Meet Irma S. Rombauer, “The Joy of Cooking” Author, St. Louis Resident

“The Joy of Cooking” by Irma S. Rombauer deserved a spot in my curated cookbook collection. This classic cookbook frequently appears on “must have” cookbook lists across the Internet for its quaint illustrations, conversational approach, and diverse range of recipes.

The “Joy of Cooking” is generally a well-regarded cookbook for classic recipes, selling a whopping 18,000,000 copies, according to The Guardian, a far cry from the initial 3,000 books Rombauer published on her own. Read about the life of Irma S. Rombauer, why she wrote her bestselling cookbook, and learn what might make one “Joy” edition better than another.

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What Is “The Joy of Cooking?”

“The Joy of Cooking” is a cookbook compiled by Irma S. Rombauer (October 30, 1877 – October 14, 1962). Published in 1931, “The Joy of Cooking: A Compilation of Reliable Recipes with a Casual Culinary Chat” became a go-to resource for a variety of dishes.

It [Joy of Cooking] has been said to be one of the three most important cookbooks of the middle 20th century, representing to the rest of the country what “The Settlement House” cookbook was to Central European immigrants and “The Boston Cooking School Cookbook” was to New England cooks.

Russ Parsons, A Heaping Cupful of Conflict, The Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1997.

Many revisions and editions later, “Joy of Cooking” remains relevant and popular. You’ll find it in many an American kitchen — and beyond. I was on the hunt for a copy someone used, loved, and cooked from. I wanted to see a few splattered pages and maybe notes jotted in the sidebar. I finally, fittingly, found a 1943 copy in St. Louis.

Who Is Irma S. Rombauer?

Let’s head to St. Louis, Missouri, an interesting, diverse, and unique Midwestern city. St. Louis was the home of the von Starkloff family, a German family who lived in the German part of town. Irma von Starkloff, the future author of JoC, lived there with her parents and a sister. Irma briefly dated Newton Booth Tarkington and had an education befitting the period. In other words, her education coordinated with her place in society in mind and not so much a career.

If you haven’t visited St. Louis before, it’s an unusual city because each neighborhood has a different feel to it (for the most part).

• Soulard, the first established neighborhood of St. Louis, offers French-influenced 19th-century architecture.
• The Hill, for Italian-American bakeries and restaurants.
• Walk through the Compton Heights neighborhood for big, beautiful homes that point to 1880s to 1890s construction.

These aren’t locally-used names, either. The neighborhoods plaster their name on signs and paint them over crosswalks. There are 79 neighborhoods in total, according to the City of St. Louis. But on my trip to St. Louis, the Shaw neighborhood was the one I didn’t want to miss — it was the home of Irma S. Rombauer.

Irma S. Rombauer was a woman who not only wrote “The Joy of Cooking,” but also self-published the first edition of her 135-page cookbook for $3,000. She was self-publishing before it was hip. If only I’d realized it sooner, I would have tried to seek out the rest of their former family homes.

Why Did Irma S. Rombauer Write “The Joy of Cooking?”

“There was something in her presence to tell the most discouraged beginner why cooking and joy deserved to be mentioned in the same breath.”

Anne Mendelson, Stand Facing the Stove (1996), Page 3.r Name

Crack open a copy of Irma’s cookbook, and the interior may mention why Irma started compiling The Joy of Cooking.

The first “Joy,” a modest volume, was published privately in 1931. It was written at the request of my children, who, on leaving home, asked for a record of “what mother used to cook.”

In 1936, The Bobbs-Merrill Company brought out an enlarged and revised edition of my timidly launched maiden effort and this was followed by a second enlarged and revised edition in 1943. A new edition is now before you.

“My roots are Victorian but I have been modernized by life and my children. My book reflects my life and, as you may see by its timely contents, I have not stood still.”

Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, Foreword, “The Joy of Cooking” (1953).

Irma S. Rombauer wasn’t even a cook.

She had a cook, but she didn’t do the cooking. Her brother Max’s household said it was the “Worst idea I ever heard,” and “Irma’s a TERRIBLE cook,” as shared in Mendelson’s book (page 84, from an interview with Patrician Egan in March 1987). The idea of Irma S. Rombauer writing a cookbook wasn’t the best in the eyes of her friends and family. Here’s what Marion, Irma’s daughter, had to say about the creation of JoC.

By 1929 my brother had left home and I was planning to be married and live away, too. My father’s death in early 1930 left Mother, ten years his junior, with the realization that she would soon be entirely without the companionship of an immediate family.

My brother and I had often urged her to put into systematic order the underlying directives of a personal cuisine which had long since excited far more than a neighborhood appreciation.

