Cook Book: Gertrude Stein, William Cook and Le Corbusier

by Roy R. Behrens

This is not a cook book, but it is a Cook book, a book about a man named Cook. It is a biographical sketch of one of Gertrude Stein's dearest and most loyal friends, a largely unknown artist named William Edwards Cook (1881-1959). Born and raised in small-town Iowa, he left the U.S. in 1903 to study in France, and continued living overseas (in France, Italy, USSR and Spain) for the rest of his life. A close friend of Stein and Alice B. Toklas, it was Cook who taught Stein how to drive. They also vacationed together on the Spanish island of Majorca. In addition, when his father died in 1928, he used part of his inheritance to commission the then unknown young architect Le Corbusier to design a starkly Modernist home (called Villa Cook), the "first truly cubic house," on the outskirts of Paris. He also painted a portrait of Pope Pius X, served as an undercover agent for the U.S. Secret Service, and, as a Red Cross worker in the USSR, witnessed the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Amo

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading the book, I knew very little about the three people, even though Cook came from my hometown. I found their lifestyle interesting but was surprised that the world wars didn't seem to affect their lives any more than was reported.