OP: The Gentleman's Companion

$250 · Offered by Kitchen Arts & Letters · No longer available

Crown Publishers, New York, 1946. Hardcover. Near Fine. One of the most irresistible eccentrics in the world of food was a tireless traveler, eater, and drinker named Charles Baker, Jr. (1895–1987). Starting his adult life as a factory worker in his home state of Florida, he emerged in the 1930s and 1940s as a contributor to Esquire , Gourmet , and others, reporting on gastronomic arcana. Baker travelled far and wide and produced a host of books, including this great two-volume The Gentleman’s Companion , published in very scarce limited edition in 1939 and republished by Crown in 1946. It is the Crown edition we offer here. It is difficult to convey the flavor of the writing—highly informed, witty, and at times flippant, utterly lacking any pretense of objectivity, and, above all, endlessly entertaining. Throughout his typographically anarchic text Baker scatters quirky commentaries and suggestions that he entitles WORDS to the WISE. The tone is charming and the opinionated recipes captivating. Their titles alone are an adventure: From Volume I, entitled Being an Exotic Cookery Book: ONE DUET OF THOUGHT on The Frying of Crustaceans Fish, or Lobster or Shrimp... Delicious Fried in Batter—Raw—of Which These are Two Exotic Examples: One from NAGASAKI, JAPAN, 1931; One from PORT ANTONIO JAMAICA, 1933. Or from Volume II, entitled Being an Exotic Drinking Book: TWENTY and SEVEN PICKER-UPPERS for the NINETEENTH HOLE, which Can not only ENABLE US TO GREET THE NEW DAY UNDISMAYED but

• Binding: Hardcover

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