From the imagined journal of Alice B. Toklas:
“1.January 1910, 27 rue de Fleurus
All the guests have left and Gertrude has retired. What a glorious evening!
And so a new year begins with the most wonderful of news which I will share at the end of today’s entry, saving the best for last.
Paris, 1910
I was asked by Gertrude and Leo to assist in preparing the holiday’s food which I did with pleasure. There are so many recipes that I have collected from my grandmother and mother and many of our cooks that someday I may have to do a cook book.
Assisting with soirées here has become such a pleasurable task as I have become quite familiar with the household as I come daily to transcribe Gertrude’s notebooks on the Smith-Premier typewriter—a marvelous apparatus.
The guests were on their best behavior. Picasso was a gentleman ushering other guests past his paintings in the salon, drink in hand, not saying a word, but nodding toward each of his paintings with a twinkle in his eye. Matisse glared at him from across the room sipping champagne and enjoying my stuffed mushroom canapés.
Michael and Sarah (Stein) mingled with the guests including our San Francisco friend Lawrence Strauss who was in Paris on holiday from his music studies in Berlin.
And then there was Gertrude. It has been 27 months since we met (the magic of that number!) and I still marvel at her ability to “hold court.” People flock to be around her and when she speaks, everyone listens. She is also genuinely interested in what others have to say, but does not hesitate to speak her mind. And our friendship is one that even after more than two years is difficult for me to express in words, though Lovey has done so so many times, sometimes cryptically in the genius of her writing.
"Gertrude and Alice," by John Keating (2000)
My reflections on the New Year?
As for Gertrude’s writing, let us wish for many more published books to follow her first, THREE LIVES, which was published just five months ago. Sales so far have been slow, but hopefully many a holiday purchase was made to place beneath Christmas trees on both sides of the Atlantic.
As for the World, there will, I fear, continue to be wars and rumors of wars in our new century, but let us hope that the advances brought by the Industrial Revolution will benefit and not cause great harm to mankind.
As for Women’s Fashion, I can see that much continues to change with the yards and yards of fabric that graced our gowns in the last 25 years has given way to styles more in tune with some of the new freedoms afforded the gentler sex. And thank God, that large brimmed hats with lots and lots of feathers and ribbons are still in vogue!
Paris fashions 1910
As for a visit to San Francisco in the new year, no plans currently. I have heard from friends that the City continues to rebuild rapidly after the fire and earthquake of ’06 and that there is even some talk of a grand world’s fair once the new City is complete, but that seems years away.
And the wonderful news? I am to move in to 27, rue de Fleurus as soon as possible. Lovey announced it during the New Year’s toast and Leo confirmed it with a whisper before he retired: “Welcome, dear Alice.” The “welcome” I accept, the “dear” I welcome, but do not accept as true.
Nonetheless, it is the beginning of a new life in a new year and in the morning Lovey and I will walk hand-in-hand in the Luxembourg Gardens in our new kid gloves and ample fur muffs as we welcome 1910!
Luxembourg Gardens
And now to the guest bedroom which soon will be for others!
Happy New Year!
ABT”
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