Books About Food

North Bay, Canada:: Transformer Press,, 2002.. Edition of 10. 10 x 7.5" with eight spreads. Accordion book with handmade paper pages and hard covers. The text is rubber-stamped and the images colour-copied. There are five very simple pop-ups. Tall tales and (possibly) true stories told to Lise Melhorn-Boe as a child are combined to create a fairy-tale version of her father's immigration to Canada, presented as a quest for food. The pages get more colourful and dimensional as the story progresses.  Lise Melhorn Boe: "My father grew up during World War I in Germany, the third youngest of nine. So he remembered not having enough to eat. He was a good storyteller, so I've just put together a number of his tales. The photos are all really of him and his family. It was very hand that my grandfather actually was a poor shoemaker with many children, considering that I was trying to make it like a fairy tale. When I was away from home at university My father would always ask… Read More

Milwaukee, WI: The Settlement Cook Book Co, 1941. Octavo, xlvi, 623 pages. Twenty-First Edition, revised and enlarged. A much later edition this influential and massively successful cookbook, originally published in 1901. The emphasis is American, with a smattering of hearty Jewish Eastern European fare. In earlier editions, the Jewish/Eastern European influence was more prevalent. This copy is extraordinary, in unused condition bright and fresh, with the original white, washable boards shiny and clean, the original publisher's green dust jacket, with white bland and red printed text and decoration is equally exceptional. Fine, and rare thus. [Axford, p. 363; DuSablon, America's Collectible Cookbooks, pages 65-67].

Contains announcements to home economics teachers with how to order the lessons along with revised score cards of Miss Bevier University of Illinois and references such as The Boston Cooking School. No writing in the notes pages. Includes: 1. A Lesson on Modern Cake Baking 1921 (Cover discolored) 2. Modern Biscuit Baking 1923 3. A Monograph on Muffins 1923 (large stain on back cover of #2 and cover of #3. 4. Deep Fat Frying A Lesson in Monograph Form 1923 5. A Lesson on Waffles and Griddle Cakes 1923 6. A Model Home Kitchen 1926 (several bent bottom page corners) 7. Pastry Baking 1925 8. A Monograph on Cookies 1926. (Back end page of book has a creased corner which affected several previous pages. The last couple of pages have some edgewear and crinkles at the top.)
Hard cover has some edge and corner wear and some stains.

New Paltz, New York:: Amberwood Press,, 2014.. Edition of 200. 11 x 14"; 18 pages Digital offset. Spiral bound with pictorial laminated covers. Nava Atlas: "When I began working on Deconstructing Elsie, my purpose was to create a visual exploration of the dark side of the dairy industry in a nutshell, from the heartbreaking abuse of cows (as well as the discarded calves that become veal) to pollution of soil and water, dissemination of false information, and much more in between. What I didn't expect was to find such a huge intersection between the stark facts about Big Dairy and ideas about oppression as they pertain to patriarchy and misogyny. Altering midcentury Elsie the Cow advertisements seemed a perfect vehicle for presenting the disturbing themes in these intertwined subjects with a bit of levity. "In the preface of the feminist classic, The Sexual Politics of Meat, Carol J. Adams writes, 'What, or precisely who, we eat is determined by the patriarchal politics… Read More

London: Paul Jerrard, 1852. First Edition. Mid-nineteenth century opulence: two elaborate Victorian plate books with plates of fruit and flowers complimenting verse, fully printed in gilt. Two folios in original cloth with large colour card onlay on front board and gilt floral motif on rear, 24 full-page chromolithographic plates each facing a matching gilt printed poem; cloth mildly browned in book 1, binding rubbed and mild preliminary foxing in book 2, a very good set with beautiful clean plates.

322 Old Dixie Recipes. Compiled and Edited by Lillie S. Lustig, S. Claire Sondheim, Sarah Rensel. Decorations by H. Charles Kellum. 48 pp. 23,5x16 cm. Culinary Arts Press, 1939.
--- Wooden covers, curved and painted. B&W illustrations. Unmarked.

Guadalajara, Mexico:: Impronta Casa Editora,, 2019.. Edition of 100. Sheet size 11 x 15"; 20 sheets. Text composition completed on an Intertype C-4 with Typeface Futura 14pts. Titles set on a Ludlow Typographic machine in Goudy 36 pts and Tempo 92 pts. Printed on a Chandler & Price 12 x 18 ca1882. Images printed on a Risograph RZ 390. Loose sheets laid in 11.5 x 15.5" portfolio of chipboard covers and red cloth spine with black ribbon tie closure. Numbered. Sandra Trujillo: " I received a grant to work in Mexico and the work culminated in an artists' book ... with the assistance of Impronta Casa Editora in Guadalajara, Mexico. Impronta Casa Editora specializes in small artistic productions using rare vintage 19th century intertype and letterpress printing processes. ... The printed graphics in the book are toned Risographs prints of paper collages ... with a cover aesthetic inspired by experiences and trends of printing in Mexico today and rare 19th century portfolios.… Read More

McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, NY U.S.A., 1950. Hardcover. Condition: Fine. No Jacket. 1st Edition, Ninth Printing. 1st hardbound edition, bound red cloth boards with white Pennsylvania Dutch design in white. 463 pp. including index. Loose-leaf pages in 5 ring metal binder with heavy stock and metal text protectors front and back. Card stock yellow tabbed dividers (20) are crisp and unbent. Text is clean and in like new condition. Recipe note added in pen on page 189. No previous owner attribution. Brown end pastedowns with white decoration. Illustrations on almost every page, mainly line drawings, B&W photographs and several full color photographs. This is General Mills first hardcover cookbook, published in 1950, which quickly became a national best seller and is now a family heirloom for many. This book contains illustrations and unique tips to "dress up food for eye appeal" fitting for dinner parties of the 1950s. A First Edition in this condition is rare. Note: pictures… Read More

