Toklas, Alice B.

Toklas, Alice B. (1877-1967), American writer, born in San Francisco. She lived most of her life in Paris as the companion of her compatriot Gertrude Stein; together they presided over a renowned literary salon. Ostensibly she was the subject of Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933), but this is actually a volume of Stein's memoirs. Toklas's autobiography, begun in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book (1954)—which intersperses haute cuisine recipes with reminiscences—was continued in What Is Remembered (1963). A collection of her letters, Staying on Alone, was issued in 1973.