The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book by Alice B. Toklas - 1954

The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, illustrated by Sir Francis Rose

Alice Babette Toklas (30 April 1877 - 7 March 1967) was an American Jewish author and the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein, the pair living together in the French capital for decades as part of the Parisian avant-garde scene. Their home hosted leading writers and artists of the time, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Ford Maddox Ford and more. The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book combines memoirs/reminiscences with recipes. The UK first edition contains an infamous recipe for Moroccan "haschich" or hashish fudge, believed to have been provided by her friend, the Surrealist artist Brion Gysin. The recipe was expurgated from the first American edition, though was included in the second US edition and became popular in the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

Sir Francis Cyril Rose (1909 - 1979) was an English painter and occasional illustrator. His wife Frederica, Lady Rose (1910-2002) became a well known travel writer, notably on Corsica, under the name of Dorothy Carrington. He occasionally collaborated in his work with the English painter Christopher Wood. Resident in Paris between 1929 and 1936, he trained under Francis Picabia and José Maria Sert. Rose became an intimate acquaintance of Gertrude Stein who helped to launch his painting career by commissioning several of his works (most notably a portrait of herself) for her own art collection. Rose exhibited in Paris, London, and New York.

Hardback, 1954, first UK edition, first printing, published by Michael Joseph, London, 288 pages + xi. Scarce, believed to be one of only 3,000 copies printed. As noted above, this edition contains the infamous haschich or hashish fudge recipe.

Sextodecimo/16mo. Measures around 9 1/4" by 6 1/4" by 1 1/8". No dust jacket. Beige cloth binding, gilt lettering and detail with green title label to spine. Some scuffing, a little marking but binding generally clean, some signs of shelf-wear, especially at top and bottom of spine where there is slight tearing, together with some wear and scuffing to spine detail and some creasing. Corners bumped and very slightly torn. Binding a little slack at upper spine but reasonably firm overall. Upper page edge has green hue. Page edges a little browned and scuffed, slightly foxed and some small tears to edges of a few pages towards rear. Pictorial endpapers and pastedowns. Ex-school library book with typical markings, stamps, a written number on title page, a few little tears to pastedowns where labels have been removed and the FFEP (front free endpaper) has been removed, presumably as it would have contained extensive library stamps, markings, etc. Apart from this the pages are all present and page surfaces are quite clean, with the odd mark but no underlining, marginalia, etc. See pictures for further information.