Alice B. Toklas - The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book; illustrations by Sir Francis Rose - London, Michael Joseph, 1954 - First Edition - Hardcover - 288pp - 23x15cmCondition Good: Cover worn and faded. Throughout the book some signs of use: this book really has been used but all pages are clean, no names or writing, binding good. Alice Babette Toklas (1877-1967) was the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein. They lived together as part of the Parisian avant-garde from the day they met in 1907 until Stein's death. Between the wars, their Paris home was a salon for the leading writers and artists of the day, including Ernest Hemingway, Alfred North Whitehead, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Picasso, Thornton Wilder, Sherwood Anderson, Matisse, Gris, Braque and Ford Maddox Ford. This book contains a melange of reminiscences and recipes, celebrating the food and kitchen aspects of Toklas' life with Gertrude Stein and contains the Surrealist artist Brion Gysin's infamous recipe for hashish fudge (expurgated… Read More

Doubleday & Co., Inc, 1957. Hardcover. Very Good. Collectible first edition, first printing of Carmen Aboy Valldejuli's The Art of Caribbean Cookery. Per Doubleday's practice of designating first editions, "First Edition" so stated on copyright page. Signed in blue ink by Valldejuli on front free endpaper. Signature unconditionally guaranteed to pass any COA examination. Includes priced dust jacket in archival Brodart sleeve. At the time of publication, notably, Valldejuli was the dominant authority on Caribbean cuisine, often referred to as the Puerto Rican Julia Child - and this the only book that featured recipes from across the Caribbean. She and her husband traveled extensively from island to island, sampling recipes and recording them faithfully. Cultural authenticity was their focus. The first edition was printed in relatively small numbers, thus its present scarcity, and the dust jacket even more scarce. 254 pp. 8 1/2" x 6". Tight, unmarked copy with minimal… Read More

Prototype Press,, 2021.. Edition of 52. Consider the Oyster was printed on custom paper from the Saint-Armand paper mill. The book cover and clam-shell book box are covered in two additional papers from the mill. Quarterbound in white, foilstamped goat leather. A custom oyster shucking knife accompanies each book to assist with opening the book box. The typeface used for the text is 12pt Monotype Goudy Light. The blue headline typeface is handset Windsor Elongated in a variety of sizes. It is printed in an edition of 52 copies. Cast, printed and bound by the press. Mark Sarigianis: "I first discovered M. F. K. Fisher’s Consider the Oyster in 2018 while browsing the cookbook section of the Mills College library. It was a first edition, and given the reverence held for Fisher, especially in the bay area, it should have been in the special collections department. Even though it was written in 1941, I was immediately struck by the passionate “foodie” sensibilities with which she… Read More

8° (mm 183x155); pp. VIII, 48, (2). Cartoncino rigido moderno che conserva le brossure originali in carta decorata. Bella copia, intonsa.
Only edition, very rare.
In the poemetto of the Neapolitan poet and playwright Antonio Viviani, Li Maccheroni di Napoli, published in 1824, the term 'spaghetti' appears for the first time (intended as a diminutive name for the word 'string') in reference to this type of pasta. A name that will last over time, until today, and which will replace the more generic 'macaroni' (or 'maccaroni'), as well as the term 'vermicelli' (which will remain in use as a synonym for thicker spaghetti), names with which, the same food was referred to in previous literary sources. This same work also illustrates the different stages of processing this pasta shape (cf. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti).

Due parti in un volume in-8°, cc. 71, [1]. Bell'esemplare, con legatura coeva in pergamena. L'opera del Lando è legata con Symeoni, Comentario alla Tetrarchia di Vinegia, 1548.
Provenienza: al frontespizio, antiche annotazioni manoscritte e nota di possesso; Collezione Maria Paola Moroni Salvatori.
Rarissima terza edizione (la princeps, priva di dati tipografici: Venezia 1548). Paleari Hensselr, 414. B.IN.G., 1080.
Il Commentario del Lando - tra i più geniali poligrafi rinascimentali, traduttore in italiano dell'Utopia di Tommaso Moro (1548) - è inoltre assai celebre in quanto alcune sue pagine "illustrano un ideale itinerario gastronomico per le città d'Italia, con riferimento a cibi e vini di cui l'autore mostra di aver acquisito conoscenze di prima mano" (L'arte della cucina in Italia, a cura di E. Faccioli, Torino 1992, p. 275).
"Questo testo costituisce un catalogo etnico-socio-gastronomico estremamente eterogeneo, inserito in un itinerario quasi iniziatico che si snoda attraverso la… Read More

RARE OCTOBER, 1908 HARPER & BROTHERS. UNEXPURGATED FIRST EDITION. INCLUDES THE WATERMELON PAGE. COLOUR PRINTS. ILLUSTRATED BY PETER NEWELL. HOLE-DRILLED. ANTIQUARIAN. Good USED condition/ No DJ Included. USED. Front paper paste-down is scuffed. Binding is tight and all plates look in good shape. Finger marks noted. 7 3/8 X 8 7/8. This is so much fun! Like watching animation go by one frame at a time. And we're off, like a shot!

New York: Artisan, 2004. Signed on the half-title page, with a flourish: Rosalie - Its all about the flavor, T Keller. First edition / First printing. Red laminated boards. Fine in near fine dust jacket. Erratum slip laid in.