The Gertrude Stein First Reader & Three Plays, Gertrude Stein, Illustrated, 1948

Boston: Houghton Mifflin-The Riverside Press Cambridge, 1948. VG/VG. Printed by Hely's Limited Dublin Ireland on the copyright page. Decorated/illustrated by Francis Rose. The book is tight with solid hinges and grey cloth with pink decorations. The textblock is clean with no writing, bookplate, or markings and not BCE, ex-library, or remaindered. Pages are slightly age-toned. Patterned endpapers. The dust jacket is unclipped (3.00) with a few chips and light shelf wear (see photos). Protected in a Mylar cover. 83 pages. 5½ x 8½ tall. Published after her death in 1946.

Twenty lessons, followed by three short plays, “The First Reader” is a childishly playful book where Stein takes the reader back to early experiences with written words — when their size, shape, and sound were as consequential as the information they conveyed. The three, short, one-act plays consist of ”In a Garden,” “Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters,” and “Look and Long.”