Family Living on $500 a Year. A Daily Reference Book for Young and Inexperienced Housewives.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1888; [copyright 1887].
Thick octavo (17.5 x 12.5 cm.), vi, 437, [3] pages. Index. Advertisements at end. FIRST EDITION, second printing. The title page indicates 1888, the verso dates the copyright as 1887. An LOC copyright copy, bears an accession stamp indicating the copyright was registered December 10, 1887 (and the title page bears "1888". However, a single copy at Cornell contains no date on the title page, and 1887 in the copyright statement, and we consider that to be the first printing. ~ Juliet Corson was "one of the original cooking school leaders, and a champion of nutritious meals for the poor." [Historic American Cookbook Project] As the founder of the New York Cooking School in 1876, Corson was a predecessor of Fannie Farmer, and was even sought out by the French government for advice on introducing a cooking curriculum to the French public schools. Family Living... seeks to provide practical household advice, not to Corson's poorest readers, but to a slightly better off crowd of women who admired her ideas. ~ A bit age-toned, and with a light stain to the text block edges. In publisher's olive cloth, titled and decorated in black, gilt, and red with an image of a beehive. Cloth is rubbed and lightly soiled, otherwise very good. Scarce. [OCLC locates fifty copies, though it is unclear which printing is being referenced; not in Cagle; Brown 2593 (recording the 1905 printing)].
Price: $250.00