The Philosophy of House-keeping: A scientific and practical manual for the preparation of all kinds of food, the making up of all kinds of dress, the preservation of health, and the intelligent and skillful performance of every household office.
Hartford: Goodwin and Betts, 1867.
Octavo (20 x 13.5 cm.), xiv, 560 pages. Illustrated with engravings in the text. Index. FIRST EDITION. A popular work on food science, a manual for the operation of a household, and a collection of culinary, medicinal, and household or useful recipes. Given its post-Civil War publication, it is unusual that the book is omnibus in character, with farming and dressmaking amongst its topics. Joseph Bardwell Lyman was a lawyer, diarist, and correspondent, most significantly with Emily Dickinson. Joseph's wife, Laura, neé Laura Baker, is identified as being "Author of 'Prize Essay on HouseKeeping'". The Lymans lived in Stamford, Connecticut, and archive of family papers resides at Yale. In 1888, Calypso Publishing of Philadelphia issued the work under the title Beacon Gems for You. An exceptionally clean and sound copy. In publisher's gilt-and blind-decorated green cloth. A truly fine copy. With a neat early ink ownership inscription to a preliminary blank, "Mrs. O.W. Little, Rockville, Conn." [OCLC locates nine copies of this edition; Bitting, page 296 (different printing); Cagle 491 (different printing)].
Price: $350.00