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The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

by Gertrude Stein

3.60 · rating details · 2,069 ratings · 211 reviews

"Largely to amuse herself, [Gertrude Stein] wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas in 1932...using as a sounding board her companion Miss Toklas, who had been with her for twenty-five years. It has been said that the writing takes on very much Miss Toklas' conversational style, and while this is true the style is still a variant of Miss Stein's conversation style....more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published July 12th 1955 by Vintage (first published 1933)

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Community Reviews

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May 12, 2009

Michelle rated it

Shelves: classics

Hold your forefinger and thumb approximately an inch apart. That was how much I knew about Gertrude Stein prior to reading The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. I’m certainly no expert now, not even close, but I can safely say that I am completely enamored of both Stein and her life partner, Toklas.

No, it’s not because of the near-constant stream of visiting artists and other members of Parisian society to their home at rue de Fleurus in the early 1900s, though that was impressive...more

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Jun 25, 2011

K.D. rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: Top 10 Gay and Lesbian Novels; 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, memoirs

What makes this book memorable for me is this interesting idea: a pseudo-autobiography. Gertrude Stein wrote this book from the perspective of her lover, Alice B. Toklas. It is like an autobiography yet Stein put herself in Toklas' shoes. I am still to read Stein's first novel, Three Lives and her long The Making of the Americans both of which were mentioned a lot of time in this book but I have an inkling that Stein's writing style or voice here is different from what she used in those two book...moreWhat makes this book memorable for me is this interesting idea: a pseudo-autobiography. Gertrude Stein wrote this book from the perspective of her lover, Alice B. Toklas. It is like an autobiography yet Stein put herself in Toklas' shoes. I am still to read Stein's first novel, Three Lives and her long The Making of the Americans both of which were mentioned a lot of time in this book but I have an inkling that Stein's writing style or voice here is different from what she used in those two books. Her intention was to mimic the speaking style of Toklas: crisp and very conversational.

A couple of months back, i.e., prior to reading this book, I saw an old cookbook written by Toklas herself. In the book's intro, she said that one of her fondest dreams was to write her own book. I thought of buying it but when I leafed through the pages, I saw that it had nothing except French food recipes with exotic ingredients that obviously will not be available in a third-world country like the Philippines. So, I did not buy it and now I am regretting it big time. I forewent the chance of having a memento from a fascinating literary non-fiction character. The better half of a self-proclaimed genius: Getrude Stein.

Based on this book, it is too early for me to say that Stein is really a genius. The idea of her writing and describing herself as one using Toklas just sounds presumptuous to me. However, as I said it is early for me to say since I am still to read her other works. However in her rented house in Paris before, during and after WWI, she and Toklas hobnobbed with world-renowned artists: painters and writers. These includes the likes of Pablo Picasso (who Stein said to be the other genius), Ernest Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, T. S. Eliot and many, many others (I will not mention them because I don't know them yet). From reading Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, I am just wondering how come Stein and Toklas did not meet him and his lover, Anais Nin. They could have a foursome date and that would be interesting the drunkard Miller mentioning Stein in his book and genius Stein doing the same to Miller.

Aside from being a 1001 book, this is also one of the Top 10 Best Gay & Lesbian Novels in one of the legit surveys I found in the web. However, it has no sex lesbian scenes and if you don't pay close attention to the narration, it might even escape you that Stein and Toklas were lesbian and lovers. My point is that a gay or lesbian novel can be great even if there are no sex scenes. This just reminds me of Augusten Burrough's Running with Scissors that is written nicely like a autobiography but he included disgusting in-your-face homosexual acts that are so distasteful I almost threw the book against the wall.

I will surely read Stein's other works and see for myself if she is really a genius.

And hey, GR says that this is my 500th read book! Another reason why this book is memorable for me!(less)

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Jul 26, 2011

Madeline rated it

Shelves: the-list, ugh

During my Modern Poetry class in college, we read some of Tender Buttons (prompting me to write a scathing review of it, which was promptly trolled) and my professor explained Gertrude Stein thus: "Gertrude Stein believed that there was only one great poet of the twentieth century, and it was her. She might admit that Shakespeare was talented as well, but only on a good day."

Having now read The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, I fully support this assessment of Miss Stein...moreDuring my Modern Poetry class in college, we read some of Tender Buttons (prompting me to write a scathing review of it, which was promptly trolled) and my professor explained Gertrude Stein thus: "Gertrude Stein believed that there was only one great poet of the twentieth century, and it was her. She might admit that Shakespeare was talented as well, but only on a good day."

