I’m reading: The Biography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

This book was written quickly, maybe thoughtlessly, with the goal of making Gertrude Stein a whole-lotta-fast-cash so I guess it was like the Eat, Pray, Love of it’s time. Gertrude and Alice are a cool, gay, hipsterlectual couple in 1900’s Paris whose apartment (through the sheer force of Stein’s personality) becomes a buzzing centre for the arts scene.

This book is fascinating because of the constant name dropping (Hemmingway! Matisse! Picasso! TS Eliot! Cezanne! ) but mostly because of the pure ego that is writing a biography of your lover that is essentially an autobiography of yourself (in a brilliant, glowing light). I bet she was a Leo.

Alice (left) and Gertrude with their dog Basket