Tender Buttons: The Corrected Centennial Edition by Gertrude Stein

Tender Buttons is a 1914 book by American writer Gertrude Stein consisting of three sections titled "Objects", "Food", and "Rooms". The short book consists of multiple poems covering the everyday mundane. Stein's experimental use of language renders the poems unorthodox and their subjects unfamiliar.

This is the best and most authoritative edition of Tender Buttons, a major fixture in the modernist canon, featuring facsimiles of Stein's corrections, in her own handwriting.

This edition comes out on the centennial of its original publication, every previous edition has contained dozens of errors - from minor punctuation problems to entire phrases omitted.

None has included the corrections and additions Stein personally made after the book appeared. This edition resolves over 100 variances among archival materials and previous versions of the book, providing the first reliable text of Tender Buttons in a compact format that is as approachable for casual readers as it is reliable for more serious scholars. A Note on the Text describes the methods behind this edition and lists all variances resolved.

An Afterword by Juliana Spahr discusses the enduring significance of Tender Buttons at its centennial anniversary.

Paperback / 134 pages