THREE HANDWRITTEN LETTERS FROM TOKLAS TO SAUL MAURIBER, 1956, 1959, 1961

Toklas, Alice B. (American, 1877-1967). THREE HANDWRITTEN LETTERS FROM TOKLAS TO SAUL MAURIBER, 1956, 1959, 1961. Saul Mauriber (American, 1915-2003) met Carl Van Vechten when he worked as a busboy at the Stage Door Canteen during WWII. Van Vechten (American, 1880-1964) was a novelist, journalist, dance critic, and photographer, and volunteered at the Canteen during the War. Mauriber worked as Van Vechten's photographic assistant, printing and cataloging his photos, and after Van Vechten's death serving as executor for his photography. He was responsible for carrying out Van Vechten's bequest of 1400 photographs to the Library of Congress. The two were also romantically involved, though Van Vechtenwas married to the Yiddish theater actress Fania Marinoff, and Mauriber lived with his mother in Brooklyn (Yale has a collection of VanVechten's letters to Mauriber, many of them involving trivial matters such as appointments, such letters being necessary as Mauriber had no telephone. Carl and Fania Van Vechten were close friends of Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, and in the years after Stein's death were among those friends who provided money and necessities to Alice during the many years that she lacked financial resources. Mauriber, as a part of Van Vechten's circle also became friends with Toklas, and these letters are a part of the correspondence between the two of them.1. TOKLAS, Alice B. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS). Paris, 4 May 1956. A one-page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED on 5-1/4" x 8-1/4" onionskin paper personal stationery to Saul Mauriber. She begins by apologizing for not thanking him for his Christmas wishes and takes the opportunity upon receiving a birthday card to thank him now. She talks about the weather: "The winter was long and unbearably cold and though my health was good I was fast going on 79 years old.... A month's sun would cheer us all up." She mentions a trip to Bruxelles and to a Benedictine monastery and concludes with comments about the health of friends. SIGNED "Alice." With the original envelope addressed in Toklas's hand and SIGNED by her. Faint crease from mailing. Fine. (#020078) 2. TOKLAS, Alice B. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS). Paris, 18 October 1959. A fine two-page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED on one side of two pieces of 5-1/4" x 8" onionskin paper personal stationery to Saul Mauriber. In part: "It is you -- not I -- who are sweet and wonderful -- you are too good -- too kind." Toklas thanks him for scarves delivered to her by young friends: "Well in spite of the disorder and my dishevelled state -- we had a nice talk." She tells him to save his pennies to come to Paris to visit instead of giving "extravagant gifts to old ladies!... I went to lunch with Jo Barry, he was enthusiastic about the scarf. Is it Russian or Polish, he asked. I showed him the mark 'Pure wool 100% Sacks-Fifth-Avenue [sic]... 'Oh' said Jo. New York is the capital of Poland and Russia!'" SIGNED "Alice." With the original envelope addressed in Toklas's hand. Faint creases from mailing. Fine. (#019437) $750.003. Letter dated 1961. Onionskin with Toklas's 5 Rue Chrisitine address printed at the top, measuring 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches, with accompanying Airmail envelope (4 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches), the letter and the envelope in Toklas's fine, spidery handwriting. The letter begins with an apology for waiting until May to thank Mauriber for a Christmas card he sent to her in December, while she was staying at a convent in Rome. It reads in part:" "There never was a Christmas card (?) like the one you sent me. The cymbals and horns made music in my ears and the Angel was very real.... There is a real scramble in the convent who shall be given it but undoubtedly it is Sister Saint Paul who win [sic]. No one can ever refuse her anything.... Christmas night I was taken to a big dinner -- nine o'clock instead of a baked apple on a tray in my room at seven o’clock. There was finally turkey with truffles and a special outsize mushroom. For dessert an immense cake (twenty-four) at table on top in chocolate a country Christmas scene. Very good wine-- champagne like water. At 2.30 a.m. I was brought back to the convent gate. The next morning I apologized to Sister Saint Paul. Do you know the noise the Italians make like a hen chi chi chi? Well, she made it and said 'Christmas only comes once a year.'" It is signed "Alice."