Gertrude stein et alice toklas biography

In late summer 1907, Alice B. Toklas left behind her father and brother in an earthquake-and-fire-ravaged San Francisco in search of new adventures in Paris.

If unsure of what her future in the City of Lights held, the once-promising concert pianist discovered the answer shortly after arriving at her destination and encountering avant-garde writer Gertrude Stein.

"She was a golden brown presence, burned by the Tuscan sun and with a golden glint in her warm brown hair," Toklas recalled decades later in her autobiography What Is Remembered.

"She wore a large round coral brooch and when she talked, very little, or laughed, a good deal, I thought her voice came from this brooch. It was unlike anyone else's voice – deep, full, velvety like a great contralto's, like two voices."

Smitten, Toklas accepted the invitation to meet the following day, and they continued to do so for all successive days in the w