"A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose" - Gertrude Stein

Happy Birthday, Gertrude Stein. Born February 3rd, 1874 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Stein was a well-known thinker and writer who spent most of her life in France. She also became famous for the artists and writers who visited her Paris salon. She was friends with Matisse, Picasso, Thornton Wilder and Ernest Hemingway during the 1920s and is credited with coining the term lost generation to describe many of her expatriate American friends.

Probably Stein's most famous relationship was her romantic involvement with Alice B. Toklas which began in 1906 and ended with Stein's death from stomach cancer in 1946. In one account of their last days, when Stein was being wheeled into the operation room for surgery on her stomach, she asked Toklas, "What is the answer?" When Toklas did not reply, Stein responded, "In that case, what is the question.?"