Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)
Filed under the name Gertrude · February 9, 2026
Gertrude Stein basically ran the group chat of early twentieth-century modern art and literature except it was an actual physical Paris salon instead of a Discord server, and somehow that one room shaped the whole direction of modern literature and art for decades after. I think about this every time I see people dunk on 'extremely online' culture as somehow less legitimate than older forms of intellectual community — turns out people have always needed a central hub where the interesting people gather and argue and influence each other, it's just the format that changes. My whole generation is extremely online and gets mocked for it constantly, but apparently a room full of writers and painters talking too much and influencing each other's work is just... how culture has always actually moved. Anyway, I have a newfound respect for salons as the original group chat, and for Stein specifically as apparently one of history's great chaotic-good conveners of talented, difficult people.