AROMAS AND FLAVORS OF PAST AND PRESENT Inscribed to Eleanor Roosevelt

New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, (1958). First Edition. Hardcover. Glue stain to the top of the stationery as well as to the top of the endpaper and less so to the facing pastedown. Small dampstain to the heel of the spine which has "841 ER" written in ink as does the spine of the dustwrapper which is dampstained, wrinkled, and soiled. Very Good in a Good dustwrapper. Extraordinary copy. Early but not first printing. Introduction and comments by Poppy Cannon. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on a piece of Toklas's 5, rue Christine stationery: "For Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt/En souvenir of a memorable meeting in 1934./With appreciation and cordially/Alice Toklas/November 1958." Below this is an inscription by Poppy Cannon in green ink: "and with the deepest and/warmest admiration/from/Poppy/Christmas 1958." The paper, now loose, was once tipped to the top of the front endpaper and has a corresponding glue stain. It is likely that Toklas wanted to present a copy to Roosevelt and signed the stationery which she then sent to Cannon or her publisher who then tipped it into this copy to give to Roosevelt. With Eleanor Roosevelt's bookplate on the front pastedown and a small Eleanor Roosevelt estate sticker numbered 841 above it.

The memorable meeting Toklas mentions was the invitation extended by Roosevelt to her and Gertrude Stein to have tea at the White House. Toklas provided the meals when Gertrude would hold court in their Paris residence to the likes of Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. James Beard called her one of the "really great cooks of all time."