Alice B. Toklas
The sharp-witted American at the heart of Parisian modernism, who hosted the era's great artists and authored a famously unconventional cookbook.
1877–1967 (age 90)·American artist·Birthday: April 30·The Gilded Age
Biography
Alice B. Toklas arrived in Paris in 1907 and soon became the indispensable partner of writer Gertrude Stein. While Stein held court, Toklas was the practical engine of their legendary salon at 27 rue de Fleurus—managing household affairs, typing manuscripts, and acting as a shrewd gatekeeper for visitors like Picasso, Matisse, and Hemingway. For decades, she was perceived primarily as Stein's companion. Yet, after Stein's death, Toklas emerged as a literary figure in her own right. Her 1954 memoir-cookbook, 'The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book,' blended recipes with vivid anecdotes of their life together and famously included a recipe for hashish fudge, cementing her reputation as an eccentric and witty chronicler of a revolutionary artistic circle.
The Gilded Age
1860–1882
Born during or after the Civil War, they built industrial America — the railroads, the steel mills, the first skyscrapers. An era of massive wealth, massive inequality, and the belief that the future belonged to whoever could build it fastest.
Alice was born in 1877, placing them squarely in The Gilded Age. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Alice Was Born
The biggest hits of 1877
Alice's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1877Born
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1882Started school
First electrical power plant opens in New York
President: Chester A. Arthur
1890Became a teenager
Wounded Knee massacre marks the end of the Indian Wars
President: Benjamin Harrison
1893Could drive
World's Columbian Exposition dazzles Chicago
President: Grover Cleveland
1895Could vote
First public film screening by the Lumiere brothers
President: Grover Cleveland
1898Turned 21
Spanish-American War; US emerges as a world power
President: William McKinley
1907Turned 30
Financial panic grips Wall Street
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1917Turned 40
Russian Revolution overthrows the tsar; US enters WWI
President: Woodrow Wilson
1927Turned 50
Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic; The Jazz Singer premieres
President: Calvin Coolidge"My Blue Heaven" — Gene Austin
1937Turned 60
Hindenburg disaster; Golden Gate Bridge opens
Gas: $0.20/galPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"A-Tisket, A-Tasket" — Ella FitzgeraldBest Picture: The Life of Emile Zola
1947Turned 70
India gains independence; the Dead Sea Scrolls found
Gas: $0.23/galHome: $6,600Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Near You" — Francis CraigBest Picture: Gentleman's Agreement
1957Turned 80
Sputnik launches the Space Age
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $10,550Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"All Shook Up" — Elvis PresleyBest Picture: The Bridge on the River Kwai
1967Died at 90
Summer of Love in San Francisco; first Super Bowl
Gas: $0.33/galHome: $14,250Min wage: $1.40/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"To Sir, with Love" — LuluBest Picture: In the Heat of the Night
Key Achievements
- Authored 'The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book,' a seminal work that blended culinary recipes with memoirs of the Parisian avant-garde.
- Served as Gertrude Stein's literary secretary, typing and editing major works like 'The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.'
- Co-hosted one of the most influential artistic salons in Paris, a gathering place for modernist painters and writers in the early 20th century.
Did You Know?
The recipe for 'Haschich Fudge' in her cookbook, contributed by a friend, made the book notorious.
She was the subject of Stein's groundbreaking 'The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas,' which Stein wrote from Toklas's perspective.
During World War II, she and Stein, both Jewish, survived in occupied France under the protection of a local collaborator.
“I typed the words and made the life that held them.”
