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Gertrude y Alice
La ya legendaria escritora norteamericana Gertrude Stein conoció a Alice B. Toklas en París, en el año 1907. A partir de ese día vivieron juntas hasta la muerte de Gertrude en 1946. Treinta y nueve años de convivencia durante los cuales jamás durmieron bajo distinto techo, o viajaron solas, o se divirtieron por separado. Esto tal vez no tendría mayor relevancia si Gertrude Stein no fuera quien fuera y si, durante cuatro décadas, Gertrude y Alice no hubieran sido el centro de toda la actividad cultural parisina en un período de la historia europea que va desde la época efervescente de las grandes rupturas vanguardistas hasta los locos años veinte y treinta, pasando por la conmoción de dos guerras mundiales. Diana Souhami reconstruye no sólo la insólita historia personal de uno de los matrimonios más sólidos de nuestro siglo , sino que aporta anécdotas y hechos inéditos en torno a la atribulada vida artística, literaria y mundana de la primera mitad de nuestro siglo.
344 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
17 people are currently reading
413 people want to read
About the author
Diana Souhami
21 books74 followersDiana Souhami was brought up in London and studied philosophy at Hull University. She worked in the publications department of the BBC before turning to biography. In 1986 she was approached by Pandora Press and received a commission to write a biography of Hannah Gluckstein. Souhami became a full-time writer publishing biographies which mostly explore the most influential and intriguing of 20th century lesbian and gay lives.
She is the author of 12 critically acclaimed nonfiction and biography books, including Selkirk’s Island (winner of the Whitbread Biography Award), The Trials of Radclyffe Hall (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography), the bestselling Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Gertrude and Alice, and Wild Girls: Paris, Sappho, and Art. She lives in London.
She is the author of 12 critically acclaimed nonfiction and biography books, including Selkirk’s Island (winner of the Whitbread Biography Award), The Trials of Radclyffe Hall (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography), the bestselling Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Gertrude and Alice, and Wild Girls: Paris, Sappho, and Art. She lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
August 22, 2019
"It's hard work being a genius," sniffs the Great Gert, "you have to sit around doing nothing." Meantime, sidekick Alice is planning meals. All good menus, she says, with a light insouciance, should have "a climax and a culmination." O, momma ! O, polpettenies!
We know today that the passion purged Gertrude rooted for Franco during the Spanish Civil War, said Hitler should get a Nobel Price (was she corruscatedly ironic?) and translated Vichy speeches of Marshall Petain in 1940 while likening him to a French George Washington -- all of which kept the Nazis from touching her and her paintings, and Alice and her dog, during W2. As Gert herself pontificated, "If you are like that anybody will do anything for you." Despite her Nazi collaboration, no one slammed her. Why not?
This nicely illustrated volume, which focuses on the marriage of two volatile and spoiled character actors, skips over the ruthless ambitions, though it reveals some sweaty, sticky girdles. Mostly, it's a tight G&A overview without excess embroidery. What would have become of Stein, I wonder, without her inherited wealth? ~ My favorite gang is all here: Carl Van Vechten, Mabel Dodge, Robert McAlmon. Gert likes to snub everyone, at some point, if they can't be useful; Alice, known to the oracle as Pussy, makes certain that Gertie washes her hands properly.
We know today that the passion purged Gertrude rooted for Franco during the Spanish Civil War, said Hitler should get a Nobel Price (was she corruscatedly ironic?) and translated Vichy speeches of Marshall Petain in 1940 while likening him to a French George Washington -- all of which kept the Nazis from touching her and her paintings, and Alice and her dog, during W2. As Gert herself pontificated, "If you are like that anybody will do anything for you." Despite her Nazi collaboration, no one slammed her. Why not?
This nicely illustrated volume, which focuses on the marriage of two volatile and spoiled character actors, skips over the ruthless ambitions, though it reveals some sweaty, sticky girdles. Mostly, it's a tight G&A overview without excess embroidery. What would have become of Stein, I wonder, without her inherited wealth? ~ My favorite gang is all here: Carl Van Vechten, Mabel Dodge, Robert McAlmon. Gert likes to snub everyone, at some point, if they can't be useful; Alice, known to the oracle as Pussy, makes certain that Gertie washes her hands properly.
August 23, 2011
This is the third of the voyeuristic readings I've been doing on these gay lovers of long ago, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. After reading "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" (by Gertrude) and "Staying on Alone: Letters of Alice B. Toklas" (by Alice) I got the impression that it was more of a platonic, literary partnership between the couple. I was mistaken. They did have lots of sex. Gertrude was the "husband" and Alice called her "lovey"; while Alice was the wife and Gertrude's term of endearment for her was, well, "pussy."
One enduring literary mystery in the lives of these two great lovers is what "caesars" were. "Cows" are easy--they were orgasms. "Cows are very nice. They are between the legs," wrote Gertrude. Cows made both of them very pleased:
"A cow has come he is pleased and she is content as a cow came and went...And now a little scene with a queen contented by the cow which has come and been sent and been seen. A dear dearest queen."
"Caesars" seemed to be what cows need. Gertrude wrote in one of her stories:
"Have Caesars a duty. Yes their duty is to a cow. Will they do their duty by the cow. Yes now and with pleasure."
Could Caesars be the fingers and the tongue? In another piece, Gertrude wrote:
"All of us worship a cow. How. By introducing and producing and
extension.
How.
You know about pipes. A shepherd has pipes. So he has. And so
have I.
I do mention this and that, it is true of a pussy and a cat, that
this is that and that is this and you are sleepy with a kiss. Who
miss, us.
