Tender Buttons

Few poets confound, amaze and startle readers like Gertrude Stein, one of the luminaries of Modernist poetry. Her entirely unconventional take on verse, published in 1914, is ostensibly a collection of descriptions about everyday objects; yet her nontraditional placement of words next to one another - such as the book's title - challenge the reader's concept of meaning and definition. A devout feminist and American expat living in France during the roaring 20s, Stein defied the expectations of a woman in her day, and her undeniably powerful verse ignited later generations of writers, showing them the limitless possibilities of the written word.