Fiddle-Head Ferns from Good Maine Food, 1939, 1946

Fiddle-Head Ferns from Good Maine Food, 1939: Here is part of a four-page discussion of fiddle-head ferns (fiddlehead ferns) from Marjorie Mosser’s 1939 Good Maine Foods. We have fiddlehead ferns here in Wisconsin, and I’m thinking of trying some of her recipes this spring.

good Maine Food, 1939, 1947, Marjorie Mosser

cooking fiddlehead ferns from Good MaineGood Maine Food, Marjorie Mosser, 1939: Good Maine Food, Marjorie Mosser, 1939, First Edition, First Printing: This is an erudite, fascinatingly historical cookbook written by a woman who was secretary to a Maine author named Kenneth Roberts. Roberts wrote a book titled Trending into Maine, which had a chapter on his favorite boyhood foods. That chapter was published in the Saturday Evening Post, resulting in many letters with readers’ favorite recipes. Since Mosser was the secretary dealing with all those a letters, she became interested in writing a Maine cookbook. With a Roberts’ contacts and her own, Mosser had access to a network of people with hundreds of handwritten recipes, old cookbooks, and historic references. She begins every chapter with a long quotation from an obscure part of Maine history, or a lengthy discussion of some Maine food. Published by Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., New York.

This copy of Good Maine Food is from the 1939 first edition and it is presumed from the first printing, since no other printing is mentioned. No dust jacket. I don’t think the cookbook was ever read. No inscription or owner’s name. Pages are uniformly tanned at the edges. Pages are all completely clean and clear. Binding is tight. Cover is in good condition. Definitely a gift quality first edition!