Why misses us, who dismisses us.
We kiss us.
Very well.
She is very well.
And as to cow which is mentioned anyhow. A cow is
mentioned anyhow.
Thank you Romans Caesars and all.
I say it to you and I say it to you I say it to you how I love my
little jew. I say it to you and I say it to you. I say it to you and I
say it to you. I say it to you."
Those of you who have not read Gertrude Stein yet, or has read only her "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" would wonder what kind of writing is that. Well, that was the way Gertrude wrote. Before "The Autobiography...", in fact, she had had no success as a writer, getting rejection letters from publishers one after the other. One publisher even wrote back, mimicking and mocking her strange repetitive prose:
"19 April 1912
Dear Madam
I am only one, only one, only one. Only one being, one at the same time. Not two, not three, only one. Only one life to live, only sixty minutes in one hour. Only one pair of eyes. Only one brain. Only one being. Being only one, having only one pair of eyes, having only one time, having only one life, I cannot read your MS three or four times. Not even one time. Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one.
Many thanks. I am returning the MS by registered post. Only one MS by one post.
Sincerely yours..."
Even Gertrude's brother Leo, with whom she was quite attached when they were young, considered her as a "fake intellectual...who write in Jargon because (she) can't get enough effect with decent English." The siblings died hating each other.
After I read and reviewed "The Autobiography..." [the novel which made Gertrude famous, ironically written not in her usual style, but in the style she imagined Alice would have written her (Alice's) autobiography] I was so excited to read next her "The Making of Americans" and I asked my brother, who has a copy, to lend it to me. First, he said he'll read it first (as was his practice). After some time, however, he suddenly said he can't find the book anymore. That, to me, was another literary mystery. How can such a thick volume which no one has borrowed be possibly missed or misplaced? Is it not likely that he started reading it and got stranded in its infuriating Gertrudisms like the above?
Indeed, how to read an unreadable book like this? Find someone who had praised it or its author. Do we have one for Gertrude? Yes, author Edmund Wilson. He had written that although Gertrude wrote NONSENSE:
"One should not talk about 'nonsense' until one has decided what sense consists of...Most of us balk at her soporific rigmaroles, her echolaic incantations, her half-witted sounding catalogues of numbers. Most of us read her less and less. Yet remembering especially her early work, we are still always aware of her presence in the background of contemporary literature...And whenever we pick up her writings, however unintelligible we may find them, we are aware of a literary personality of unmistakable originality and distinction."
Ah, how sweet it is to be nonsensical and unintelligible and yet be praised!
One enduring literary mystery in the lives of these two great lovers is what "caesars" were. "Cows" are easy--they were orgasms. "Cows are very nice. They are between the legs," wrote Gertrude. Cows made both of them very pleased:
"A cow has come he is pleased and she is content as a cow came and went...And now a little scene with a queen contented by the cow which has come and been sent and been seen. A dear dearest queen."
"Caesars" seemed to be what cows need. Gertrude wrote in one of her stories:
"Have Caesars a duty. Yes their duty is to a cow. Will they do their duty by the cow. Yes now and with pleasure."
Could Caesars be the fingers and the tongue? In another piece, Gertrude wrote:
"All of us worship a cow. How. By introducing and producing and
extension.
How.
You know about pipes. A shepherd has pipes. So he has. And so
have I.
I do mention this and that, it is true of a pussy and a cat, that
this is that and that is this and you are sleepy with a kiss. Who
miss, us.
Why misses us, who dismisses us.
We kiss us.
Very well.
She is very well.
And as to cow which is mentioned anyhow. A cow is
mentioned anyhow.
Thank you Romans Caesars and all.
I say it to you and I say it to you I say it to you how I love my
little jew. I say it to you and I say it to you. I say it to you and I
say it to you. I say it to you."
Those of you who have not read Gertrude Stein yet, or has read only her "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" would wonder what kind of writing is that. Well, that was the way Gertrude wrote. Before "The Autobiography...", in fact, she had had no success as a writer, getting rejection letters from publishers one after the other. One publisher even wrote back, mimicking and mocking her strange repetitive prose:
"19 April 1912
Dear Madam
I am only one, only one, only one. Only one being, one at the same time. Not two, not three, only one. Only one life to live, only sixty minutes in one hour. Only one pair of eyes. Only one brain. Only one being. Being only one, having only one pair of eyes, having only one time, having only one life, I cannot read your MS three or four times. Not even one time. Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one.
Many thanks. I am returning the MS by registered post. Only one MS by one post.
Sincerely yours..."
Even Gertrude's brother Leo, with whom she was quite attached when they were young, considered her as a "fake intellectual...who write in Jargon because (she) can't get enough effect with decent English." The siblings died hating each other.
After I read and reviewed "The Autobiography..." [the novel which made Gertrude famous, ironically written not in her usual style, but in the style she imagined Alice would have written her (Alice's) autobiography] I was so excited to read next her "The Making of Americans" and I asked my brother, who has a copy, to lend it to me. First, he said he'll read it first (as was his practice). After some time, however, he suddenly said he can't find the book anymore. That, to me, was another literary mystery. How can such a thick volume which no one has borrowed be possibly missed or misplaced? Is it not likely that he started reading it and got stranded in its infuriating Gertrudisms like the above?
Indeed, how to read an unreadable book like this? Find someone who had praised it or its author. Do we have one for Gertrude? Yes, author Edmund Wilson. He had written that although Gertrude wrote NONSENSE:
"One should not talk about 'nonsense' until one has decided what sense consists of...Most of us balk at her soporific rigmaroles, her echolaic incantations, her half-witted sounding catalogues of numbers. Most of us read her less and less. Yet remembering especially her early work, we are still always aware of her presence in the background of contemporary literature...And whenever we pick up her writings, however unintelligible we may find them, we are aware of a literary personality of unmistakable originality and distinction."
