A Guide for the Greedy By a Greedy Woman, being a new and revised edition of The Feasts of Autolycus.
Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, [1923].
Octavo (19 x 13 cm.), xxxii, 179, [1]] pages. Third edition, revised and enlarged, and now with the new title A Guide for the Greedy; therefore first edition with this title. The original did include the subtitle, Diary of a Greedy Woman, so the theme had been established. Interestingly, the book was issued in between these with yet another title, The Delights of Delicate Eating. It would be interesting to have listened in at the editorial meeting that led to these title changes. The author, an American writer who spent much of her adult life in London with her husband, the artist Joseph Pennell, has been described as "an adventurous, accomplished, self-assured, well-known columnist, biographer, cookbook collector, and art critic" who "paved the way for food writers such as Elizabeth David, M. F. K. Fisher, and Jane Grigson,"(Jacqueline Block Williams, in the introduction to The Delights of Delicate Eating). She was perhaps one of the most visible cookbook collectors in history, as she frequently wrote of her collection in her column in the Pall Mall Gazette, which formed the basis of this work. The new introduction to this edition speaks of her collection, of its uses, the loss of many volumes during the First World War, and the donation of the remainder to the Library of Congress. Some age-toning to textblock, a bit of discoloration to endpapers. In publisher's gold printed gray-green cloth. In the scarce dust jacket, with some wear to corners, and a bit of light foxing ad soiling. Still, about very good. Scarce in dust jacket.
Price: $150.00