Jacques Henric compares biographies of Anaïs Nin and Gertrude Stein

In a review for artpress, Jacques Henric contrasts the lives and writings of Anaïs Nin and Gertrude Stein, focusing on their autobiographical works. Nin's 'Journaux de jeunesse. 1914-1931' (Stock, 2010) covers her early diaries from age 11 to 1931, edited by Nancy Huston and Joaquín Nin-Culmell. Henric notes Nin's initial puritanism and delayed sexual awakening, which later exploded with Henry Miller. Stein's biography by Nadine Satiat (Flammarion, 2010) details her life as a Jewish émigré from Bavaria, her role as a literary and feminist avant-garde figure, and her complex relationships with Hemingway, Picasso, and others. Henric highlights Stein's physical heft, her boxing lessons against anti-Semitism, and her political naiveties, including translating a Pétain speech. He speculates that Nin and Stein never met, despite their shared Montparnasse milieu.