Ah, how sweet it is to be nonsensical and unintelligible and yet be praised!
May 11, 2018
The first time I ever got thrown out of a university library, it was for uncontrollable laughter while reading The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein. The second time, ditto while reading this biography of Stein's and Toklas's marriage by Diana Souhami.
There's something so hilarious about this lifelong matchup of polar opposites who were connected at the hip since pretty much the day the two American rebels met in Paris. That was shortly after the San Francisco earthquake, back in the days of argon lamps. And they never looked back or gave a damn about what other people thought.
For those of you who have never read anything by Diana Souhami, you are in for a treat. She has been acclaimed by everyone who is anyone for her spare, stylish prose and her sharp wit. But not nearly enough reviewers have praised her gorgeous mind, so questioning and precise, so adept at fine distinctions, so deft in sketching character, so keen on uncovering ironies, unmasking hypocrisy, reconciling opposites, understanding feelings and probing for meaning. I could go on.
The matchup between Stein and Souhami is particularly good. While mostly "doing nothing" with her life (Toklas did the rest), Gertrude Stein lived on two planes at once--the plane of abstract thought and the plane of sensual pleasure. Diana Souhami, as a writer, is equally comfortable there. Through deep affinity with her subject, this glimpse into the mind of one of the most gifted biographers of our age has been one of my life's greatest pleasures as a reader.
With her master's grasp of the great Law of Comedy (Comedy = Tragedy + Time), Souhami has a knack for making you roll with laughter while reading her books about subjects who all seem Very Serious. And Gertrude and Alice is one of her funnier books. It's also poignant. Who knew that in choosing a couple of eccentric lesbian subjects with a penchant for dogs named Basket, Souhami would paint one of the great portraits of a marriage?
There's something so hilarious about this lifelong matchup of polar opposites who were connected at the hip since pretty much the day the two American rebels met in Paris. That was shortly after the San Francisco earthquake, back in the days of argon lamps. And they never looked back or gave a damn about what other people thought.
For those of you who have never read anything by Diana Souhami, you are in for a treat. She has been acclaimed by everyone who is anyone for her spare, stylish prose and her sharp wit. But not nearly enough reviewers have praised her gorgeous mind, so questioning and precise, so adept at fine distinctions, so deft in sketching character, so keen on uncovering ironies, unmasking hypocrisy, reconciling opposites, understanding feelings and probing for meaning. I could go on.
The matchup between Stein and Souhami is particularly good. While mostly "doing nothing" with her life (Toklas did the rest), Gertrude Stein lived on two planes at once--the plane of abstract thought and the plane of sensual pleasure. Diana Souhami, as a writer, is equally comfortable there. Through deep affinity with her subject, this glimpse into the mind of one of the most gifted biographers of our age has been one of my life's greatest pleasures as a reader.
With her master's grasp of the great Law of Comedy (Comedy = Tragedy + Time), Souhami has a knack for making you roll with laughter while reading her books about subjects who all seem Very Serious. And Gertrude and Alice is one of her funnier books. It's also poignant. Who knew that in choosing a couple of eccentric lesbian subjects with a penchant for dogs named Basket, Souhami would paint one of the great portraits of a marriage?
March 24, 2019
Where the phrase "Don't have a cow" originates lol.
I'd become irritated by enough Gertrude Stein references already when I stumbled across this book. Having eaten the brownies referenced by Alice's name (she was appalled by the recipe's attribution) and curious about the development of the modern 'artiste' I became more fascinated by these two women and the dynamic influence Stein had during this era of much foment. I was a fly on the wall reading the author's reconstruction of how the unusual pairing came to be and how they managed to carry it off within contemporary social strictures. Only in France! And only by Americans with the necessary gall.
Fascinating read because, well, look at Alice: a character right out of Dickens and quite remarkable in her own right. It's a tragedy no one like Ms. Toklas could survive the light of day now. Oh sure, you can insert a pair of triple D's mount a stage and blow smoke out your wazoo but you will not be allowed to live if you're an eccentric in possession of a prominent proboscis outfitted in Parisian couture. Donna Versacé notwithstanding.
The life of Stein confirms Barnum's dictum: You can tell (or paint) people anything and rest assured that a substantial percentage will gladly seek to pay quite a lot of real money to own a copy. And it proves, inordinately, that doing nothing day in and day out except proclaim your own genius will ensure lasting greatness, once you find that special someone who agrees, unwaveringly, with you.
Moral: There will always be at least one person who'll happily fall in love with you and devote their entire life to satisfying your happiness, provided the funds are sufficient.
Conclusion: Gertrude got real lucky for a woman in her day. But then, for all intents and purposes, Gertrude was a man.
Takeaway: Compared to theirs and many others then and now, my own miserable existence has nothing of which I need be ashamed. I can cease the guilt, shame, and self-disgust and instead begin cultivating a bald-faced boldness. As Gertrude would say, "Impudence - it's so 21st century!"
I'd become irritated by enough Gertrude Stein references already when I stumbled across this book. Having eaten the brownies referenced by Alice's name (she was appalled by the recipe's attribution) and curious about the development of the modern 'artiste' I became more fascinated by these two women and the dynamic influence Stein had during this era of much foment. I was a fly on the wall reading the author's reconstruction of how the unusual pairing came to be and how they managed to carry it off within contemporary social strictures. Only in France! And only by Americans with the necessary gall.
