Graham, Sylvester

A Treatise on Bread or Bread-making.

Boston: Light & Stearns 1 Cornhill, 1837.

9.5x15cm. [2], [3]-131 pages + 12 ads. First edition. Sylvester Graham began his career as a temperance reformer but soon expanded his efforts to control the affairs of the stomach to beyond alcohol. Against the backdrop of fear that the European cholera epidemic would soon arrive on American shores, Graham developed a theory of healthy living which included well-ventilated rooms, exercise, and regular baths, as well as a vegetarian diet. The diet consisted mostly of fruits and vegetables and bread from unbolted flour or coarse ground grain. Graham had other, more controversial, theories as well, about sexual self-restraint and the connection between spirituality and physiology. His lectures frequently caused a commotion, including an 1847 altercation during which "a mob of Boston bakers attacked Graham while he was extemporizing on the evils of consuming commercially produced bread and the dietary value of unbolted flour. The riotous bakers were subdued when Graham's followers shoveled slaked lime from the windows of the lecture hall onto the crowd below." (American National Biography). But it is for the Graham cracker, loosely based on his bread from coarsely-ground grain, for which he is best remembered today. Previous owners' names to front end papers, some light foxing throughout, a few tiny pin holes to patterned, gilt-titled brown cloth, otherwise fine. A truly lovely example of a scarce title. [American Imprints 4459; Axford page 397; Bitting page 197; Cagle 301; Lowenstein 211; Streeter 4186; Wheaton 2484].