Having now read The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, I fully support this assessment of Miss Stein. Not that I dislike her - in fact, I find Gertrude Stein to be a fascinating person and I like everything I've heard about her. I just. Cannot stand. Her writing.

Based on the description, this book should be amazing: Stein, writing as her companion Alice Toklas, describes how they came to live in Paris, World War One, and the various artists and writers who visited their famous salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus. Hemingway is here, as is Picasso, TS Eliot, Max Jacob, Henri Matisse, George Braques, and countless others. A story about all of these people living and working and making art together in Paris in the early 20th century should be incredible, right? Wrong.

The main problem is that Alice B. Toklas isn't a very good narrator. Rather than dishing out the dirt on these famous men and women (as Hemingway did in A Moveable Feast), she chooses instead to just rattle off the names of people who visited her and Gertrude Stein, sprinkled with little anecdotes that are either boring despite themselves (according to this book, World War One really wasn't so bad at all, and Toklas spends the most time telling us how hard it was to go on vacation during the war because she had trouble with her passport), or are just plain boring. ("Glenway left behind him a silk cigarette case with his initials, we kept it until he came back again and then gave it to him.") Hemingway's snippy gossip may not have been true, but at least it was entertaining.

Also there's the fact that Toklas always remains on the fringe of this great group. Stein is right in the middle of it, helping Hemingway with his writing and discussing punctuation with TS Eliot, but Toklas freely admits that she isn't an artist, and always keeps herself apart: "The genuises came and talked to Gertrude Stein and the wives sat with me. How they unroll, an endless vista through the years. I began with Fernande and then there was Madame Matisse and Marcelle Braque and Josette Gris and Eve Picasso and Bridget Gibb and Marjory Gibb and Hadley and Pauline Hemingway and Mrs. Sherwood Anderson and Mrs. Bravig Imbs and the Mrs. Ford Maddox Ford and endless others, genuises, near geniuses, and might be geniuses, all having wives, and I have sat and talked with them all all the wives and later on, well later on too, I have sat and talked with all."

For God's sake. It's like if Diane Keaton's character from The Godfather wrote a book about her experiences with the mob. She was there for some of it, and she saw everybody who was important, but then the door slams shut in her face at the end and we realize that she doesn't really know anything at all, and won't ever know. (less)

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Mar 18, 2011

Joselito rated it

· review of another edition

I had seen them during my mother's 75th birthday celebrations last January 2011. Both old women, lifetime companions. C. is the more "manly" of the two, short haircut, never wears a skirt. B. is my distant relative, very feminine in her deportment, said to have been the former girlfriend of another relative of mine (now deceased, God bless his soul). They brought with them to the party their three-year-old adopted girl, begot out-of-wedlock by a prostitute in our hometown, father unkno...moreI had seen them during my mother's 75th birthday celebrations last January 2011. Both old women, lifetime companions. C. is the more "manly" of the two, short haircut, never wears a skirt. B. is my distant relative, very feminine in her deportment, said to have been the former girlfriend of another relative of mine (now deceased, God bless his soul). They brought with them to the party their three-year-old adopted girl, begot out-of-wedlock by a prostitute in our hometown, father unknown. Years before, they had another adopted girl who died of leukemia before she was a teen.

They are my Gertrude Stein (GS) and Alice B. Toklas (ABT). GS and ABT, however, never adopted a child. What they had was a succession of dogs. The last was a white poodle named Basket who outlived GS for many years, went blind and deaf, and died of old age. ABT never got another dog after that.

Gertrude Stein is Gertrude Stein is Gertrude Stein (a play with her "rose is a rose is a rose is a rose"). Alice B. Toklas, however, was not dumb bimbo (though she was pretty). She was GS's able collaborator and critic. Well into her 80's she was reading ponderous titles and heavyweight authors and even translating books. She only stopped when her eyes started to fail her (in one of her letters--see my other review today--she said she couldn't read Durrell (Lawrence?) anymore because of her eyes). In this other book I will review today she dismissed Francoise Sagan's "Bonjour Tristesse" as an "abomination" (I noted this with amusement as I gave this book 2 stars although I missed using this perfect word, "abomination').