Fascinating read because, well, look at Alice: a character right out of Dickens and quite remarkable in her own right. It's a tragedy no one like Ms. Toklas could survive the light of day now. Oh sure, you can insert a pair of triple D's mount a stage and blow smoke out your wazoo but you will not be allowed to live if you're an eccentric in possession of a prominent proboscis outfitted in Parisian couture. Donna Versacé notwithstanding.
The life of Stein confirms Barnum's dictum: You can tell (or paint) people anything and rest assured that a substantial percentage will gladly seek to pay quite a lot of real money to own a copy. And it proves, inordinately, that doing nothing day in and day out except proclaim your own genius will ensure lasting greatness, once you find that special someone who agrees, unwaveringly, with you.
Moral: There will always be at least one person who'll happily fall in love with you and devote their entire life to satisfying your happiness, provided the funds are sufficient.
Conclusion: Gertrude got real lucky for a woman in her day. But then, for all intents and purposes, Gertrude was a man.
Takeaway: Compared to theirs and many others then and now, my own miserable existence has nothing of which I need be ashamed. I can cease the guilt, shame, and self-disgust and instead begin cultivating a bald-faced boldness. As Gertrude would say, "Impudence - it's so 21st century!"
November 28, 2018
I've read The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (really by Gertrude Stein), Staying on Alone, a collection of Alice's letters from the long years she lived on after Gertrude's death, and the Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein and Company by James Mellow, a really wonderful portrait of the life and times of Gertrude Stein (and the people she and Alice knew, sometimes loved, often quarreled with). I have read Three Lives by Stein, admittedly her most accessible work, and have made forays into some of the more "difficult" works like Tender Buttons and The Making of Americans, what Diana Souhami refers to as Stein's "resistant" or "hermetic" writing. At first I wasn't sure there was anything new to be had here, in this book. But it turns out to be a wonderfully told, insightful, double-biography of Alice and Gertrude and their bond to one another - a highly rendered portrait of a marriage.
The two women are fascinating characters, each in her own right. When paired, they become irresistible. A study in contrasts: Gertrude, large and expansive and indolent, Alice, small, nervous, steely. Both driven by a single purpose: To nurture and promote Gertrude's genius. Along the way they created a rich domestic life of pleasing routines, splendid food, reading, writing, a country house, their beloved dogs, their beloved paintings, weekly salons in their atelier in Paris, volunteer service for the Red Cross in France during the First World War, and later their "return engagement" to America, after being away for 30 years, for a successful, sold-out lecture tour after the publication of the popular and commercially successful Autobiography. Gertrude had, finally, become a celebrity. Taxi cab drivers in New York City recognized her and Alice and called them by name. They gloried in it.
When their ship docked in New York, it was met by reporters who had come to cover Gertrude's arrival. She told them she was in America "to tell very plainly and simply and directly, as is my fashion, what literature is." "Why don't you write the way you talk?" the reporters asked her. "Why don't you read the way I write," she replied.
Souhami re-creates perfectly these kinds of moments throughout the book. One in particular made me laugh out loud. Gertrude and Alice must have been wounded and angered by the rejection of Gertrude's work, but I like to think if Gertrude could have set aside her monumental ego she might also have enjoyed the humor in it. Souhami reprints a rejection letter from a prospective publisher. To set up the story, you have to have a sense of Stein's "style" of writing, which goes something like this: She was thinking in being one who was a different one in being one than he was in being one. Sound was coming out of her and she was knowing this thing. Sound had been coming out of him and she had been knowing this thing. She had sound coming out of her. She was different from him. She had sound coming out of her. She was different in being one being one. She was knowing that thing.
Continuing on in this fashion for 147 more pages.
The rejection letter goes like this:
Dear Madam,
I am only one, only one, only one. Only one being, one at the same time. Not two, not three, only one. Only one life to live, only sixty minutes in one hour. Only one pair of eyes. Only one brain. Only one being. Being only one, having only one pair of eyes, having only one time, having only one life, I cannot read your MS three or four times. Not even one time. Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one. Hardly one.
Many thanks. I am returning the MS by registered post. Only one MS by one post.
But Gertrude could write more succinctly. Of Alice, she wrote:
1. Always sweet.
2. Always right.
3. Always welcome.
4. Always wife.
5. Always blessed.
The wealthy and notorious ex-pat Natalie Barney, after visiting the two women as they were setting up household in a new apartment in their 50s, remarked to a friend that "Alice T. is withering away under the stress of moving into a new flat... I am afraid the bigger one, who gets fatter and fatter, will sooner or later devour her. She looks so thin."
Alice did wear herself out for Gertrude, seeing to every detail of their domestic life and Gertrude's comfort. But she was a formidable personage, and no one made the mistake twice of underestimating her. Alice and Gertrude between them had agreed that Gertrude was the most important thing in the world. Having settled that, Alice became essential to Gertrude, and consequently, very powerful in the relationship. Intelligent, strong willed, with an acerbic wit, Alice was not a victim. But it was a complicated relationship, something Souhami understands and doesn't shy away from.
Then there were the WWII years, when Alice and Gertrude stayed on in France at their home in the countryside, where they were protected by Bernard Fay, who was imprisoned after the war for collaborating with the Germans during the Occupation, and the troubling matter of Stein translating the speeches of Vichy France's Marshal Petain into English for Fay for propaganda purposes. Not a pretty picture.
Souhami has a good eye and ear for the story she tells. The photographs she has selected for the book are wonderful. These are placed throughout the text rather than in a big bunch in the middle of the book, which is very pleasing.
I would read this book again.
