Julia Child’s Film Stirs Interest In Old Cookbooks

By Anne Gilbert  

Probably when the fi rst word of the Julia and Julie movie being in production hit, the internet dealers and pickers began hunting not just for Julia Child cookbooks, but any cookbook with chef name recognition. An early Wolfgang Puck or James Beard cookbook isn’t old, but certainly collectible.

If you are inspired to collect, there are facts to consider that aren’t necessarily the recipes. Did a famous artist do the illustrations or write the cookbook? Or is the book more than recipes? A good, collectible would be Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes by poetess, Dr. Maya Anjelou that combines recipes with her autobiography. Another example would be the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook written in the 1950s by Alice B. Toklas, companion of the writer Gertrude Stein. It combines memories of cooking during World War II memoirs recipes. It sells for more than $100. The fi rst Alice Waters cookbook produced in the fl ower children decade would be very collectible, too.

The last major auction specializing in gastronomy (as it is known) was held at Sotheby’s in 1984. It consisted of 1,500 cookery books collected over a 40-year period. The earliest books in the collection dated from as far back as the Renaissance, covering fi ve centuries. Not exactly the kind of book you would thumb through with fl our-covered fingers.

As might be expected, most of the early cookbooks were written by men. An exception was the earliest cookbook written by a woman: Hannah Glasse. Published in 1747 in England, the title was, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.

One of the most popular early cookbooks ever written was Mrs. Beeton’s Book Of Household Management, written in 1865 by Isabella Beeton, age 25. It was reprinted for several decades and was considered the defi nitive work on not only Victorian cookery but a total guide to lifestyles of the day.

CLUES: There are many types of cookbooks produced including church, sports celebrities and regional books. There are also colorful, early 20th Century pamphlets and booklets, which are very scarce because of their fragile nature. 

Julia Child’s cookbook. (Photo, courtesy private collector.)

A recipe pamphlet.