work" (New Grove 18:787). Wilson A21a. Owner blind stamp on half title.

Book with usual mild toning to interior and some wear to board extremities. Dust jacket with a bit of toning and light rubbing to extremities. An extremely good inscribed copy.