The two women are fascinating characters, each in her own right. When paired, they become irresistible. A study in contrasts: Gertrude, large and expansive and indolent, Alice, small, nervous, steely. Both driven by a single purpose: To nurture and promote Gertrude's genius. Along the way they created a rich domestic life of pleasing routines, splendid food, reading, writing, a country house, their beloved dogs, their beloved paintings, weekly salons in their atelier in Paris, volunteer service for the Red Cross in France during the First World War, and later their "return engagement" to America, after being away for 30 years, for a successful, sold-out lecture tour after the publication of the popular and commercially successful Autobiography. Gertrude had, finally, become a celebrity. Taxi cab drivers in New York City recognized her and Alice and called them by name. They gloried in it.
When their ship docked in New York, it was met by reporters who had come to cover Gertrude's arrival. She told them she was in America "to tell very plainly and simply and directly, as is my fashion, what literature is." "Why don't you write the way you talk?" the reporters asked her. "Why don't you read the way I write," she replied.
Souhami re-creates perfectly these kinds of moments throughout the book. One in particular made me laugh out loud. Gertrude and Alice must have been wounded and angered by the rejection of Gertrude's work, but I like to think if Gertrude could have set aside her monumental ego she might also have enjoyed the humor in it. Souhami reprints a rejection letter from a prospective publisher. To set up the story, you have to have a sense of Stein's "style" of writing, which goes something like this: She was thinking in being one who was a different one in being one than he was in being one. Sound was coming out of her and she was knowing this thing. Sound had been coming out of him and she had been knowing this thing. She had sound coming out of her. She was different from him. She had sound coming out of her. She was different in being one being one. She was knowing that thing.
Continuing on in this fashion for 147 more pages.
The rejection letter goes like this:
Dear Madam,
I am only one, only one, only one. Only one being, one at the same time. Not two, not three, only one. Only one life to live, only sixty minutes in one hour. Only one pair of eyes. Only one brain. Only one being. Being only one, having only one pair of eyes, having only one time, having only one life, I cannot read your MS three or four times. Not even one time. Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one. Hardly one.
Many thanks. I am returning the MS by registered post. Only one MS by one post.
But Gertrude could write more succinctly. Of Alice, she wrote:
1. Always sweet.
2. Always right.
3. Always welcome.
4. Always wife.
5. Always blessed.
The wealthy and notorious ex-pat Natalie Barney, after visiting the two women as they were setting up household in a new apartment in their 50s, remarked to a friend that "Alice T. is withering away under the stress of moving into a new flat... I am afraid the bigger one, who gets fatter and fatter, will sooner or later devour her. She looks so thin."
Alice did wear herself out for Gertrude, seeing to every detail of their domestic life and Gertrude's comfort. But she was a formidable personage, and no one made the mistake twice of underestimating her. Alice and Gertrude between them had agreed that Gertrude was the most important thing in the world. Having settled that, Alice became essential to Gertrude, and consequently, very powerful in the relationship. Intelligent, strong willed, with an acerbic wit, Alice was not a victim. But it was a complicated relationship, something Souhami understands and doesn't shy away from.
Then there were the WWII years, when Alice and Gertrude stayed on in France at their home in the countryside, where they were protected by Bernard Fay, who was imprisoned after the war for collaborating with the Germans during the Occupation, and the troubling matter of Stein translating the speeches of Vichy France's Marshal Petain into English for Fay for propaganda purposes. Not a pretty picture.
Souhami has a good eye and ear for the story she tells. The photographs she has selected for the book are wonderful. These are placed throughout the text rather than in a big bunch in the middle of the book, which is very pleasing.
I would read this book again.
April 27, 2021
For someone who wasn't all that interested in Gertrude Stein, this was enjoyable, entertaining, and enlightening with all credit to Diana Souhami. She's put together a lively and gossipy account of Stein and Toklas that must include virtually every bit of trivia she accumulated. A friend of Stein's had double-jointed thumbs; as a child Stein had a canary -- its cage cost $3.25. Who knew? While not the best choice for academic study, both characters are brought to life in depth. Toklas always seemed practically invisible and somewhat damaged. Here we get a strong sense of her personality and strengths. The cookbook issue is explained as innocuous. Stein comes across as charismatic, likeable, interesting, and interested. Souhami doesn't conduct a literary analysis of Stein's writing, preferring to let excerpts of her work speak without embellishment. Wise choice. There's a balanced approach to Toklas' last days after Stein's death. While she absolves Stein's family of some blame, they still seem unnecessarily cruel to Alice who devoted her life to advancing Stein's career. Gertrude and Alice is an excellent choice for those with even only a mild interest in the subject.
December 15, 2021
Interesting biography of Alice and Gertrude, offering perhaps more insight into the nature of their personal relationships than other books do. So many biographies treat this pair as a couple but almost like a couple of friends; here we finally achieve more of a sense of the intimidation their dynamic, the passion the tensions the explosions. We learn about cows.
Splendid selection of photos too, not only of Alice, Gertrude, Basket, and so on, but of artworks and other people. Essential reading for all the fans.
Having recently read more about Carl Van Vechten, it is interesting to see how he intersects with Alice and Gertrude in this book. Once you learn more you see more or maybe like me you just forget more so you can learn it again and be pleasantly surprised.
This volume is rich with detail and insight, and well worth dipping into again and again.
Splendid selection of photos too, not only of Alice, Gertrude, Basket, and so on, but of artworks and other people. Essential reading for all the fans.
Having recently read more about Carl Van Vechten, it is interesting to see how he intersects with Alice and Gertrude in this book. Once you learn more you see more or maybe like me you just forget more so you can learn it again and be pleasantly surprised.
