Choice Receipts: Selected from the best manuscript authorities. Published for the benefit of Christ Church Fair

[Hartford, Conn: Worthington, Dustin & Co.], 1872. Octavo (23.5 x 16 cm.), 66, [6 blank] pages. FIRST EDITION. The first community cookbook published in Connecticut, and one of the earliest of community cookbooks from any state. A second edition was published the following year, slightly expanded to 68 pages, and now with the proceeds "for benefit of a Girls' School at Walla Walla, Washington". With recipes in narrative form, and only a few attributed. Some light soiling throughout, but sound; newspaper clipping pasted down to free front endpaper. Good or better. Ink notes to rear endpaper and pencil annotations to a number of recipes. Early ownership inscription to front paste down, "Sargeant, Worcester, 1875". [OCLC locates seventeen copies; Cook, page 40; Brown 255; Bitting, page 529 (citing the 1873 2nd edition)].