Amazon.com description: Product Description: Through the salon of Gertrude Stein at 27 rue de Fleurus passed the luminous talents of an era: Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Henri Matisse, Jean Cocteau, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Guillaume Apollinaire, Carl van Vechten, Virgil Thomson. With her devoted friend, Alice B. Toklas, Stein presided over a table heavy with good food and alive with sparkling conversation. James R. Mellow has re-created this glorious milieu and the fascinating woman who dominated it. His compelling narrative is rich with insight into both Stein's celebrate career as a writer and her enduring relationship with Toklas. From 1903 when she first came to Paris to her last days at the close of World War II, this is a penetrating and lively picture of a literary giant and her exciting world.