This volume is rich with detail and insight, and well worth dipping into again and again.
November 24, 2008
I melded my reading and writing based on Gertrude Stein's work by reading this biography that I found it a second hand store. It was the most enjoyable to read, lively and seemed to capture the life of both of these strong women. It was easier reading than Gertrude's writing. It was a great complement.
April 16, 2017
Stein/Toklas är ett mkt intressant par, och bitvis är biografin över deras liv både rörande och vacker på ett sådant sätt att hjärtat sjunger. Men dessvärre är biografin dåligt skriven, fokus hoppar mellan väsentligheter och totala oväsentligheter. Så därför landar jag på 2 stjärnor i betyg.
June 9, 2019
This was my second book by Diana Souhami, and while not as exhaustive and enthralling as The Trials of Radclyffe Hall, it was very interesting. I think I like this author a lot and will try to read more of her books.
What can I say? Gertrude Stein must have been a fascinating person. She was being wholly herself her whole life, and achieved recognition and fame as wholly herself. She didn’t have to pretend, to hide, to make a compromise in any way. But then, it must be easier to be oneself when one has money.
“Matisse was asking 500 francs for the painting. Gertrude and Leo offered 450. Madame Matisse told her husband to hold out for the extra fifty francs which would mean winter clothes for their daughter. Madame Matisse was posing with an old guitar in their studio when the Steins petit bleu arrived saying 500 francs was all right.”
There was never any trouble about the lack of winter clothes in Gertrude’s lifetime; some shortages of butter and such in the wartime, but really, those were people who could go on a walk, see a house and decide that they want it, and then buy it next week. They were the equivalent of today’s rich people who travel in private jets to eat sushi in Japan and then go back on the same day. Alice became poor after Gertrude’s death, but it seems that the main problem was not being able to afford a decent servant any more…
I loved that Gertrude and Alice were so blissfully happy together, and that they were able to convey this feeling of utter normalcy about their private life. What a contrast to Radclyffe Hall and her lovers! But I thought that some things might have been glossed over in this biography, especially Gertrude’s dismissal of antisemitism and fascism; I would have liked to have her political stance analyzed more. There is some of the famed sexism – can it be called misogyny? – of the pair here; the only woman allowed into Gertrude’s circle of artists was Marie Laurencin. And Alice was okay with that. (Djuna Barnes was furious at them, because the only thing they had noticed about her was her beautiful legs.)
But all in all, they were a lovely pair. I would very much like to see them together (from afar), both of them.
“The reporter from Columbia University’s Spectator waited for twenty minutes in the foyer of the Algonquin and was then told by Alice that Gertrude would not, as agreed, be available for interview. Alice, who was wearing a feathered hat, said to him, ‘You people should have interviewed Miss Stein many years ago when she was not so well known and not so busy.’”
March 13, 2008
Very readable biography of this dynamic Sapphic duo. Souhami isn't as exhaustive as James Mellow in CHARMED CIRCLE or as "investigative" as Janet Malcolm in TWO LIVES; this is biography as straightforward narrative, without the day-by-day calendarisms that happen when a writer tries to be a completist or the "meta-" inflections that occur when she uses a life as an allegory of writing biography. If there's nothing groundbreaking here, the author does do a nice job of taking "Pussy" and "Baby"'s love as perfectly natural when speculating about the behind-closed-doors hours at the rue de Fleurus. Thankfully, she leaves out both the smirky hubbahubba tone of Stein's earliest biographers and the insistently political slant of later ones. The result is a solid, no-frills rehearsal of a love that lasted nearly forty years---a decade for every one of Hemingway's marriages and only five years shorter than Fitzgerald's entire life.
October 1, 2011
Although I found Getrude and Alice's life together pretty boring, I still learned a lot from this book. Art and culture in the 20th century, Picasso was a great friend of theirs and they accumulated valuable paintings by him when his paintings were still largely unknown. Not too much info on their personal lives, none of their correspondence to each other was included, but that may have been because it was destroyed on the day of Gertrude's funeral. I'm not sure what the reason for that was, but until after Gertrudes's death, Alice refused to comment on the nature of their relationship. Of Getrude's writings, I can only say, "You got me there". I have no idea what she was talking about. The funniest part of the book was a copy of the rejection letter that was written in the same vein as her manuscript. Why did she become as famous as shse is today? I'm not sure, but maybe because she was so different from everyone else.
June 10, 2015
What a wonderfully written, intelligent and sensible story of the lives of two of the most famous women of the last century. When I finished, I found a strange irony in the fact that their lives have played an important part in my life. In 1967 when I went off to Vietnam, Alice died and was buried in Pere Lachaise next to Gertrude. Just as I was starting my life as a man, they ended theirs as the hostesses with the most in Paris. It's true they literally knew everyone in art and literature. Their home in Paris was the center of every movement that caused ripples in the worlds of art and literature for fifty years. I cannot imagine anyone not finding this an interesting and compelling book. The author has such an approachable style of writing that the pages fly by to the end. And, it causes nothing but pleasure reading. This is a book that must be read and not passed over in favor of some airport bookstore novel.
December 17, 2010
I had no idea who Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas were beyond a vague recognition of their names prior to reading this book. Now, I wonder how that was possible. Gertrude Stein was a literary movement.
I thought this biography had a relatively smooth narrative which kept me interested and never bored. The book spans the life of both Gertrude and Alice and is relatively thin for that length of time. Accordingly, the book proves to be only an introduction to the very interesting life these two people shared.