Here at goodreads we are all very fond of discussing authors. Hemingway this, Steinbeck that. In "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" there are also a lot of artists, poets and writers mentioned. The difference is that GS and ABT did not just read them or see their work. They hobnobbed with them in flesh and blood, several of them were even their close friends(or at least they were first name basis with them): Picasso, Matisse, Juan Gris, Thorton Wilder, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Capote, Faulkner, Jean Cocteau, Dos Passos, T.S. Eliot, Steinbeck, H.G. Wells, Ezra Pound, William James, to name a few. These long dead authors/artists will come alive before your eyes (the best, I suppose, to me at least, is the part where GS and ABT met Hemingway, then working for a newspaper, and before he wrote his great novels, GS giving him some pointed advice).

This is, however, more than gossips. This was written out of love. Gay love, but love still. GS telling ABT I love you, I know you, I know your story of you, your story of me, and your story of us. But you wouldn't write these stories. Let me then write them for you. This is, then, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas written by her great love, Gertrude Stein.

With this book, they had become one.(less)

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Jul 13, 2007

montana rated it

Recommends it for: lesbian geniuses and their supporters

Yes. Finally found, rather Ruthie found, in a bookshop here and finished her in a few days. Gertrude Stien appears at least five times on every page usually with some remark about being friends with Picasso or not having interest in some other painter or person of prewar, war, or just post wwI era. Her comments on Hemmingway are hysterical and on the whole I have a great weakness for facilitators of art, and this book was very validating in that regard. Interesting as a writer to try to writ...more

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Aug 30, 2007

Jennifer rated it

Shelves: classics

I read this in my last year of college, in an autobiography seminar. Though it's not really an autobiography. A fictional autobiography.

I enjoyed it. Our class ultimately decided that it was an amazing love letter to Alice from Gertrude. It is incredibly pretentious and presumptious, but a love letter nonetheless. Just because the author is hopelessly self-involved doesn't make it any less a love letter.

Beautiful.

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Jan 14, 2010

Jesse rated it

I don't dispute the book's importance, by Stein's style drives me bonkers. I'd much rather read ABOUT her than actually read her. That said, I'm glad she existed-- I'm also glad I'm not forced to read this all the time.

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Jan 29, 2008

Becky rated it

Gertrude Stein writes her partner's fictional autobiography which turns out to be more a biography of Gertrude Stein and her friendship with Picasso and Matisse loaded with gossipy accounts of her Salon she ran in Paris just before and during these painters rise to fame. While Stein is, as she boasts, often annoyingly, a genius, her crisp conversational prose makes the book a fascinating rendering of an art subculture during a time of modern(ist), and futurist breakthroughs, it really left me a ...more

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Jan 03, 2009

Katie rated it

I will confess that I was intimidated by this book, having read only isolated bits of Stein and having heard much about her difficulty. So I was surprised to find this book so readable, and so downright funny in places. It's an odd sort of memoir, skating along across the surface of Stein's and Toklas's life together and almost never delving into any sort of interiority or emotional depth, but it's full of clever lines and sharp little portraits of all the writers and artists that they knew in P...more

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Aug 14, 2007

Anna rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: people languishing in obscurity

this book is interesting because of the seemingly endless stream of people flowing through stein's house, and also for the depiction of how hard stein had to work to get her work published, and for how long she was downright obscure. this will surely warm the cockles of the hearts of many contemporary writers and thinkers languishing in obscurity, but i - interested in self-publishing - also took heart from the fact that toklas herself took up the challenge of publishing stein's work herself. ho...more

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Jan 05, 2012

Carrol rated it

A mildly amusing and entertaining glimpse into the life Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas lived in Paris during the early 20th Century. They entertained regularly on Saturday nights and were acquainted with many people whose names are mentioned throughout the book. Some such as Picasso, Mattise, Renoir, Hemmingway, e.e. cummings, Ezra Pound, and Sherwood Anderson I recognized, but most were lesser lights who were unknown to me. (Though when I looked them up on the internet I usually found them....more

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Jan 14, 2010

Aeron rated it

I read this to prepare for a mystery dinner party we had in which I played the character of Alice B. Toklas. It was certainly an interesting read, and it must have been tongue in cheek. It was not a cohesive, flowing narrative, but more like a series of random vignettes about the lives of Alice and Gertrude and all the famous people they knew.

It is really Gertrude Stein's autobiography, masquerading as Alice's biography. It is ballsy to tell your own story through the eyes of your ...more

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Jul 31, 2009

Casey rated it

You have to have a LOT of patience to get through Stein's style of writing. You also have to cage your inner-editor (OHH, how often I wanted to just get a red pen and add all those commas she so vehemently disliked), but if you can, I'm telling you she is a literary gem.

