 Stein's descriptive essays apparently began with her essay of Alice B. Toklas, "a little prose vignette, a kind of happy inspiration that had detached itself from the torrential prose of "The Making of Americans"".Stein's early efforts at word portraits are catalogued in and under individual's names in Kellner, 1988.Matisse and Picasso were subjects of early essays, later collected and published in "Geography and Plays" and "Portraits and Prayers".