A winning account of the life of one of America's standard cookbooks, with portraits of the mother and daughter who brought it into millions of homes. Extensive research and a sense of what makes a good story help Mendelson, a culinary historian and contributor to Gourmet and other publications, to combine elements as disparate as an assessment of The Joy of Cooking's place in cookbook history with the gossipy lowdown on its authors (e.g., petite, attractive Irma Rombauer sniped at her shy daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker, for being plain; and neither woman was much of a cook). After her husband's suicide in 1930, Irma collected recipes from family and friends and daringly invested half of her cash in the original 1931 Joy, a vanity publication. Imbued with the author's vivacious personality, the text sold well; but Irma could not interest a publisher until she met Bobbs-Merrill's Lawrence Chambers, innocently relinquished the copyright on her work, and entered what Mendelson convincingly depicts as ``a professional marriage made in hell, or at least purgatory.'' Despite enduring an author-publisher relationship in which every aspect, from discount sales to index length, offered grounds for battle, Irma blossomed as a natural publicist—and Joy, still a highly personal book with a ``lawless assortment of dishes,'' blossomed with her. As Irma aged, Marion gradually moved into the role of coauthor, although her education was in art history and her own real joy was in gardening. She devoted herself to maintaining the quality of her mother's book and was justifiably appalled to learn on the day of Irma's funeral that Bobbs-Merrill, without a contract, had released the 1962 ``false Joy,'' an error-laced disaster that, nevertheless, garnered favorable reviews. Fortunately, hostilities went off the boil into a gentle simmer, and the cookbook endured. Useful to those interested in the history of women, cooking, or publishing; but it is Mendelson's obvious interest in her project that makes this a good read. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8050-2904-4
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1996
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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