This book blows away all expectations we set of writing, specifically of autobiography. First of all, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas BY Gertrude Stein is a paradox right away. So, one can assume that we are n...moreYou have to have a LOT of patience to get through Stein's style of writing. You also have to cage your inner-editor (OHH, how often I wanted to just get a red pen and add all those commas she so vehemently disliked), but if you can, I'm telling you she is a literary gem.

This book blows away all expectations we set of writing, specifically of autobiography. First of all, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas BY Gertrude Stein is a paradox right away. So, one can assume that we are not going to get to know the real Toklas, but you never really get to know the real Stein, either. This is a completely subversive work, but nonetheless enjoyable.

I love how she praises herself through others' eyes:
"I may say that only three times in my life have I met a genius and each time a bell within me rang and I was not mistaken...The three geniuses of whom I wish to speak are Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and Alfred Whitehead."

Even while praising herself pracically incessantly, she manages to keep her readers at arm's length, never letting them see the person behind the persona. While I can only guess at her motivation for doing this, it is undoubtedly intentional. She makes herself into even more of a popular icon through this book, allowing herself to become a caricature, but somehow it is not offputting; on the contrary, it makes one want to further study her work, whether out of wanting to get to know the woman behind the words or simply out of enjoyment of someone so vastly different.

Well, for anyone who has read any of Stein's other poetry or prose...

"That one has been doing something in family living and that one is doing that thing and any one in the family living is being one being in the family living and that one the one doing smoething in the family living is completely remembering that every one being in the family living is in the family living" --from The Making of Americans

...this style of writing is practically tame, and may be a good place to get to know Stein before jumping into her other works.(less)

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Feb 01, 2009

Emily rated it

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, classics, 2009reads

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 06, 2011

Phil rated it

· review of another edition

I did enjoy this book, but not as much as Gertrude Stein probably enjoyed writing it, or thinks that I should like it. And that's my main problem with this book; Stein isn't the epoch-making writer that she believes herself to be.

A few things to get straight: i) this isn't an autobiography of Alice B Toklas, ii) this is a sort of autobiography of Gertrude Stein, iii) not a lot happens, iv) most of the people mentioned as geniuses are no longer more than footnotes in art history, v) ...moreI did enjoy this book, but not as much as Gertrude Stein probably enjoyed writing it, or thinks that I should like it. And that's my main problem with this book; Stein isn't the epoch-making writer that she believes herself to be.

A few things to get straight: i) this isn't an autobiography of Alice B Toklas, ii) this is a sort of autobiography of Gertrude Stein, iii) not a lot happens, iv) most of the people mentioned as geniuses are no longer more than footnotes in art history, v) Stein's writing style isn't designed to engage the reader.

Alice B Toklas is most famous nowadays as the name behind hash brownies (from a recipe she included in her "Alice B Toklas Cook Book" - a book that she DID write). I still have no idea whether Stein and Toklas were companions or "companions" - although I'm sure a quick glance at Wikipedia would tell me.

As far as the book goes. It's gossipy, but not in an interesting gossipy way. Stories about other people inevitably wind up being stories about Gertrude Stein (she's like that person who says "That's enough about me, let's talk about you. What do YOU think about me?"). The tales before the war are most interesting, if only because the people they were associating with were more famous: Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne, Braque. After the war, the only name of note who appears is Ernest Hemmingway (and Stein takes complete credit for his success and the way he wrote).

The war is nothing like the WW1 you might have heard about. Stein and Toklas bimble about in a Ford ambulance and nobody dies and after the war in Paris there are more young people than ever before (which was different from every other city in Europe I should imagine).

What's odd is that despite being intensly self-centered and Stein being quite unlikable and the gossip being particularly dull, I quite enjoyed it - although perhaps not in the way that Stein would have liked me to have enjoyed it. I liked it because it felt like a diary that you or I might have written (they said this and I said that and then they said this and then so and so came in etc), and if there was anything that Stein would have hated to have been considered, it would be ordinary.(less)

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Mar 27, 2009

Jennifer rated it

I wanted to like this book...I really did. But sadly I didn't. Gertrude Stein clearly lived a fascinating life and hung around with some amazing literary and artistic minds. And as a piece of literary art, this "Autobiography" is conceptually interesting.

