The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

By Gertrude Stein

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time

'I always wanted to be historical,' Gertrude Stein once quipped. In 1932, Stein began writing the 'autobiography' of her longtime friend and companion, Alice B. Toklas. The book, an immediate bestseller, guaranteed them both a place in history. An account of their life together in Paris before, during, and after World War I, it is full of the atmosphere of the changing life of the city and of idiosyncratic glimpses of such figures as Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Cocteau, Apollinaire, Pound, Eliot, Hemingway, and other luminaries and aspirants who were their close friends. But at the center of the narrative there is always the titanic figure of Gertrude Stein, the self-proclaimed 'first-class genius' who some dismissed as the 'Mother Goose of Montparnasse,' presiding over her celebrated residence-salon-art gallery at 27, rue de Fleurus. William Troy remarked about her: 'It is not flippant to say that if she had not come to exist . . . it would be necessary to invent Miss Gertrude Stein.'

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 1, 2000
• ISBN: 9780679641957

Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was an American novelist and poet. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Stein was raised in an upper-middle-class Jewish family alongside four siblings. After a brief move to Vienna and Paris, the Steins settled in Oakland, California in 1878, where Stein would spend her formative years. In 1892, following the loss of her mother and father, Stein moved with her sister to live with family in Baltimore, where she was exposed to salon culture. From 1893 to 1897 she attended Radcliffe College, studying psychology under William James. Conducting experiments on the phenomenon of normal motor automatism, Stein produced early examples of steam of consciousness or automatic writing, a hallmark of the Modernist style later practiced by Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and William Faulkner. In 1897, she enrolled at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine on the recommendation of James, but ultimately left before completing her degree. She moved to Paris with her brother Leo, an artist, in 1903. In the French capital, the Steins gained a reputation as art collectors, purchasing works by Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin, Cézanne, and Renoir. At 27 rue de Fleurus, Stein hosted an influential salon for such artists and intellectuals as Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who recognized her as a leading Modernist and central figure of the so-called Lost Generation. Her influential works include Three Lives (1909), Tender Buttons (1912), and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933), all of which exemplify her control over vastly different styles of poetry and prose. Capable of producing experimental, hermetic works that draw attention to the constructed nature of language, Stein also excelled with straightforward narratives, essays, and biographical descriptions. From 1907 until her death, Stein and her life partner Alice B. Toklas gained a reputation as leaders in the international avant-garde, and remain essential to our understanding of the development of twentieth century art and culture.

Reviews for The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

[eliz_m_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although this is the most accessible of Gertrude Stein's works, it is deceptively simple. It took quite a while to get used to the conversational style and the unique sentence structure and composition. But in the end, I enjoyed it. It was a tantalizing glimpse of a brilliant author and her involvement with a major movement in art and literature. Eventually, I enjoyed the rhythm of the language and the ironic tone. However, I wish that I had kept track of all the paintings mentioned in the first section, as apparently no one else has thought of compiling a companion web-page of all the art works mentioned. I also would love to try this as an audio book -- I think the writing would lend itself very well to that medium.

[kgib_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

NOW I understand why people romanticize Paris so much.

[quantum_flapdoodle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book, though nominally an autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, is actually more of an autobiography of Gertrude Stein, told in the voice of Toklas. As a Stein book, it is filled with oddball phrasing, strange punctuation, erratic capitalization, and games with the English language, all of which makes it fun to read. It also gives the reader a glimpse into the life of artists in Paris in the early 20th century. Pablo Picasso is probably the most mentioned of the artists, but Matisse also makes frequent appearances. The rise of cubism is a key component of this book, along with the intellectual and social life of the artsy crowd. You get treated to who was feuding with whom, who was coming over to dinner, and who was starting to sell their work. It also includes a look at the early years of Stein's work, and the struggles to get published in a world that had a standard format she was refusing to follow. It's art history, social gossip, and literary achievement in one.

[peajayar · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm rereading this book as I embark on a project to write a short story in the style of GS, set in New Zealand in the forties and fifties. Madness, probably, and likely doomed to failure. But oh my goodness this is a great book to reread. She had a great understanding of many things, including the way we (people in general) react to new directions in art, or whatever else, as "ugly" and then get used to them and find them beautiful. I also love the way she uses phrases like "little by little," and the word "interesting."Next I'll retry Three Lives and then Baby Precious Always Shines the new volume of her letters and notes to Alice (Kay Turner) Oh yes, I will read them.

[prop2gether · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This faux autobiography is chockful of descriptions of artists and writers as they traveled through the lives of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Since Gertrude wrote Alice's autobiography, it is full of "observations" by Alice of Gertrude and her friends. It was an interesting read in its full stream of consciousness style which allowed the writer to flow back and forth in time and location and individual event to show how very impressive or unimpressive all these now famous folk were in their early years. Much better reading than some other Stein, but not for those who want their "history" straightforward.

