New Orleans Cook Book by Lena Richard — Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston 1940 Early Hard Cover Edition

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Octavo. Original hunter green cloth, gilt spine lettering. Issued without dust jacket.

Early hardcover edition of Lena Richard’s influential New … Read more Octavo. Original hunter green cloth, gilt spine lettering. Issued without dust jacket.

Early hardcover edition of Lena Richard’s influential New Orleans and Creole cookbook, with introduction by Gwen Bristow. Lena Richard is widely recognized as one of the earliest African-American women to author a commercially published cookbook, and this title remains a cornerstone of American culinary history.

Condition: Very Good+ to Near Fine. Binding tight and sound; all pages present. Interior clean, crisp, and flat with light, even age toning and minimal foxing to a few pages only. Original cloth shows minor discoloration and gentle edge wear at corners and spine, consistent with age. Period owner name and Manhattan address ( S. Eldridge 38 W 18th St, New York, NY ) to front pastedown; small period New York bookstore label (The Holliday Bookstore, 9 E. 49th St. New York) to rear pastedown. A well-preserved and attractive copy.

The book features a compilation of 333 traditional Creole recipes, offering the best of New Orleans cuisine, from Crawfish Bisque to Jambalaya and desserts. The book also includes menu ideas for formal and informal dinners.

About Arthur
Lena Richard (1892–1950) was a highly accomplished culinary professional, entrepreneur, and educator who built a significant business empire in a segregated South. In addition to her cookbook, she owned several restaurants, a catering business, a cooking school for Black students, and even launched a frozen food line. In 1949, she became the first African American woman to host a television cooking show, titled Lena Richard's New Orleans Cook Book, which aired on WDSU-TV
Lena Richard is widely recognized as one of the earliest African-American women to author a commercially published cookbook. This title is a cornerstone of New Orleans and Creole culinary history and remains highly sought after by collectors. See less