. . . "As a literary studies academic, writer, and visual and tattoo artist, Steward lived a highly varied life, coming into contact, and in some cases formed long-lasting friendships, with such figures as Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Thornton Wilder, Andr?? Gide, Thomas Mann, Alfred Kinsey, Albert Camus, Christopher Isherwood, George Platt Lynes, and Paul Cadmus." . . . . . . . .