The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book

Toklas, Alice B.

Published by Harper & Brothers, New York, 1954

About this Item

First American edition, first printing with a handwritten inscription by Alice B. Toklas of her legendary "Haschich Fudge" recipe written across one and a quarter blank pages at the rear of the book. Pretty rad indeed. Bound in publisher's original orange cloth boards over green spine cloth stamped in gilt and orange. Near Fine with light soiling to bottom edge in a Very Good+ unclipped dust jacket with wear at the crown and edges, light fading to spine, light tanning and light soiling. The notorious drug-laden recipe was printed in the British edition but omitted from this American edition as it was deemed "too dangerous." Laid in is a signed typed letter dated 11 April 1974, from author Samuel M. Steward, a close friend of both Toklas and Gertrude Stein, written to Ronald R. Randall (who evidently sold the book to John Howell Books) regarding the provenance of the inscribed recipe and how it was obtained: "When [this work] was first published in the United States in 1954, Harper was reluctant to include the so-called recipe for 'marijuana brownies' which had already appeared in the British edition. Noticing this omission, the following Christmas season when I went to Europe, I took along the American edition of the Cookbook and complained rather wistfully to Alice about the omission of the recipe (it was not included in the American edition until some time later). 'Leave the book with me over night,' she said, 'and I will give it to you tomorrow.' When she did, the next day, I noted with delight (and some consternation at the length of the recipe, which I had forgotten) that she had copied out the entire recipe on the back fly-leaves of the book, in her miniscule handwriting which had not then yet enlarged itself because of her failing eyesight. This is possibly the most famous recipe of the twentieth century, yet curiously enough, it was sent to Alice by Brian Gysen [sic], a friend". The inclusion of the recipe was a last-minute addition. With a deadline looming mere months away and space to fill, Toklas decided to ask those in her social circle to contribute their own recipes including Gysin's. The recipe was further solidified in popular culture by the 1968 film I Love You Alice B. Toklas where Peter Sellers' character is seduced by a hippie and her hash brownies. The recipe, which Toklas states "anyone could whip up on a rainy day", is considered to bring about "euphoria and brilliant storms of laughter; ecstatic reveries and extensions of one's personality on several simultaneous planes are to be complacently expected". Seller Inventory # 140945183

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book

Publisher: Harper & Brothers, New York

Publication Date: 1954

Condition: Near Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: First American Edition.