Early in their correspondence, Helen Evans Brown told James Beard she was saving his letters so he could remember all the wonderful food he had eaten. Approximately 450 were in Philip Brown’s safekeeping after her death. In 1984 he sent them to Jim to reread before donating them to an archive, and they were still in Jim’s possession when he died. Excerpts from 300 of them appear in this collection.
With few exceptions, the letters were typewritten, averting the challenge of transcribing the world’s most inscrutable handwriting. Unfortunately, ninety percent of them were undated. Nearly two years were spent attempting to date them from references to Jim’s published work and to various social events before the discovery of a cache of his engagement books made the task a good deal easier. The dates given here, in brackets, are reasonably accurate.
It was not possible to present the letters in their entirety. I have selected excerpts that focus largely on food, but they also give some idea of the convivial life Jim led, professionally and socially, despite the poor health and depression that plagued him throughout these years. Much of the deleted material concerns travel arrangements, routine discussions of writing assignments, and gossip about friends and colleagues whose names would be meaningless to most readers. For the sake of a more readable book, deletions are not indicated.
I silently edited the letters in other ways, correcting language and facts, supplying a name, word, or phrase where needed, and making an occasional transposition, taking my cue from Jim’s and Helen’s declared intention to edit their letters for publication.
The recipes given at the end of the book are inspired by references in the letters (indicated with an asterisk). Unless otherwise attributed, they are either adapted from Jim’s own recipes or are reconstructed from directions in the text.
I am grateful to a number of people who in various ways have helped this project along:
Morris Galen and Reed College, for permission to publish the letters; Philip Brown, for allowing me to retain the letters during the preparation of this volume and for supplying dates, facts, and encouragement; Clayton Triplette, for saving the letters from oblivion; The University of Wyoming Heritage Center, for providing Helen Evans Brown’s correspondence, and Jeremy Johnston, for the arduous copying of Beard’s engagement books; the Oregon Historical Society, for access to their James Beard archives; Cecily Brownstone, for the generous use of her library and her memory and for many happy hours of reminiscence. For plumbing their memories, files, and albums I also thank (in no order) Mary Hamblet, Henry and Bettina McNulty, Naomi Barry, Denise Otis, Jane Nickerson, Mateo Lettunich, Caroline Stuart, Mary Lyon, Sam and Florence Aaron, Joe Baum, Julie Dannenbaum, Frederick Rufe, Chuck Williams, and Van der Veer Varner. I am indebted to Evan Jones and Robert Clark for their informative biographies of James Beard; and to Roberta Leighton for fine-combing the manuscript. I was especially fortunate to work with Jeannette Seaver, a fine cook as well as a fine editor.