Alice B. Toklas - After Stein

After Stein

Although Gertrude Stein had willed much of her estate to Toklas, including their shared art collection (some of them Picassos), the couple's relationship had no legal recognition. As the paintings appreciated in value, Stein's relatives took action to claim them, eventually removing them from Toklas's home while she was away on vacation and placing them in a bank vault. Toklas then relied on contributions from friends as well as writing to make a living.

Toklas published her own literary memoir, a 1954 book that mixed reminiscences and recipes under the title The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook. The most famous recipe therein (actually contributed by her friend Brion Gysin) was called "Haschich Fudge," a mixture of fruit, nuts, spices, and "canibus sativa," or marijuana. Her name was later lent to the range of cannabis concoctions called Alice B. Toklas brownies. The cookbook has been translated into numerous languages, most recently into Norwegian in 2007. A second cookbook followed in 1958 called Aromas and Flavors of Past and Present; however, Toklas did not approve of it as it had been heavily annotated by Poppy Cannon, an editor from House Beautiful magazine. She also wrote articles for several magazines and newspapers, including The New Republic and the New York Times.

In 1963 she published her autobiography, What Is Remembered, which abruptly ends with Stein's death, leaving little doubt that Stein was the love of her life.

Her later years were very difficult because of poor health and financial problems. Toklas became a Roman Catholic convert in her old age. Toklas died in poverty at the age of 89 and is buried next to Stein in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France; Toklas's name is engraved on the back of Stein's headstone.