Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) was an avant-garde American writer, poet, and art collector who resided mainly in Paris from 1903 until her death. Hailing from a well-off Jewish family, Stein attended Radcliffe College, where she studied psychology under the tutelage of William James. She later went to Johns Hopkins University to study medicine but did not obtain a degree. Stein's body of work includes writing that is often characterized by its playful use of language, innovative approach to narrative structure, and disregard for conventional punctuation, preferring instead a style that gives primacy to the rhythm and cadence of the prose. Stein's seminal work, 'The Making of Americans' (1925), which presents a family saga, is a formidable text that encompasses her preoccupation with the complexities of identity, her interest in the ordinary lives of people, and her philosophical musings on the nature of existence and national character. This novel, often considered her most challenging due to its length and experimental form, exemplifies her narrative method, typified by repetition and a stream-of-consciousness technique. A central figure of the Parisian avant-garde and a mentor to aspiring writers, Stein's salon was frequented by luminaries such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Pablo Picasso, strongly influencing the course of modernist literature and art.