“She was a golden brown presence, burned by the Tuscan sun
and with a golden glint in her warm brown hair. She was dressed
in a warm brown corduroy suit. She wore a large round coral brooch
and when she talked, very little, or laughed, a good deal, I thought
her voice came from this brooch. It was unlike anyone else’s voice–
deep, full, velvety, like a great contralto’s, like two voices.”

– Gertrude Stein,
speaking of her first impression
of Alice B. Toklas [pictured above]
on the day they met: Sept. 8, 1907.
Alice was 30, Gertrude 33.