Gertrude Stein's Medical School Years at Johns Hopkins: How Baltimore Shaped a Literary Icon
By
Aleyna Rentz
Summary
This article explores Gertrude Stein's four-year tenure as a medical student at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine — often dismissed as a footnote in her literary biography. It examines how her time in Baltimore, despite ultimately dropping out, shaped her intellectual development, her relationships, and her path toward becoming a groundbreaking modernist writer. The piece delves into the social and academic pressures she faced, including gender expectations of the era (exemplified by her sister-in-law's letter urging her to marry instead), and how her unconventional approach to learning and life foreshadowed her later literary innovations.
Source
Twitter / XGertrude Stein's Medical School Years at Johns Hopkins: How Baltimore Shaped a Literary Iconhub.jhu.eduKey quotes
· 3 pulledThere's nothing in this wide world like babies.
There certainly is nothing in the line of happiness to compare with that which a mother derives from contemplation of her firstborn, and even the agony which she endures from the moment of its birth does not seem to mar it, therefore my dear and beloved sister in law go and get married.
Sarah's protests fell on indifferent ears, or rather, ears attuned to a different calling.
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