The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

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The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas.jpg
Author Gertrude Stein
Country United States
Language English
Genre autobiography
Publisher Harcourt, Brace and Company
Publication date
Pages 310 pp

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas is a 1933 book by Gertrude Stein, written in the guise of an autobiography authored by Alice B. Toklas, her life partner. In 1998, Modern Library ranked it as one of the 20 greatest English-language nonfiction books of the 20th century.[1]

Summary of chapters[edit]

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

Before I came to Paris[edit]

Alice B. Toklas, as narrator of the work, says she was born into an affluent family in San Francisco. Later she met Gertrude Stein's sister-in-law during the fires in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and decided to move to Paris in 1907.

My Arrival in Paris[edit]

Alice talks about the important role of Helene, Gertrude's housemaid, in their household in Paris. She mentions preparations for an art exhibition. She discusses Picasso and his mistress Fernande. Picasso and Fernande end their relationship, and Fernande moves to Montparnasse to teach French. Alice and Gertrude visit her there.

Gertrude Stein in Paris, 1903-1907[edit]

Alice tells of Gertrude and her brother Leo Stein buying paintings by Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse from Ambroise Vollard. They subsequently all become friends. She next discusses spending the summer with Gertrude in Fiesole, Italy, while Picasso goes to Spain. Back in France, Gertrude falls out with Guillaume Apollinaire. Later, Picasso has an argument with Matisse.

Gertrude Stein before she came to Paris[edit]

Alice tells how Gertrude Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, then moved to Vienna, to Passy, and finally to New York City and California. She attended Radcliffe College, where she was taught by William James. She decided to study for a Master's degree at Johns Hopkins University but dropped out because she was bored, then moved to London and was bored there too, returned to America, and eventually settled in Paris.


Alice tells stories about Matisse, Apollinaire, and many other Cubist artists. She recounts holidays in Italy and Spain with Gertrude. Finally, they move to England on the eve of World War I to meet with Gertrude's editor, leaving Mildred Aldrich alone in Paris.

The War[edit]

Gertrude and Alice begin the war years in England, and then go briefly to France to rescue Gertrude's writings. They then live in Spain for a while, and eventually move back to France. There, they do volunteer work for the American Fund for the French Wounded, driving around France to help the wounded and homeless. By the end of the war, Paris seems changed.

After the War, 1919-1932[edit]


"... remarks are not literature"

Literary significance and criticism[edit]


As for her friends, Carl Van Vechten liked it; Henry McBride thought it was too commercial; Ernest Hemingway called it a 'damned pitiful book'; Henri Matisse was offended by the descriptions of his wife; and Georges Braque thought Stein had misconstrued Cubism. Her brother Leo Stein deemed it a 'farrago of lies'.[5] The commercial success, however, that came with her book enabled Stein to live a more prosperous lifestyle.[6]


Considered to be the one of the most accessible of Stein's works, several literary critics, including Jeanette Winterson, have noted that Stein creates a new format, building upon Virginia Woolf's fictional biography, Orlando, in her own reinterpretation of the autobiography.[8]


  2. ^ Souhami, Diana - Gertrude and Alice: Gertrude Stein and Alice B.Toklas, Rivers Oram Press/Pandora List, 20 Feb 1992, p. 187
  3. ^ Souhami, p. 189
  4. ^ Souhami, p.190-191
  5. ^ Souhami, p. 192-194
  6. ^ Souhami, p. 195
  7. ^ Thomson, Virgil - "A Portrait of Gertrude Stein", from An Autobiography of Virgil Thomson, p. 176-177