Alice B. Toklas

Alice B. Toklas, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1949

Alice B. Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was the life partner of writer Gertrude Stein.

Biography

Early life, relationship with Gertrude Stein

She was born Alice Babette Toklas in San Francisco, California into a middle-class Jewish family and attended schools in both San Francisco and Seattle. For a short time she also studied music at the University of Washington. She met Stein in Paris on September 8, 1907 on the first day that she arrived. Together they hosted a salon that attracted expatriate American writers, such as Ernest Hemingway, Paul Bowles, Thornton Wilder and Sherwood Anderson, and avant-garde painters, including Picasso, Matisse and Braque.

Acting as Stein's confidante, lover, cook, secretary, muse, editor, critic, and general organizer, Toklas remained a background figure, chiefly living in the shadow of Stein, until Stein published her memoirs in 1933 under the teasing title The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Ironically it became Stein's bestselling book. The two were a couple until Gertrude Stein's death in 1946.^[1]

After Stein

After the death of Gertrude Stein, Toklas published her own literary memoir, a 1954 book that mixed reminiscences and recipes under the title The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook. The most famous recipe therein (actually contributed by her friend Brion Gysin) was called "Haschich Fudge", a mixture of fruit, nuts, spices, and "canibus [sic] sativa" , or marijuana. Her name was later lent to the range of cannabis concoctions called Alice B. Toklas brownies. Some believe that the slang term toke, meaning to inhale marijuana, is derived from her last name, though it is more likely to originate in the Spanish verb tocar, meaning to touch or taste. The cookbook has not been out of print since it was published, and has been translated into numerous languages, most recently into Norwegian. A second cookbook followed in 1958 called Aromas and Flavors of Past and Present; however, Toklas did not approve of it as it had been heavily annotated by Poppy Cannon, an editor from House Beautiful magazine. She also wrote articles for several magazines and newspapers including The New Republic and the New York Times.

In 1963 she published her autobiography, What Is Remembered, which abruptly ends with Stein's death, leaving little doubt that Stein was the love of her lifetime.

Her later years were very difficult because of poor health and financial problems, aggravated by the fact that Stein's heirs took the priceless paintings (some of them Picassos), which had been left to her by Stein.

Toklas also became a Roman Catholic convert in her old age, as she had been told by a priest that in that way she may possibly meet Stein again in the afterlife. Toklas died in poverty at the age of 89, and is buried next to Stein in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France.

In modern culture

The 1968 Peter Sellers movie I Love You, Alice B. Toklas was named for Toklas' cannabis brownies, which play a significant role in the plot.

In 1969 on an episode of the ABC-TV variety show Hollywood Palace hosted by Diana Ross & The Supremes, member Mary Wilson tells Diana that show guest and comedian Soupy Sales has asked The Supremes to bake him a pie, to which Diana Ross replies to her group mates: "A pie, huh? Well, you better not use the recipe you got from Alice B. Toklas"!

Alice B. Toklas is pictured in the Swedish absurdist comedy film Picassos Äventyr (Adventures of Picasso), directed by Tage Danielsson. A running gag is based on word play: Gertrude Stein often silences Alice B. Toklas with the phrase "Alice, be talkless". Toklas is played by Linda Hunt in the film "Waiting for the Moon."

Vietnamese American writer Monique Truong developed a marginal character, Toklas' Indochinese cook, in her bestselling novel The Book of Salt, published in 2003. The novel contains substantial citations and relays several scenes taken from the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book.

Bill Richardson's book Waiting for Gertrude makes reference to Toklas and Stein's relationship.

Gertrude Stein is mentioned in "La Vie Boheme" from the musical Rent.

Toklas is mentioned in the Eric Schwartz song "Hattie and Mattie" on his That's How It's Gonna Be album. The song also appears on Holly Near's album Show Up.

Both Toklas and Stein are referred to in both the stage and film versions of Mame. In a lyric of the song "Bosom Buddies", Vera Charles declares: "But sweetie, I'll always be Alice Toklas, if you'll be Gertrude Stein."

A block of Myrtle Street between Polk Street and Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, has been renamed Alice B. Toklas Place, since Toklas was born near there.

Brendan Behan ended his poem about Paris and Gertrude Stein with:

"I absolutely must decline

To dance in the streets with Gertrude Stein

And as for Alice B. Toklas,

I'd sooner Shakespeare and a great big box of chocolates."

The Toyes made mention of Toklas in the song "Monster Hash".

Melissa Manchester wrote the song "When Paris Was A Woman" which appears on the album "When I Look Down That Road". The song is from the view point of Alice B. Toklas.

Toklas is mentioned, along with Gertrude Stein, in Tim Curry's 1979 song I Do The Rock.

Toklas appears in the book title and in one of the essays in Otto Friedrich's 1989 book "The Grave of Alice B. Toklas and Other Reports from the Past" (New York, Henry Holt). The chapter includes a sensitive interview with the elderly Alice.

References

1. ^ Alice B. Toklas Life Stories, Books, & Links

External links

• Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Papers From the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University
• Alice B. Toklas at Find a Grave