There were definitely some amusing vignettes, but there were also quite a few parts where I was bored by the seemingly endless relating of who they had dinner with and what artist they met and other details of the day-to...more

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Oct 03, 2011

Jackson Nieuwland rated it

I spent longer with this book than I have with a book for a long time. I took breaks from it and read other books. I am proud that I kept coming back to it.
The book always stays on the surface. The anecdotes are interesting but stripped of emotion.
I enjoyed hanging out with Picasso and Hemingway.
I liked the way the narration kept getting ahead of itself and then having to be pulled back to the present.
The end was nice.
Here is my fav passage:

The room was crowde

...more

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Aug 08, 2010

Farren rated it

· review of another edition

I am already loving the (all shades of meaning intended here) conceit of this book. Gertrude Stein's autobiography narrated by Toklas as her own--performance art! Also its chatty, overly-verbal tone as stylistically exhibited by the weird lexical switchbacks and idiosyncrasies typically redolent of bad 101 papers-- and the lack of punctuation in the prose. And what is not to LOVE about all the dirt on all my favorite celebs (Matisse! Derain! Picasso! Braque! Pound and Eliot!) --I love all the sc...more

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Oct 02, 2011

Rachel rated it

I finally read this book four years after taking a seminar on Gertrude Stein. I missed her voice and was looking to recapture my love of her writing, so I was really coming from a pretty biased viewpoint. I think this book is best experienced as an introduction to Stein: it provides an overview of her career up until she became more widely published and it eases the reader into Stein's way of seeing and writing. It is by no means exemplary.

The first half read like a list of people enco...moreI finally read this book four years after taking a seminar on Gertrude Stein. I missed her voice and was looking to recapture my love of her writing, so I was really coming from a pretty biased viewpoint. I think this book is best experienced as an introduction to Stein: it provides an overview of her career up until she became more widely published and it eases the reader into Stein's way of seeing and writing. It is by no means exemplary.

The first half read like a list of people encountered and where they were met, which got a little tedious. There wasn't much description and the sentences were very concise and traditionally punctuated. Stein was fond of saying that the aim of her writing was complete and accurate description of the inside and outside of objects, but these chapters didn't delve much below the surface. They read like a history, presenting the who, where, and when of events. Once the war began things got a little more interesting - most of the artists and writers who populated the first half the the narrative began leaving Paris and Stein and Toklas went to help with the war effort, generally staying abroad in peacetime as well. As soon as the focus narrowed to these two together, as soon as all the extraneous people and information were cleared away, Stein and Toklas became clearer as characters and the writing became more engaging. Stein even began slipping in a few sentence structures more typical of her writing, which mirrored the increased attention and publication she was receiving.

I have mixed feelings about Stein's decision to write her autobiography through Toklas's eyes. I think it's a brilliant concept and a great example of her oblique way of attacking reality in order to describe it more perfectly. I also suspect she was having a little fun with her audience; she was such a controversial and intriguing figure that readers wanted to know more about her, but she responded to demands for an autobiography with one of her partner instead. Even dullness of the first half has purpose when seen as a simple list of external reality that becomes clearer and richer as it is distilled to its essential, internal parts. It's also rather refreshing to be reminded that the people who share the lives and experiences of famous artists have valid viewpoints and experiences as well. The trouble for me arises with her decision to write with Toklas's voice - Toklas has only every published a cookbook, so the reader has no idea what that voice is. It is clear that Stein's voice and experiences are guiding the narrative but she allowed Toklas's conversational tone to dominate. Since the reader has most likely never heard Toklas speak, it reads instead as a watered-down version of Gertrude Stein. Stylistically it makes perfect sense but the overall effect is a little disappointing.(less)

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Dec 23, 2008

Anjali rated it

This book is kind of silly with the name-dropping, though sometimes incredibly funny. I mean, writing an autobiography for someone else is in itself hilarious, then calling yourself a genius in the first few pages makes it even more awesome. I also kind of enjoyed reading anecdotes about familiar characters (Picasso, Hemingway, Whitehead, etc.), for about half of the book at least, until they got incredibly tedious. In the war between how Stein characterizes Hemingway here and how Hemingway c...more

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Jan 11, 2012

Brent marked it as to-read

Shelves: 5-classics-in-12-months

I did a good job of keeping up with my "5 classics in 12 months" list for two years, but this past year was the third year and it didn't happen all the way. However, I'm not giving it up yet so I'm adding 5 more classics to the list for this year.

