For forty years, Alice Babette Toklas was the faithful friend and assistant of the writer Gertrude Stein. The extraordinary, educated Alice, remaining in the shadows, was the writer’s spiritual and literary adviser, and turned out to be indispensable both in everyday housework and as a literary secretary, helping to print manuscripts and managing numerous visitors. After Stein's death, Alice devoted the rest of her life to fulfilling her friend's wishes, including publishing her works and preserving a valuable collection of works by her favorite artists - Picasso, Gris and others. This book includes the memoirs of E. Toklas, selected letters, two interviews and one literary article, which together reflect the cultural life of Paris in the first half of the 20th century, details of the relationship of G. Stein and E. Toklas with many prominent artists and writers of that era - Picasso, Braque, Gris, Joyce, Apollinaire, etc.