Bibliography for Eating My Words

     After I spoke at Stanford yesterday, some people asked if I would post a bibliography of the books I mentioned during the speech.  And no wonder; as I began to compile this list, I realized that I referenced a great many books - and that many of them are fairly obscure.

     The opening quote is not at all obscure. "It seems to me that 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." It is from the introduction to the Art of Eating, by M.F.K. Fisher.  The book is a compilation of 5 books, and while you've got it, I recommend that you read all of The Gastronomical Me.

The next quote isn't obscure either; it comes from Winnie the Pooh.  I probably don't need to tell you that it was written by A. A. Milne.

But the next quote, about the rigid rules of the Victorian dinner table, may be less familiar.  It is from one of my favorite food historians, Colin Spencer, who wrote,  British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History.

Among the many other texts I referred to:

Jacques Pepin, The Apprentice

Eight Discourses on the Art of Living from the Studio Where Elegance is Valued, was published around 1590 by Gao Lian.

De Re Coquinaria, is a compilation of Roman recipes that is often attributed to Marcus Gavius Apicius, who lived around the first century.

Livy (Titus Livius),  a Roman historian born in 59 B.C), Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City,"

Athenaeus wrote The Deipnosophists, (Scholars at the Dinner Table) in the third century AD.

 Allen Ginsberg, "A Supermarket in California," from Howl

William Carlos Williams, "This is Just to Say"

Meadows of Gold by Al-Masudi, who was considered the Herodotus of the Arab world, (871-957 AD)

The Cuisiner Francois, 1651

The Accomplisht Cook by Robert Mays, 1588

Il Triciante (The Carver), 1581

Marie-Antoine Careme was known as the "King of Chefs and the Chef of Kings"  He lived from 1784-1833.

A.J. Liebling, Between Meals

Joseph Mitchell, "All You Can Hold for Five Bucks" from Up in the Old Hotel

Bill Buford

Anthony Bourdain

Calvin Trillin

Laura Shapiro

Laurie Colwin

Gabrielle Hamilton,  Blood, Bones and Butter

Peg Bracken, The I Hate to Cook Book