A fascinating insight into the vibrant culture of Modernism, and the rich artist
ic world of Paris' Left Bank, Gertrude Stein's "The Autobiography of Alice B. To
klas" includes an introduction by Thomas Fensch in "Penguin Modern Classics". Fo
r Gertrude Stein and her wife Alice B. Toklas, life in Paris was based upon the
rue de Fleurus and the Saturday evenings and 'it was like a kaleidoscope slowly
turning'. Picasso was there with 'his high whinnying Spanish giggle', as were Ce
zanne and Matisse, Hemingway and Fitzgerald. As Toklas put it - 'The geniuses ca
me and talked to Gertrude Stein and the wives sat with me'. A light-hearted ente
rtainment, this is in fact Gertrude Stein's own autobiography and a roll-call of
all the extraordinary painters and writers she met between 1903 and 1932. Audac
ious, sardonic and characteristically self-confident, this is a definitive accou
nt by American in Paris. Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), a writer of experimental pr
ose, is one of the original American Modernists.
