Toklas, Alice B.
Born Alice Babette Toklas, 30 April , San Francisco, California; died 7 March , Paris, France
Daughter of Ferdinand and Emma Levinsky Toklas; life partnerGertrude Stein (died )
Alice B. Toklas was born into San Francisco's upper-middle class Jewish society. When she was thirteen, Ferdinand Toklas moved his family to Seattle, where Toklas enrolled in the music conservatory of the University of Washington to study piano, but her mother's failing health forced the family to return to San Francisco. After her mother's death in , Toklas became the "responsible granddaughter" to a house full of male relatives. She made brief contact with the bohemian life in San Francisco, but largely concentrated on domestic duties. Henry James' novels filled her with longing for Europe and fueled her desire to escape her situation.
In Toklas left America. Soon after her arrival in Paris, she met Gertrude Stein and the two became intimate friends. Toklas recalled her first impression of Stein, of a "golden brown presence, burned by the Tuscan sun." The two women agreed to a marital relationship in Toklas soon joined Stein and her brother Leo in their apartment—Leo Stein
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas' Enduring Love Story
In late summer , Alice B. Toklas left behind her father and brother in an earthquake-and-fire-ravaged San Francisco in search of new adventures in Paris.
If unsure of what her future in the City of Lights held, the once-promising concert pianist discovered the answer shortly after arriving at her destination and encountering avant-garde writer Gertrude Stein.
"She was a golden brown presence, burned by the Tuscan sun and with a golden glint in her warm brown hair," Toklas recalled decades later in her autobiography What Is Remembered. "She wore a large round coral brooch and when she talked, very little, or laughed, a good deal, I thought her voice came from this brooch. It was unlike anyone else's voice – deep, full, velvety like a great contralto's, like two voices."
Smitten, Toklas accepted the invitation to meet the following day, and they continued to do so for all successive days in the weeks, months and years to come until they were as inseparable as a printed word to its page.
They found common ground in their devotion to Stein's writing
As described in Diana Souhami's Gertrude and A
Although officially titled an autobiography, “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas” is actually written by Gertrude Stein. The narrative is related from the first person perspective of Alice B. Toklas, the lifetime companion of the author. Given the close relationship of the two women, it is clear that although Stein wrote the book, her narrator's perspective is undoubtedly that of Alice B. Toklas. The first chapter of the book, “Before I Came to Paris,” relates the childhood of Alice, who was born in San Francisco, California, to a wealthy family. Alice lived with her father and brother in San Francisco until the great fire in Shortly thereafter, Alice moved to Paris, where she met Gertrude Stein on her first day in the city on September 8, In the second chapter, the author describes Alice's first years in Paris amongst the Parisian avant-garde. Alice inherited the social circles of Gertrude Stein, which included the painters Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, among many others. The age of Cubism was beginning, and the artists of this movement were constant guests at the Saturday evening dinners hosted by Stein and To
Toklas arrived in Paris in September and immediately met Gertrude Stein. At the time, Stein, thirty-three, was not the literary lion she would become but rather a lonely woman unsure of her talents as a writer, troubled by her sexuality, living in the shadow of her loquacious and domineering brother Leo. Stein found a sympathetic spirit in Alice Toklas, and the two women quickly became friends and then lovers. Toklas, for her part, claimed that a bell rang for her each time she encountered a genius, and she heard distinct chiming when she met Gertrude Stein. Stein, who had been residing unhappily with Leo, suggested that sharing her life with Toklas would be more satisfactory. She proved to be right. Toklas has been described as Stein’s housekeeper, cook, typist, secretary, and friend. She was all of these. She kept the household running smoothly, typed all of Stein’s writings, helped to publicize and publish her works, and served as gatekeeper to weed out friend from foe. Sometimes her assessments did not coincide with Stein’s—but Toklas prevailed. She doted upon F. Scott Fitzgerald, who was welcome at the salon. She feared that Hemingway was trying t
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The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Summary & Study Guide
Alice Babette Toklas
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