(2) Rare Fannie Farmer and (1) Mrs. D.A. Lincoln Cookbooks, First Editions. 

Size: (largest) 8 X 5 3/4 X 1 in. 

There are three cookbooks in this lot, all first editions by some of the most prominent women in the field of cooking and food preparation. Two were written by Fannie Farmer and one was written by Mrs. D. A. Lincoln, and the three books are all related by history. The three titles are Carving And Serving by Mrs. Lincoln, A New Book of Cookery by Fannie Farmer and Catering for Special Occasions by Fannie Farmer. 

Mrs. D. A. Lincoln (1844 - 1921) - Mary Johnson Bailey  Lincoln - was an important Boston cooking teacher and cookbook author. She used Mrs. D. A. Lincoln as her professional name during her husband’s lifetime and Mary L. Lincoln after he died, and she was considered one of the pioneers of the Domestic Science movement in the United States in the 1800’s. Born in South Attleboro, Mass., she graduated from Wheaton Female Seminary (now Wheaton College) in 1864. When the Boston Cooking School was founded in 1879, she was invited to become its first teacher, but refused, claiming she could cook, but didn’t know anything about cooking schools, so she was tutored by someone at the school and eventually became its first principal. She wrote Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book: What to Do and What Not to Do in Cooking in 1884, one of the first American cook books to provide scientific information about nutrition and the chemistry of cooking, and it provided recipes with consistent measurements. It was also the fore-runner to the world-famous Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Farmer, Mrs. Lincoln's most prominent student, who succeeded her as principal at the Boston Cooking School. Fannie Merritt Farmer (1857 - 1915) was an American culinary expert who was the Julia Child of her day. Born in Boston, she was expected to go to college, but suffered a stroke when she as just 16, so she remained in her parent’s care and turned her parent’s home into a boarding house, where she prepared meals for the boarders and her culinary reputation grew. She enrolled in the Boston Cooking School when she was 30 and under the tutelage of Mrs. Lincoln, she got so good at what she did that she became principal in 1881. Fannie’s first book was the Rumsford Cook Book, published in 1876, and she wrote several cookbooks during her lifetime. She was in a wheelchair the last seven years of her life, but continued to write, and she even lectured at Harvard Medical School, and her book Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent, published in 1904, included a chapter on diabetes, which was notable for its time, and that book was considered her most important work.  

Mrs. Lincoln’s Carving And Serving is a first edition published in Boston by Roberts Brothers in 1887. It is one-quarter bound, with a blue spine, decorated covers, blank endpapers, the owners name and date are inscribed on the front flyleaf (the inscription reads “Mrs. C. F. Smith from    C. C. Metcalf, Jan 1, 1887), the copyright page is dated 1886, and based on the inscription on the flyleaf, the book was published early in the print run, meaning it was probably a first edition. There are two pages of Contents, the text runs to page 52, and there are four pages of ads for Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook-Book at the rear.  

Fannie Farmer’s A Newer Book of Cookery has black lettering on the spine, a black-ruled border  with black lettering on the front cover, blank endpapers, a half-title, a colored frontis featuring flanked pump steak, a protective tissue guard, the title page says the book has eight hundred recipes inside, eight colored plates and two hundred half-tone illustrations, and it was published in Boston by Little Brown in 1912. The date on the copyright page is also 1912, with no other dates or printings listed, which makes this a first edition because the dates on the title page and copyright page match. There are two pages of Contents, a seven-page list of Illustrations, 419  pages of text, the Index goes to page 440, followed by 32 pages of ads for cooking, including one of the earliest ads for Crisco, which was launched by Procter & Gamble in 1911. Catering for Special Occasions with Menus & Recipes was written by Fannie Farmer and published by David McKay in 1911. It has gilt lettering on the spine, bright white lettering with a great paste-down cover featuring a Kewpie doll carving a roast, endpapers decorated with baby kewpie dolls, a half-title, the frontis page has a black and white photograph of an afternoon tea table, the title page says the book has decorations by Albert D. Blashfield, the copyright page is dated 1911, which makes this a first edition because there is just a single date and no other printings listed. There is a two-page foreword, one page of Contents, a one-page list of Illustrations, 229 pages of text, a ten-page Index at the rear, and the top edge is gilt. (Kewpie dolls were also created in 1909, so this is an early use of Kewpie doll illustrations.) 

The Lincoln book measures 7 x 5 5/8 inches wide and is really good condition for its age. It has a tight binding and clean pages and text, wear at the heel and crown, rubbing along the edges and at the tips, slight flecks on the front cover, and a blemish on the back cover. A New Book of Cookery by Fannie Farmer measures 7 3/4 x 5 3/8 inches wide and is in pretty good condition, with a tight binding and clean pages and text. There is soiling on the spine and covers, wear along the top edge of the front cover and at the tips and a bump on one tip, light wear at the heel and crown of the spine, faint browning on the frontispiece and the tissue guard in front, and the book is still very solid overall. The Catering book by Fannie Farmer measures 8 x 5 3/4 inches wide and is in great condition. The binding is tight, the lettering is bright and the pages and text very clean, with just light bumps at the heels and the faintest of rubbing at the crown. Probably one of the nicest copies of this book we have ever seen.