[Trinity Episcopal Church (Florence, Ala.); Women of Trinity Guild.]

The Florence Cook Book. Edited by Women of Trinity Guild of Trinity Parish. Revised [Third] Edition.

Florence, Alabama: [The Church], 1943.

Octavo (23 x 15.5 cm.), 171, [v] pages. Advertisements. Errata list page [1]. Cover title. Table of contents. Third Edition. A generous helping of more than nine hundred recipes, clearly an act of perseverance to review and produce during wartime. Southern favorites stand in relief: Cracklin Bread, Hush Puppies, Ambrosia, Daube Glacé, Cabbage Au Gratin, Creole Peas, Fried Bananas, Black Bottom Pie, Pecan Cake. But this is a substantial revision of the second edition and the Women of Trinity Guild were noting with interest recipes from beyond their immediate sphere as much as was the case anywhere else. Three early instances of Italian-American spaghetti exemplify the cuisine's transition from "peasant" food to household staple. Florence is a well-known constituent municipality of The Shoals in Alabama's northwestern corner, the birthplace of W. C. Handy (and by extension, it is often said, the birthplace of the Blues). The seat of Lauderdale County, the city and the surrounding region had become prosperous through its abundant access to water power early in the nineteenth century. Though not the first Episcopalian congregation established in Alabama – Anglicans had already settled in Mobile and Tuscaloosa – Trinity Church, founded in 1836 and still an active community, lays claim to the title of oldest parish in the Tennessee Valley. Several handwritten corrections in pencil, otherwise clean and bright internally. In stapled, black-lettered red wrappers, worn at the corners, and with some good sized chips to the spine. Front panel of wrapper is illustrated with a photograph of Wesleyan Hall (University of North Alabama). Good only. Scarce. [OCLC locates three copies of the present revised edition, and one copy of the first edition (1929); a copy of the second edition (1931) is also known; none of these editions is included in Brown, Cagle, or Cather].

Price: $120.00