Book Board Chat

Good Morning from Penn's Woods,

salemegal Hello! You should stop by more often! I always enjoyed seeing photos of your place and the area, especially when winter was here. Made me feel warm! LOL

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Wednesday is usually our slowest day in sales but right after I said it to DH we sold 7 books in the morning and then 2 more books that evening. Also usually July and August are our slowest months but this July surpassed Jan as well as Feb.

An interesting book that I sold which did not quite make it into the top 5 was a 1923 Bridal Book. For The Bride: Helpful Hints Practical Suggestions and Valuable Records by Mrs. Ida Bailey Allen. It addition to the hints it contained recipes, menus, record pages for recording special events with headings such as "Our Marriage," "Our Honeymoon," "Wedding Guests," "Our New Home," "Our First Birthdays," "Our First Christmas," "Our First Anniversary," "Our First Vacation," etc. A very interesting look at what was expected of brides in the 1920's - sort of a "On Monday we wash our clothes" but this was laid out hour-by-hour what the bride should be doing during the day, including rest time and getting ready for the husband to come home from work.

Although it had recipes and menus it wasn't entirely a cookbook so I put it in Americana. Sold for $35.99. What was interesting is that the book has ads specific to my city. I imagine this "bride book" which was generic in content was sold to establishments in different cities and then ads sold to those businesses. Maybe it was promotional book given to the bride brought her gown or something. DH and I even recognized a couple of the businesses, which are no lonoger around.

I found the author to be very interesting, pioneer in spot advertising and first female food host on TV, and added this book to her Wikipedia entry.

Ida Cogswell Bailey Allen, (1885 - 1973) once popularly known as "The Nation's Homemaker" was the author of over 50 cookbooks. She was described as "The original domestic goddess" by antique cookbook experts Patricia Edwards and Peter Peckham.

In 1924 she was food editor of the Sunday New York American. By 1928 she was hosting a regular daytime radio show which expanded to two hours the following year. She not only performed on the show, she also produced and sold her own advertising; she was a pioneer in selling spot advertising rather than having a single company sponsor a show. The program ended in 1932, at which time she began a syndicated cooking show on Columbia Network. She became television" first female food host on "Mrs. Allen and the Chef." She was an editor of Good Housekeeping, writing the Three Meals a Day column, as well as Home Economics Editor of Pictorial Review and Woman's World. She was President and founder of the National Radio Home-Makers Club. During World War II, Allen's talents were drafted by the US Food Administrator as lecturer. She once lived atop 400 Madison Ave., New York City where visitors were able to see the "latest developments in homemaking", and could watch her staff develop and test new recipes for cooking. A 1932 promotional book she wrote for Coca-Cola, When You Entertain, was so popular 375,000 copies were sold in under six months.

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Top 5 Book Sales:

THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND Jules Verne Illus N C WYETH 1st Ed - $64.99

J R R TOLKIEN 3 Vol Slipcase LORD OF THE RINGS - $58.49

RUSSIAN IMPERIAL PORCELAIN EASTER EGGS Slipcase - $49.99

Paradise Lost: The Poem & Its Illustrators - $39.99

Portrait of a Town: Portage, Pennsylvania 1890-1990 - $39.99
(my childhood neck of the woods & it went back to area)

Top 5 Heritage Press:

1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS Illus Valenti Angelo 3 Vol (w/ Sandglass but NO Slipcase) - $39.99

LEWIS AND CLARK Journals of Expedition 2 Vol Slipcase - $29.99

FRANKENSTEIN Mary Shelley Slipcase - $24.99

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN H B Stowe Slipcase - $17.99 (went to France)

SALOME Oscar Wilde Slipcase - $17.99

Top 5 Cookbooks:

Italian American Recipes: American Committee On Italian Migration - $39.99

BETTY CROCKER Cookbook RED PIE COVER - $35.99

Treasury Of Italian Recipes: Ladies Auxiliary of Hershey Italian Lodge - $29.99

OYSTER FESTIVAL Cookbook York Pennsylvania - $22.49

Lancaster County Amish Cookbook: Over One Thousand Recipes - $16.19

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