SOURCE: "The Comedy of Literature: Gertrude Stein," in In Praise of Comedy: A Study in Its Theory and Practice, Horizon Press, 1970, pp. 236-41.

In the following excerpt, Feibleman describes Tender Buttons and Geography and Plays as comically meaningless works, of interest only for the connotative value of their nonsensical words.

The Stein which is represented by [Tender Buttons and Geography and Plays] is essentially the comedian. That Gertrude Stein would probably not agree with this estimation is nothing to the point. When we consider artistic accomplishments, we can ignore the intentions of the artist, which may have been in direct contradiction with what was actually accomplished. In all likelihood, Miss Stein began her career as an iconoclast, like so many of her "lost generation." She wrote with her tongue in her cheek and an ambition to épater le bourgeois. But whether such was her intention or no, we...