THE GASTRONOMICAL ME

New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, [1943, 1943. First Edition. Hardcover. Dust Jacket Included. First Edition. Hardcover. Fisher, M.F.K. THE GASTRONOMICAL ME. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1943 . "Like most humans, I am hungry. . . our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it. . . ." First Edition, Publisher's green cloth stamped in silver at the spine. 8vo., 295pp, with the more common dustwrapper of a handsome Fisher three quarter portrait on the back panel that replaced [by the publisher] the more provocative reclining pose shot by Hurrell. A fine copy in the publisher's smooth green cloth in a fine bright dustwrapper with one tiny chip at the spine crown of this admired tightly woven memoir & collection of cooking essays written over a twenty year period that have more to do with the entanglements of life & the appreciation of good things. Considered by many as her best book, TGM is about hunger in all its variant forms. The book starts with: "There in Dijon, the cauliflowers were very small and succulent, grown in that ancient soil. I separated the flowerlets and dropped them in boiling water for just a few minutes. Then I drained them and put them in a wide shallow casserole, and covered them with heavy cream, and a thick sprinkling of freshly grated Gruyere, the nice rubbery kind that didnt come from Switzerland at all, but from the Jura. It was called rape in the market, and was grated while you watched, in a soft cloudy pile, onto your piece of paper". John Updike called Fisher "Poet of the appetites". A beautiful copy.