Clams, Mussells, Oysters, Scallops and Snails. A Cookbook and a Memoir.

Orleans, MA: Parnassus Imprints, 1990.

Octavo (23.5 x 16.5), 215 pages. FIRST EDITION of this cookbook/memoir by the legendary artist, poet, chef, and raconteur. His 1976 Provincetown Seafood Cookbook was selected by Anthony Bourdain as a favorite "out-of-print cookbook" (NYT, 2006). Born and reared in east-central Mississippi, James Howard Mitcham (1917-1996) studied art at Louisiana State University and spent a number of his early years operating an art gallery on Jane Street in the West Village, Manhattan. In the 1940s he relocated to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he nurtured an interest in seafood cookery, co-wrote a food column for The Provincetown Advocate, and famously captained the kitchen at Pepe’s Wharf. All the while he continued to execute drawings and woodcuts that would find a place in the larger context of his ruminations on food and its enjoyment. ~ In his later years he divided his time between his favorite haunts in Provincetown and a second-story flat overlooking St. Peter Street in the Vieux Carré. A fine copy in yellow printed wrappers as issued. No cloth edition was published.

Price: $250.00