I thought this biography had a relatively smooth narrative which kept me interested and never bored. The book spans the life of both Gertrude and Alice and is relatively thin for that length of time. Accordingly, the book proves to be only an introduction to the very interesting life these two people shared.
September 2, 2015
I never liked Gertrude Stein -- maybe because of what Hemingway wrote about her. I like her even less now, having read this very good biography. I don't like Alice Toklas either. Nevertheless, this book was interesting and a pleasure to read, and that's unusual because I tend to want to like the people I read about -- feeling that when I am reading about them, I'm spending time with them. The two were interesting characters and their relationship was noteworthy and I guess I always enjoy being taken to Paris in the early part of the 20th century.
March 8, 2010
extremely interesting, not sure if Gertrude Stein was a genius or a megalomaniac, and not sure if Alice B Toklas was a sycophant or the woman behind the 'man', and not sure if anyone really knows, but they had a fascinating existence, pissing people off and living for themselves. Not a brilliant exercise in writing, but a great read nonetheless
May 7, 2013
This book will always be special to me for sparking my love for both of these amazing women, but especially for Gertrude Stein's practice: genius is almost an understatement. A well researched, detailed and entertaining read through the lives of one of the greatest couples to have ever lived.
September 24, 2018
I was in the mood for some non-fiction, and this book was good choice. I've always enjoyed reading about the period within which these ladies lived, and in particular their interaction with writers and artists they knew. It was a very readable biography.
January 3, 2011
Fun read. Great insights about the era and about art collections.
October 24, 2016
Erg leuke biografie over twee erg leuke dames, die ik nu nog leuker vind.
August 26, 2024
I blitzed through this book, mainly out of curiosity for the women that have become myths of love, the figures behind the Looking for Alice series that I adore.
I love reading it; not because of the book content itself (which I find to be too verbose at times, with not enough details on the relationship but too many on veneering characters), but because of my fascination for Gertrude & Alice’s relationship. It is so singular, so distinctively unique, and so expansive, defying all boundaries and expectations, and also, problematic (by today standards?)? But where is it love and where is it toxicity and if these are two individuals in love where do you draw the lines, and I kept thinking but had no answer other than complete fascination with the two of them, and two of them as a pair, more than Gertrude or Alice as individuals.
Reminds me of the quote when someone asks Gertrude if she is a lesbian & she says no, I just love Alice. Bc reading about their lives I realize there is only a singular human being she could love, and she had loved all this time. Like, Alice is made for her, is shaped of her. It’s as if being together they have taken their lovers shape and form, and overtime grew to fit each other more, their interiorities fused. Imagine if society has certain shapes that require you to exist in, that are flat and functional but uninteresting. But Alice & Gertrude over months and decades lived & molded each other into layered, textured objects, that stood out in such sharp contrast with the flatness of the land.
Reading this also contextualized Gertrude Stein & her literary philosophy & legacy in the larger social milieu of the 20th century. Picasso had a portrait of her, and she just casually hanged with T.S.Elliot & Hemingway. And yet her work was never properly understood & her most consequential novel ended up being about Alice B. Toklas anyways. Could you have separated her from her work from her love?
I love reading it; not because of the book content itself (which I find to be too verbose at times, with not enough details on the relationship but too many on veneering characters), but because of my fascination for Gertrude & Alice’s relationship. It is so singular, so distinctively unique, and so expansive, defying all boundaries and expectations, and also, problematic (by today standards?)? But where is it love and where is it toxicity and if these are two individuals in love where do you draw the lines, and I kept thinking but had no answer other than complete fascination with the two of them, and two of them as a pair, more than Gertrude or Alice as individuals.
Reminds me of the quote when someone asks Gertrude if she is a lesbian & she says no, I just love Alice. Bc reading about their lives I realize there is only a singular human being she could love, and she had loved all this time. Like, Alice is made for her, is shaped of her. It’s as if being together they have taken their lovers shape and form, and overtime grew to fit each other more, their interiorities fused. Imagine if society has certain shapes that require you to exist in, that are flat and functional but uninteresting. But Alice & Gertrude over months and decades lived & molded each other into layered, textured objects, that stood out in such sharp contrast with the flatness of the land.
Reading this also contextualized Gertrude Stein & her literary philosophy & legacy in the larger social milieu of the 20th century. Picasso had a portrait of her, and she just casually hanged with T.S.Elliot & Hemingway. And yet her work was never properly understood & her most consequential novel ended up being about Alice B. Toklas anyways. Could you have separated her from her work from her love?
November 7, 2023
I guess I’m just not impressed by Gertrude or Alice. I found all the tales of the famous people they interacted with and the food they ate uninteresting and dull. The chapters about their trip to America and WWII, were interesting enough to read, but the rest was a tale about two women with family money, who were spoiled and only cared about themselves. Gertrude was the center of her universe and Alice was a slave who gave up her own life and identity.
November 28, 2017
4 stars though due in part to google searches inspired by the book. For example, unknown paintings required a look and then I would get sidetracked onto something else. Gertrude and Alice lived a bold and exciting life, especially for the time.
The book begins in San Francisco and their respective early lives. Though they both lived in the area they did not meet until in Paris. Gertrude was very close to her brother Leo. In the early twentieth century she followed him to Paris. They lived together for several years. They were among the first to buy Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne and display the paintings in their home and hold weekly salons for the Parisian avant-garde. After Gertrude met Alice the 3 of them lived together for several years, but then Leo was ousted and Gertrude banished him from her life. This was partly due for his dislike of Alice and because he did not hold Gertrude's writing in very high regard. Other than excerpts included in the book I have never read Gertrude Stein, I must say I agree with Leo.
