| Other Happenings...
Recent books for the GertrudeandAlice enthusiast:
“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Red Cross worker in the USSR, witnessed the aftermath of the Russian Revolution… Based largely on hundreds of pages of unpublished correspondence between Stein, Toklas and Cook, this is a candid and often amusing account of their warm and enduring friendship. But it is also about the mystery that Paris held for the "lost generation" of expatriate artists, writers and musicians, about Stein's and Cook's shared interest in automobiles and bullfighting, about Stein's outspoken fondness for Iowa (although she had never visited there), and about everybody's painful memories of growing up, leaving home, and never being able to return. The book is dedicated to all people who, like Stein and Cook, have had the courage to expatriate (whether literally or metaphorically), who have dared to swim against the tide of orthodoxy.” “John Baxter's latest book is a memoir, city guide, historical/literary romp and affectionate look at Paris through the eyes, ears and taste-buds of an expatriate! What a delightful read presented in a small, guide-book size format easily held in one hand at an outdoor Parisian cafe. The book begins with Baxter's move to Paris at age 50 from a comfortable professional life in Los Angeles to his new life with a former love who soon becomes his wife. Though he arrives in Paris knowing only a smattering of French, the book is liberally sprinkled with French words and phrases, whose historical origins are creatively interspersed with Baxter's adventures and explorations of the City of Light. One of the strengths of his writing is his keen observation and description of the people he has known over the years and how their life stories have interwoven with his own. A most enjoyable book for both the Francophile and those who wish to be, but are reluctant to admit it!” Two foodie books with tributes to Alice B. Toklas:
This anthology includes an essay by Naomi Barry, wife of Stein/Toklas friend Joe Barry, written in 1967 a few months after Alice's death. Also,
Cannon was the House Beautiful editor who had a less than pleasant collaboration with Alice on her second cookbook Aromas and Flavors of Past and Present (1958.) According to the Press's Web site: From "An Elucidation" in 1923 to Lectures In America in 1934, Ulla E. Dydo examines the process of the making and remaking of Stein's texts as they move from notepad to notebook to manuscript, from an idea to the ultimate refinement of the author's intentions. Though not a biography, Dydo's book sets each text in the context of Stein's daily life and work, showing how her immediate world enters her writing, to be enlarged upon, deleted, transformed, or combined with other elements of reading or remembering. The result is an unprecedented view of the development of Stein's work, word-by-word, text-by-text, and over time." The paperback edition published by Mariner Press in 2004. A German translation, Das Buch vom Salz, was published in 2004, with a German paperback edition scheduled for 2006. The book lyrically captures the life of Binh, a cook for GertrudeandAlice inspired by a reference to one of their Vietnamese cooks in Alice’s cookbook, and how it has become entwined with “my Mesdames.” One of the strengths of the book is how real the daily lives of GertrudeandAlice become in Truong’s storytelling. A portion of the publisher's description includes: One reviewer wrote: Bruce has also edited the daybooks of Carl Van Vechten featured in:
And in the performing arts: |
TWO LIVES: Gertrude and Alice by Janet Malcolm (Yale
University Press, 2007) Janet Malcolm's New Yorker magazine articles
about Gertrude and Alice have now been published as a short book. And
though the book has been widely reviewed and most reviews have been
quite favorable, Gertrude and Alice fans have mixed feelings about
this book. People either hate it or love it. Malcolm's style can be
abrasive and sensationalistic, sometimes verging on the supermarket-tabloid
or the evening TV entertainment news approach, yet she is undeniably
readable. Even though one may not agree or want to agree with her perspectives
on how Gertrude and Alice survived in Vichy France, their volatile
relationship, or the merits of Stein's obtuse writing style, this book
is an important addition to the biographical material pertaining to
these two lives.
NOTHING
IS TRUE EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED:The Life of Brion Gysin by
John Geiger (Disinformation, 2005) chronicles the life of the multimedia
artist/writer who was a friend and acquaintance of many of the key cultural
icons of the 20th century including GertrudeandAlice. Alice championed
his work and he contributed the now infamous hashish fudge recipe to
her cookbook which is written about in detail in this biography. Gysin’s
life encompassed the surrealists of Paris, the expats of Paul Bowles’
Morocco, the Beats of the 1950’s and the 1960s of Andy Warhol
and the Rolling Stones.
True
Pleasures: A Memoir of Women in Paris by Australian author
Lucinda Holdforth will be published in the U..S in fall 2005. It was
originally published in Australia last year. The book spotlights many
of the influential women who have lived in Paris in the last 325 years.
There are Hortense Mancini and Madame de Pompadour, and Madame du Deffand,
who became one of the greatest salonniére in history, and Josephine
and George Sand and Collete and Chanel and Nancy Mitford and a fascinating
chapter about Edith Wharton and Gertrude Stein. And many, many more
women and the many, many men whose lives they changed. The book came
about as Ms. Holdforth was contemplating a career change and came to
Paris to stay at a friend’s apartment. During the course of her
stay, she travels around the city to explore the places associated with
each woman. In writing about her explorations (this is her first book),
she touches on not only the historic significance of these women, but
discovers in their lives a power and a passion which help her to see
her life’s direction in a new way. Though the book blurb refers
to this as a book “to inspire every woman,” there are plenty
of lessons here to inspire every man! 
COOK
BOOK: Gertrude Stein, William Cook and Le Corbusier [ILLUSTRATED](Bobolink
Books, 2005) by Roy R. Behrens. This is a beautiful little book about
William Cook, the man who taught Gertrude Stein to drive! But he was
so much more and his life is presented by writer/designer Roy Behrens
in this small press published book which in many ways can be called
an artist’s book because of the attention to detail and style.
A wonderful book, a wonderful gift! A few paragraphs from the book’s
more formal description:
We’ll
Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light by John
Baxter has been published in the UK and Canada with a U.S. edition scheduled
for spring 2006. There are several references in the book to GertrudeandAlice.
One reviewer’s thoughts:
Remembrance
of Things Paris: Sixty Years of Writing From Gourmet edited
by Gourmet Magazine editor Ruth Reichl (Modern Library 2004.) 
Something
From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in the 1950s by Laura Shapiro
(Viking Press 2004) includes a section about Poppy Cannon and Alice.
Gertrude
Stein: The Language That Rises 1923-1934 (Northwestern
University Press, 2003 ) by Stein scholar Ulla Dydo.
The
Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003) by Monique Truong.
Bruce
Kellner’s, Kiss Me Again: An Invitation to a Group of
Noble Dames, includes both a chapter about his meeting Alice
B. Toklas and a copy of his one-person play about her which was performed
by Julie Harris. The book is published by Turtle Point Press. 
The
Splendid Drunken Twenties: Selections from the Daybooks, 1922-1930
(University of Illinois Press, 2003). “This generous, representative
sampling from the daybooks of Carl Van Vechten, one of the most significant
figures of the Harlem Renaissance, is a rich resource and major reference
tool for reconstructing the culture of 1920s New York, the social milieu
during Prohibition, and more. Bruce Kellner has provided copious, informative
notes identifying central figures and clarifying details.”
Waiting
For Gertrude: A Graveyard Gothic by Canadian radio personality
Bill Richardson. The story is set in Pére-Lachaise cemetery in
Paris and is narrated by Alice B. Toklas, who along with a number of
other famous people buried there, has returned as a cat. As Alice awaits
the arrival of the reincarnated Gertrude, a series of mysterious events
involve this gathering of historic felines. The book is published by
Thomas Dunne Books.  |
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