[technodiabla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I would have rated this book higher but I think many people would find it incredibly boring. I was fascinated by the rambling comings and going in an unconventional household is early 20th century Paris. I love many of the artists Stein hosted and found the unadorned story of their early years really interesting. The WW1 Chapter was actually my favorite; it had a bit more humor and got more into the personality of Stein herself. She sounds brilliant, interesting, and difficult. The last part, when she switched over to hosting young writers-- and saw her own writing start to be appreciated-- was also good. All that jealous bickering among contemporaries. Of course Stein didn't know that the painters and writers reputations would be what they are today, when she wrote the book. Why would people find it boring then? Well, the style is very rambling, almost stream of conscious, with lots of distractions and asides. There's no plot structure at all. It's just a chronological account, told from the viewpoint of Alice. I liked it, and want to follow up with some Hemingway, Ford Maddox Ford and Fitzgerald.

[valerieandbooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein (originally published in 1933) was my bedside reading for a long, long time– with other bedside reading interrupting it now and then. I don’t feel that my reading of Autobiography suffered from these interruptions. While really written by Gertrude Stein, this is intended to appear as if it was authored by Stein’s long-time lover/partner Alice Toklas. While I’m not at all familiar with Toklas’ writing style, this book is obviously in Stein’s voice. Being an art-lover, I somewhat enjoyed the constant name-dropping of people they hung out with — Picasso, Matisse and Braque to name a few; and friendships or associations with writers such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Here is a typical passage — very Gertrude Stein: ”Before I decided to write this book my twenty-five years with Gertrude Stein, I had often said that I would write, The wives of geniuses I have sat with. I have sat with so many. I have sat with wives who were not wives, of geniuses who were not real geniuses. I have sat with real wives of geniuses who were not real geniuses. I have sat with wives of geniuses, of near geniuses, of would be geniuses, in short I have sat very often and very long with many wives and wives of many geniuses”.Whew. Passages like that made it better for me to appreciate this book in small doses. A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose, anyone? But, then there were observant passages, such as this one:“Gertrude Stein and Fitzgerald are very peculiar in their relation to each other. Gertrude Stein had been very much impressed by This Side of Paradise. She read it when it came out and before she knew any of the young american writers. She said of it that it was this book that really created for the public the new generation. She has never changed her opinion about this. She thinks this equally true of The Great Gatsby. She thinks Fitzgerald will be read when many of his well known contemporaries are forgotten. Fitzgerald always says that he thinks Gertrude Stein says those things just to annoy him…”Note that in the above passage, I quoted it exactly — This Side of Paradise is not italicized, but The Great Gatsby is. Also, for some reason, americans, the french, the italians, and so on were almost never capitalized. I can’t say whether this book could be completely “autobiographical” or biographical — somehow it’s hard for me to imagine Toklas actually teaching Hemingway how to bull-fight, for instance – but it does give a flavor of the Paris full of artistic and literary expatriates in the 1920s and for the several years afterwards. But, it’s not an easy book to stay with for a long period of time; and like I said, better taken in small doses.

[chexmix_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Apparently Stein wrote this for a lark -- it turned out to be her best-known work, and it is well-worth reading for its detailed and terrifically amusing look at early 20th century Paris. Not as revolutionary as her more experimental work, but infinitely easier to snuggle up to.

[thebooknerd · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Do not sit down to read this book from start to finish -- grab a passage here and there, call it good. Stein is unarguably a crafty, innovative writer; she is an artist in the truest sense. That doesn't mean, unfortunately, that her work is particularly enjoyable. Take this book, for one. The innovative gimmick of writing your own autobiography through the perspective of another person is a challenging and entertaining twist. But once the novelty wears off, you're still faced with a largely uninteresting story. Unless you have a particular interest in Stein, her contemporaries, or the time period, I doubt this book will have much to offer you.

[wubsy_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I had to read this for a University Course and found it to be self serving and lacking in humor. It managed to make fascinating characters like Picasso and Matisse seem rather banal. Not one I will revisit.

[the_awesome_opossum · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was so amused by the premise, of Alice B. Toklas being reduced to a minor role in her own autobiography - the Robin to Gertrude's Batman. Could you imagine how the conversations about this book must have gone? Poor AliceGertrude Stein must have been such a character, and she and Alice lived such interesting lives. This book is more or less a role call of everyone important in modernist art and literature; the two women knew everyone and traveled everywhere. That's what this Autobiography is, a loose account of years of parties with artists and authors, with some bits about World War I thrown in for good measure. But it's strangely compelling, a time capsule of the early twentieth century, and fun to read

[alexthehunn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of Gertrude Stein's readable works. Stein and Toklas knew everybody in pre-World War I Paris. Important literary and artistic figures abound. Aside from the sheer energy of Stein's writing, as a historical glimpse into Bohemian life of the time makes the book essential.

[dawnpen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

We are bitties and we are dogs for art and we push to the side all the wars and all the wives that have taken the places of other wives and we tell the story as if it were a joke to tell a story (which it is) and that is how our home and our dog and our little quilts are sewn.