Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) is an American writer who lived most of her life in France, who stood at the origins of modernism in literature and was the godmother and mentor of many artists and writers of the first half of the 20th century (P. Picasso, X. Gris , E. Hemingway, S. Fitzgerald). Her own books had difficulty finding their way to readers' hearts, but gradually became an integral part of world literature. Her life and creative union with Alice Toklas provided an example of a homosexual family at a time when this kind of orientation did not find support in society. The book by Ilya Bass is the first biography of Gertrude Stein in Russian; it is based on carefully researched documents and contemporary testimony and is written in clear, lively language.