The Biography of Alice B. Toklas

Its fitting that Alice B. Toklas wife and literary impresario of Gertrude Stein should be the subject of a biography…and this is a good one sensitive and lively…its clear from this portrait that through her possessive affection she not only had a dominant influence on Steins life but (for good or ill) on her highly idiosyncratic prose. With her acid tongue shrewd judgment vitality and intense loyalty she was a fairly remarkable person in her-self – “Publishers Weekly”.Linda Simon writes beautifully of Alices early years in California of her Polish-Jewish family of her growing alienation from her surroundings and gravitation toward artists of her awareness of the isolating burden homosexuality would force on her…entertaining thoroughly researched. and well-written…with a clear gaze fixed on undistorted truth – “Saturday Review”. A study that shows Toklas as she must have been not Miss Steins obedient shadow …but a multifaceted and complex creature with her own tastes and standards…her story is an emotionally stirring experience – “Washington Post Book World”.Linda Simon in her preface to this Bison Book edition calls Alice B.Toklas a woman who through a mixture of determination and good luck invented a new narrative for her life at a time when options for women were few. Simon is the author of “Thornton Wilder: His World” (1979) “Good Writing” (1988) and other books. She is now working on a biography of William James.