Reading Gertrude Stein traces the evolution of the mind and art of Gertrude Stein from Three Lives through The Making of Americans to Tender Buttons . In a series of close readings, Lisa Ruddick shows how Stein, whom she regards as the first truly modern writer in English, absorbed the influence of several of the major thinkers of her day (particularly William James and Freud), and then developed unique perspectives of her own original language and culture.