Miss Minerva's Cook Book
Chicago: Reilly and Lee, 1931. 1st ed. Hardcover. frontis, illustrations (by Helen Lorraine), 280p. Rebound in recent quarterbinding (marbled boards backed in red leather). Backstrip lightly sunned. Original colorful front cover cloth (which has a few white spots and a tiny chip) has been reinforced and bound in preceding the half-title. 21 cm. No Jacket. Sampson wrote a series of Miss Minerva novels for children in which Miss Minerva and many of the other Tennessee-based characters were African Americans. Speed, the white author of this cook book written in the African America dialect spoken by Speed's Miss Minerva character, say the following, in part, about her own cooking: "Cooking is never a task to me. I really like to do it -- that is if someone else washes the pots and pans ... Incidentally, I have an excellent cook who never wants me to cook anything myself." [Two widely separated extracts from the Introduction on pages 7-8 ]. Very Good. Item #76022
Price: $375.00