Author(s): Gertrude Stein

Fiction

Tender Buttons: objects, food, rooms is the title of a 1914 book by Gertrude Stein consisting of word clusters chosen for their prosody, juxtaposed for the purpose of subverting commonplace dictionary meanings which Stein believed had largely lost their expressive force and ability to communicate. The words were re-defined using both their etymology and analysis of syllables by themselves.