A Poetical Cook-Book

Philadelphia: Caxton Press of C. Sherman, Son & Co, 1864. Slim octavo (18.7 x 13 cm.), 144 pages. Index. FIRST EDITION. Written by the author as a pastime, A Poetical Cook-Book was published in 1864 and sold to benefit the Civil War’s wounded, widowed, and orphaned. The book features a wide-ranging collection of recipes inspired by famous poems. For many years it was considered the first cookbook sold for a charitable cause (Cook). “A small, plain volume, it featured the standard food of that period—johnnycakes, hasty pudding and the like. The idea worked… because ‘a cookbook was something women could create themselves. And the formula reflected the American ethic. Something needed to be done, and everybody pitched in” (Barbara Haber, Schlesinger Library, Food and Wine). Cookbooks such as this one were written by concerned women and then sold at so-called “sanitary fairs” to raise money for the casualties of the Civil War and their families. Internally clean and sound, with only a tiny bit of foxing to a few pages. Textured brown cloth, gilt-titled at the spine.; rubbing to edges, especially to the head and foot of the spine. Very good. Early ownership inscription to free front endpaper, "K.P. Maderia, Nov. 1870". Rare. [OCLC locates fifteen copies; Cook, page 222].