Stand Facing the Stove: The Story of the Women Who Gave America The Joy of Cooking

I was never that big a fan of the Joy of Cooking. Yes, yes - I turned to it pretty regularly to answer questions in the days before the internet, but it was just always there. Then I read this book and it made me start collecting the different editions and some of Rombauer's other books. A well-written biography that doesn't pander to anybody.

The Story of the Women who gave America the "Joy of Cooking". Bittersweeet, erudite, and intricate biography of Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker.

RE-read this book again, this time lightly skimming. I still find it both intriguing and appalling that the editor-in-chief denied the royalties that so clearly belonged to the originators of the recipe book ~ Irma and her daughter, Marion Rombauer.

An overview (written by John R. Alden, March 1997) and published by the Smithsonian Magazine succinctly sums up the situation in the unscrupulous publication of Joy which is related to the details mentioned in Mendelson's book:
(quoting)
The cookbook plays the role of family patriarch, providing large dollops of cash while demanding only periodic attention, yet offering a focus for a series of rifts and reconciliations. And for a villain-a scheming deceiver, constantly fought but never show more vanquished-the saga of Irma and Marion has Laurance Chambers, the arrogant editor-in-chief of Bobbs-Merrill, Joy's publisher.
(/quote)

My short overview of Joy:
While 'J of C' is not my favourite recipe book, I do own an older copy that was my parents' companion to Fannie Merritt Farmer's The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. The early 'J of C' version is so much more informative, even chatty, compared to newer editions. Irma was clearly the leader in developing the first edition and Author Mendelson portrayed these early years very well. show less