In Stand Facing the Stove, Anne Mendelson presents a richly detailed biographical portrait of the two remarkable forces behind Joy — Irma S. Rombauer and her daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker — shedding new light on the classic kitchen mainstay and on the history of American cooking. Mendelson weaves together three fascinating stories: the affectionate though often difficult relationship between Joy's original creator, Irma, and her eventual coauthor, Marion; the bitter dealings between the Rombauers and their publisher, Bobbs-Merrill (at whose hands the Rombauers likely lost millions of dollars); and the enormous cultural impact of the beloved book that Irma and Marion devoted their lives to refining, edition after edition.

Featuring an accessible new recipe format and an engaging voice that inspired home cooks, Joy changed the face of American cookbooks. Stand Facing the Stove offers an intimate look at the women behind this culinary bible and provides a marvelous portrait of twentieth-century America as seen through the kitchen window.

Anne Mendelson is a sensitive and careful chronicler of a remarkable family, of the Joy of Cooking as an emblem of American civilization, and of "a society where cookbooks are replacing cooking."

Anne Mendelson brings the story to vivid life...and adroitly strings together an enlightening cultural history of American women in the twentieth century.

Irma Rombauer self-published her first cookbook in 1931 after her husband's sudden death at the height of the Depression. Expanded and published commercially in 1936, the original Joy was the first cookbook to speak directly to women at home. Through edition after revised edition, Irma — and, eventually, her daughter Marion-inspired amateur cooks across the nation. But as Anne Mendelson skillfully recounts, much of the enterprise was anything but joyful: the two women shared a contentious relationship not only with each other, but with their publisher, as well, at whose hands the Rombauers most likely lost millions of dollars.

Based on extensive research of the Rombauers' family papers and correspondence, this is the candid, fascinating portrait of the mother and daughter who started America's love affair with food.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I

1 The Golden Age of St. Louis

2 Beginnings and Endings

3 The Rombauers After the War

4 The Birth of Joy

Part II

5 Chronicles of Cookery 1

6 Rombauer and Bobbs-Merrill: The Making"of an Enmity

7 Family Regroupings

8 War Maneuvers

Part III

9 Chronicles of Cookery 2

10"Indian Summer Interrupted

11"The Last Battle

Part IV

12"Little Acorn and Wild Wealth

13"Marion's Last Years

Epilogue

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Suggested Reading

Index

Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Anne Mendelson