2011 Reprint of 1914. "Tender Buttons" is the best known of Gertrude Stein's "hermetic" works. It is a small book separated into three sections - Food, Objects and Rooms each containing prose under subtitles. "Tender Buttons" is one of the great Modern experiments in verse. Simultaneously considered to be a masterpiece of verbal Cubism, a modernist triumph, a spectacular failure, a collection of confusing gibberish, and an intentional hoax, the book is perhaps more often written about than actually read. Divided into three sections-"Objects," "Food," and "Rooms"-the book contains a series of descriptions that defy conventional syntax.