Three of these are books I partially read in high school:
Jane Eyre -- Charlotte Bronte
The Great Gatsby -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Catch-22 -- Joseph Keller

And the other two are ones that currently interest...more

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Oct 23, 2011

Kc rated it

I reread this book that was popular during my high school years after seeing the exhibit at SF MOMA of the Stein family art collection. It renewed my interest in the family and in Gertrude and her brother Leo who fell out disastrously around 1915 just before WWI. I enjoyed it more this time mostly I suppose since I have been to Paris three times and in northern and southern France and know the territory a little better and also the people she is talking about. I was fascinated by her in high sch...more

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Jan 20, 2012

Izzy Rey rated it

If you have never read Stein, don't read this. Read something brief and then decide because it can be a frustrating read. If you want standard prose, this is not for you. If you think because Stein hung out with likes of Hemingway you'll be getting dirt on all the fabulous people, this is not for you. This book is about day to day and the banality of it all. I love how she describes Picasso and his terrible accent in French. This are things I would rather know than, "this one time whe...more

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Aug 26, 2011

Francesca rated it

I recently read Two Lives, a book about Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein, which compelled me to read the Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, by Stein. This "autobiography" provides valuable insight into the artistic and literary scene of 1920's Paris with much name-dropping of renowned artists and authors. It is written in Stein's unusual prose style which can only be described as non-linear, almost cubist, if that can be applied to literary style. It was listed as one of the 100 gre...more

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Oct 16, 2011

Eric Phetteplace rated it

Recommends it for: People interested in modernism from a historical standpoint

Shelves: prose

I always end up being super opinionated about Gertrude Stein books. It's a love/hate thing, because she's such a clearly talented writer but devotes her time to such frustrating works.
Autobiography isn't a bad book. It's full of interesting sentences and often amusing. But the topic is so profoundly uninteresting to me. Really, you were besties with Picasso? Great. The book is just one long list of people Stein partied with and whether she liked them or was "not interested" in th...more

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Aug 30, 2011

Shannon rated it

This book is bound to be enthralling to those extremely interested in Picasso, Matisse and their contemporaries or to those who will be amused by the narcissism/ sense of absurdity that it takes to write a book about yourself in the form of an autobiography by your partner. I found it tedious at times, and incredibly interesting at others, typically when Stein was telling fun anecdotes about artist rivalries. Or when I came across writing like this:

"Haweis had been fascinated with...more

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Jun 15, 2009

Sandy rated it

Shelves: memoir-bio, lgbt, 2009

This is an odd little work and I think it's better if you've actually read some of Gertrude Stein's other works (she talks about them extensively in the autobiography). Although this purports to be the autobiography of Toklas, Stein's partner of many years, it's really written by Gertrude Stein. And for the most part it's about Gertrude. You actually learn very little about Toklas or their relationship in this.

It covers the pre-WWI years in Paris, WWI and the post-war era of the 20s...more

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Apr 05, 2008

Bren rated it

A wonderful lady in her seventies that I talked to about this book said that it reminded her of the movies of the 30s and 40s; a kind of madcap romantic comedy, only about two women. I liked that idea, and maybe that's partly why it was so successful at the time. But I also found it really vexing, although the central narrative conundrum is also pretty fascinating; why write the story of your own life in the voice of your beloved--and have her say repeatedly what a genius you are? Is it comic...more

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Aug 12, 2008

Joanna rated it

Shelves: 1001, 2008-read

This was an entertaining read -- sort of like reading People magazine, Paris version, circa 1915-1940. The book would never have worked if Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas hadn't had such a wonderful set of famous art friends -- Picasso, Matisse, etc. But with the familiar names and the conversational style, the book really worked for me. I actually came to this book after reading The Book of Salt by Monique Truong, which was told from the perspective of one of the cooks who worked for Stei...more

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Oct 14, 2007

Bob added it · review of another edition

My actual edition of this looks nothing like the cover depicted - it is a Grey Arrow UK paperback from the 60s that says 5 shillings on the cover.
This follows on interestingly from the Goncourt Journals, since it takes up Parisian life a decade later, though concentrating on the art world more than the literary, and told from the point of view of an American.
The book is actually the memoirs of Gertrude Stein, coyly titled - her writing style has a bit of stream-of-consciousness edge,...more

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About Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein, from 1874-1914, and the second with Alice B. Toklas, from 1907 until Stein's death in 1946. Stein shared her salon at 27 rue de Fleurus, Paris, first with Leo an...more

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“She always says she dislikes the abnormal, it is so obvious. She says the normal is so much more simply complicated and interesting.” — 11 people liked it

“A little artist has all the tragic unhappiness and the sorrows of a great artist and he is not a great artist.” — 5 people liked it

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title link	preview: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/527495.The_Autobiography_of_Alice_B_Toklas?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175549221m/527495.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/527495.The_Autobiography_of_Alice_B_Toklas?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein[/url]

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