The American Housewife Cook Book. Parts I & II.
Philadelphia: George T. Lewis and Menzies Company, 1880.
Octavo, 356, xxviii, [2] pages. First complete edition, second printing. Part I alone was issued in 1877, with 212 pages. A good general guide for the housewife, with household remedies as well as recipes, produced by the publisher whose main line of business was household and industrial chemicals. The author has a rather low view of much cooking in America, stating that "the kitchens of America are cursed by the pie dish and the frying pan, and their out-put, to an extent which in the aggregate, is horrifying, in one or another sort of mucilaginous or oleaginous compound provocative of dyspepsia. So our girls will grow up with their latent talent undeveloped; grow up themselves dyspeptic to marry dyspeptic husbands, and raise a generation of unfortunate beings with utterly disordered insides." Hinges shaken, a bit of soiling internally. In rubbed gilt-stamped brown cloth. Good. Scarce. [OCLC locates just a few copies of editions combined; not in Bitting, Brown, or Cagle].
Price: $120.00