WHAT IS REMEMBERED

by Alice B. Toklas ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 27, 1963

A circle is a circle is a circle full circle comes- thus Alice B. Toklas as finally written her own autobiography; telescopically speaking, it goes like this. I was born in San Francisco; in Paris I met Gertrude Stein; she was a golden rown presence dressed in a golden brown suit; her voice was unlike anyone else's ke two voices; she developed the theory of the independent dependent and the dependent independent; mornings I did the typing and in the afternoon Gertrude and I visited Cocteau, Braque, Berenson, Pablo (Is Picasso leaving Fernande? He was. They were very happy in the beginning), Rousseau, Gide, Whitehead, Russell; during the war Gertrude drove a Ford truck delivering hospital supplies- she got stuck between two streetcars coming in opposite directions and had to be pushed off the rack; after the war Eliot said, Can you tell me Miss Stein what authority you have or so frequently using the split infinitive? Henry James, said Gertrude; Gertrude's favorites included Ford, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Pound, Wilder, Gris, Virgil Thomson; t Times Square I saw an electric light revolving- it said Gertrude Stein has arrived in NY; Gertrude lectured at Columbia, Princeton, Chicago, Hollywood; we dined with Claire Boothe Luce- she was convinced her husband would be President; someone ame and said WWII's been declared- Gertrude said, Don't bother me, Cecil (Beaton) s lost, I must find him; after the Liberation Clothilde the cook called, Madame here are American GI's at the door- Gertrude flew to meet them- they were Eric evareid and Frank Gervasi; later Gertrude and I toured Germany for Life; but Gertrude was sick- in the afternoon she said, What is the answer? I was silent. In that case, she said, what is the question?; then they took her away on a stretcher the operating room where she died; the years since have been sad... Such is the mior; oddly dotty, oddly delicious, an unspectacular, strangely sincere, even simple-minded account of a famous friendship, a fabulous era, fascinating people, ouchingly amusing, amusingly touching, garlanded with the smallest small talk of ome of the age's greatest greats ever collected. A curiosa complement to Gertrude's ef-d'oeuvre which is, of course, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.

Pub Date: March 27, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1963

Categories: NONFICTION