Tender Buttons – Objects, Food, Rooms (Verse and Prose Collection)

Tender Buttons is the best known of Gertrude Stein's «hermetic» works. It consists of three sections titled «Objects», «Food», and «Rooms», which are further consisting of multiple poems covering the everyday mundane. Stein's experimental use of language renders the poems unorthodox and their subjects unfamiliar. Its first poem, «A Carafe, That Is a Blind Glass», is arguably the most famous, and is often cited as one of the quintessential works of Cubist literature. Rather than using conventional syntax, Stein experiments with alternative grammar to emphasize the role of rhythm and sound in an object's «moment of consciousness». Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright and art collector, best known for Three Lives, The Making of Americans and Tender Buttons. Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and made France her home for the remainder of her life. Picasso and Cubism were an important influence on Stein's writing. Her works are compared to James Joyce's Ulysses and to Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time.