Gertrude Stein was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), she was raised in Oakland, California. Stein moved to Paris in 1903 and made France her home for the remainder of her life.

She hosted a Paris salon, where leading figures of modernism in literature and art, such as Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, and Henri Matisse would meet.

In 1933, Stein published a quasi-memoir of her Paris years, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, written in the voice of her life partner, Alice B. Toklas. The book became a literary bestseller and brought Stein into the limelight. Two of her quotes have become widely known: "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose", and "there is no there there", often taken to refer to her childhood home of Oakland.

Her notable works include Q.E.D. (1903), Three Lives (1905-06), The Making of Americans (1902–1911), and Tender Buttons (1914). Stein's activities during World War II, as a Jew living in Nazi-occupied France, have been subjects of analysis, particularly her relationship with Vichy government official and Nazi collaborator Bernard Faÿ.