The book continues with their lives during both World Wars. Desperately trying to get Gertrude's work published (her only major success while alive was when she wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokas as Alice.) As a result of this success their one and only trip back to the United States was 30 years after they had left.
It ends with Gertrude's death and Alice living the rest of her years trying to get Gertrude's work published and trying to protect the remaining paintings from Gertrude's kin.
The book begins in San Francisco and their respective early lives. Though they both lived in the area they did not meet until in Paris. Gertrude was very close to her brother Leo. In the early twentieth century she followed him to Paris. They lived together for several years. They were among the first to buy Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne and display the paintings in their home and hold weekly salons for the Parisian avant-garde. After Gertrude met Alice the 3 of them lived together for several years, but then Leo was ousted and Gertrude banished him from her life. This was partly due for his dislike of Alice and because he did not hold Gertrude's writing in very high regard. Other than excerpts included in the book I have never read Gertrude Stein, I must say I agree with Leo.
The book continues with their lives during both World Wars. Desperately trying to get Gertrude's work published (her only major success while alive was when she wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokas as Alice.) As a result of this success their one and only trip back to the United States was 30 years after they had left.
It ends with Gertrude's death and Alice living the rest of her years trying to get Gertrude's work published and trying to protect the remaining paintings from Gertrude's kin.
July 18, 2013
I was completely wrapped up in this book. These were two really fascinating women! However, upon reading the excerpts from Stein's writings, I had to agree with many of the publishers who rejected the materials she submitted. Still, what a time it must have been to be alive, free and relatively prosperous! Gertrude Stein certainly lived her life to the fullest. I think she would have been interesting to know, yet I know I'd be relegated to the kitchen with the other wives and Alice Toklas, who I don't think I would have liked. I found it interesting that Miss Stein, despite her free life style, still managed to set up her housekeeping in a somewhat traditional patriarchal way.
Very good book!
Very good book!
June 19, 2008
This was an interesting biography about the life of author Gertrude Stein and her life partner, Alice B. Toklas. They were very quirky and I would only recommend the book as a period piece, as it doesn't go into much detail about them personally - mostly an overview of their life in Europe and the publication process of her books.
September 11, 2010
I read this book so long ago but I do remember that it was facinating learning about these two women and thier unique lives.
August 7, 2011
Thorough background, may entice me to read their letters.
December 12, 2016
So far so FUNNY
March 14, 2021
I loved this book, but really I think I just love Gertrude and Alice. The book got off to a slow start for me. At some point it became really interesting, and I found myself really caring about Gertrude and Alice, with all their oddities and their very dysfunctional relationship. Gertrude believed she was a genius, and Alice wholeheartedly agreed. Instead of making me think "how ridiculous! how conceited!", by the end of the book it had somehow became an endearing quality.
Isn't it interesting when people don't work for a living? Both Gertrude and Alice had some family money, although after Gertrude was gone, Alice didn't have enough money. But for the time the two of them were together, they seemed to have a great life. Gertrude read one mystery book every day and walked many miles a day. It sounds like Gertrude only wrote about half an hour a day, and yet her writing endures. She and Alice collected hundreds of pieces of art, which became very valuable over the years. They had fabulous soirees with up and coming writers and artists of our sorts. Souhami says they were famous for being themselves.
There's a lot of information about what people ate and it sounds delicious. Alice did the cooking, and after Gertrude was gone, published a cookbook. This cookbook had a chapter with recipes from their friends, including one from Brion Gysin for hashish brownies. Alice put it in the cookbook, supposedly without ever making that recipe or even paying attention to that particular ingredient.
I've requested "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" by Gertrude Stein from the library and look forward to reading it. I love the title, and the fact that Gertrude, not Alice, wrote Alice's autobiography.
When my daughter Audrey was visiting, this is one of the books she was getting rid of. I thought I'd read it because she reads some interesting books. Later I found out she never got around to reading this one. I say she missed out, because it was fascinating.
Isn't it interesting when people don't work for a living? Both Gertrude and Alice had some family money, although after Gertrude was gone, Alice didn't have enough money. But for the time the two of them were together, they seemed to have a great life. Gertrude read one mystery book every day and walked many miles a day. It sounds like Gertrude only wrote about half an hour a day, and yet her writing endures. She and Alice collected hundreds of pieces of art, which became very valuable over the years. They had fabulous soirees with up and coming writers and artists of our sorts. Souhami says they were famous for being themselves.
There's a lot of information about what people ate and it sounds delicious. Alice did the cooking, and after Gertrude was gone, published a cookbook. This cookbook had a chapter with recipes from their friends, including one from Brion Gysin for hashish brownies. Alice put it in the cookbook, supposedly without ever making that recipe or even paying attention to that particular ingredient.
I've requested "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" by Gertrude Stein from the library and look forward to reading it. I love the title, and the fact that Gertrude, not Alice, wrote Alice's autobiography.
When my daughter Audrey was visiting, this is one of the books she was getting rid of. I thought I'd read it because she reads some interesting books. Later I found out she never got around to reading this one. I say she missed out, because it was fascinating.
August 22, 2024
A very readable biography (more readable than, say, the poetry and prose of Gertrude Stein). They were most definitely an interesting pair who led fascinating lives. I learned a few new things (for example, I thought Gertrude's relatives came in an stole all of the famous paintings from Alice after Gertrude's death because they weren't legally married, but that didn't seem to be true at all). Their admiration of Fascism seemed glossed over, and it's still amazing that these two famous Jews survived the Holocaust unscathed. Alice really disrupted Gertrude's life, in good ways and I think in negative ways as well. At least in this account.
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