This volume introduces readers to Gertrude Stein's most difficult works, texts in which Stein pushes against the constraints imposed by the conventions of genre, questions the rules that confine language within pre-ordained structures and invents a kind of process poetics. Stein's repeated attempts to address through her writing the problems and paradoxes of language and literary creation challenge readers in a uniquely conscious and provocative way. Bower's account of Stein's work should be welcomed by readers who wish to meet that challenge. Jane Palatini Bower is the author of They Watch Me as They Watch This, which was voted an Outstanding Academic Book 1991-1992 by CHOICE Magazine.