SOURCE: "Spreading the Difference: One Way to Read Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons," in Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 24, No. 1, Spring, 1978, pp. 57-75.

In the following essay, Hadas provides a biographical interpretation of Tender Buttons which includes explanations of Stein's feelings for her brother, Leo Stein, their mutual interest in the psychological theories of William James, and Stein's relationship with Alice B. Toklas.

Whether she is known as the "Mother Goose of Montparnasse," the "mama of dada," the affectionate mother country called "Gert" by G.I.s in Paris, or "Baby," as her companion Alice called her in private, makes little difference to our reading of Gertrude Stein's work. Yet the phenomena of Gertrude Stein's versatile selves—none and all and more than the above—and her perception of the differences between herself and the selves of others do. In Tender Buttons these differences are as important as the identifications...