(*NEW ARRIVAL*) Rombauer, Irma S. The Joy of Cooking: A Compilation of Reliable Recipes with a Casual Culinary Chat

Illus. with silhouettes by Marion Rombauer. Gilt-lettered pebbled green cloth. First Edition. [St. Louis: A.C. Clayton Printing, 1931].

The very scarce first edition, self-published by Rombauer in 1931 in an edition of 3,000 copies. As bookseller Janet Jarvits put it so eloquently, Rombauer "included casual culinary chat with recipes (narrated paragraphs including ingredients and instructions intermingled) in a book designed and illustrated by her daughter, Marion Rombauer. The mix of these elements stirred the beginnings of a loyal readership and represented a split from the domestic science/home economist cooking tradition. Irma Rombauer's emphasis was on fun and flavor for the average cook." The Joy of Cooking has been continuously published since 1936, when a mainstream publisher, Bobbs Merrill, took it on.

Faint stain to upper front cover, small spot (like a tiny splash of coffee) to fore-edges; a bit of foxing to front free endpaper, otherwise a very good, bright copy.