After the Second World War Gertrude Stein asked a friend's support in securing a visa for Richard Wright to visit Paris.

-I've got to help him, she said. You see, we are both members of a minority group.-

The brief, little-noted friendship of Stein and Wright began in 1945 with a letter. Over the next fifteen months, the two kept up a lively correspondence which culminated in Wright's visit to Paris in May 1946 and ended with Stein's death a few months later.

Gertrude Stein and Richard Wright began their careers as marginals within marginalized groups, and their desire to live...