It was at this juncture, partly to comply, chiefly to distract her keen unhappiness, that she decided to spend another summer in Michigan, taking with her, needless to say, the mimeographed [duplicated] sheaf of recipes she had compiled, some eight years before, for the Women’s Alliance.

She knew she needed salvation in work, and that to work she must manage to avoid people, much as she loved and attracted them. And so, on this very different kind of Michigan trip, she went not to Bay View, which she never again revisited, but to a small inn near Charlevoix, where she was a complete stranger.

She had no inkling, of course, that she was carrying with her into Johnny Appleseed country an acorn of even more promising potential, or what world-wide companionship its growth would bring her, what years of absorbing activity.

On her return to St. Louis, Mother persuaded Charlie Maguire’s niece, my father’s former secretary and a friend to all of us, to help her by typing out and commenting critically on her expanding text.

By the second summer I was in New York, where manuscript pages from St. Louis arrived regularly. After painting in the mornings, I tested recipes in the afternoon against the arrival of John, his sister and her fiancé for dinner.

The following winter, while I directed the art department at the John Burroughs School in St. Louis, I worked weekends on the chapter headings and the production of the book.

Marion Rombauer Becker, Biography by Marion Rombauer Becker: Daughter of Irma Rombauer, Harvard Square Library, Accessed September 18, 2023.

Go back a little more in the history of the JoC for something closer to the truth. Rombauer wrote in her 1943 preface, ““At the request of my children, who were leaving home, I began a record of “what Mother used to make.” They thought, correctly, that the work involved would help me tide over a period of loneliness.”

But that’s not the whole truth. It wasn’t only a “period of loneliness.” It was grief.

A Widow at 52

Edgar Rombauer once told Marion and Put that he was drawn to their mother because of “her beauty, her vivaciousness, and her frankness” and “essentially sunny” disposition, according to Mendelson in “Stand Facing the Stove” (page 39).

On Monday, February 3, 1930, Irma left to go shopping in downtown St. Louis. Edgar loaded one barrel of a Purdey double-barrel shotgun, sat in a chair by an open window, tied a string around his right foot, tied the other end to the trigger, and ended his life. The housekeeper shrugged off the sound as a car backfiring. The downstairs neighbors rang when they saw dripping blood from the ceiling.

Edgar had long had depressive episodes, and was unable to work or join in the usual social activities of his day. As weeks or months passed, he’d sit in his room and complete crossword puzzles or scrapbooks of world events as family life carried on in the background. Edgar’s bouts of extreme energy, followed by anxiety and withdrawal, point to manic depression, suggested Mendelson (page 38).

With $6,000 in her bank account, Irma S. Rombauer had to do something. But what could a woman with few marketable skills and a certain societal position do to help make ends meet? Not much. So, why not compile a cookbook? Irma was one of many women of her time (and status) to try her hand at cookbook writing. It would become the JoC.

Irma S. Rombauer Compiles “The Joy of Cooking”

Look at one of Irma’s local competitors, Choice Menus for Luncheons and Dinners, published for a charitable cause by Gladys Taussig Lane. Irma had little regard for the 135-page book, according to Mendelson. It was not for a home cook.

Mr. Rombauer, still a practicing lawyer in Seattle, recalled that ”The Joy of Cooking” was at least partly inspired by annoyance at ”la-di-da” ideas of food.

One day in 1930, his mother called him to complain about a charity cookbook of fancy menus that had just been published by another noted St. Louis hostess, a Mrs. Lang, and was selling for a hefty $5 a copy. Mrs. Rombauer, recently widowed, did not find these meals suitable to Depression-era pocketbooks.

It occurred to her that there might be a market for a cookbook more geared to the ”Zeitgeist,” [general spirit of a period of time] as she put it, and she had enough faith in the idea to have her collections of recipes published at her own expense.

Anne Mendelson, Rombauer: Family Joy of Remembering, New York Times, June 20, 1984; Accessed 7/23/2023.

Irma sourced her recipes in St. Louis and beyond. The granddaughter of one such source, Grandma Merkel (Mary Mueller Merkel, a widow who ran a boardinghouse and a restaurant, accepted Rombauer’s request for recipes, Anne Mendelson wrote in “Stand Facing the Stove” (1996), Page 87.

“This was the Depression and people were trying desperately to make enough money to survive. Writing and publishing a book could be costly. One did not dare fail and lose what little assets she had. When Irma came again, some of the family recipes were ready for her, written out in Aunt Clara’s careful Spencerian hand, in ink, on sheets of paper. . . . At the end of the planning, Grandma, despite her encouragement, said, “But, Irma, who will buy your book? All our friends have those those recipes.”

Not everyone thrilled over Rombauer’s project. Marion expressed her distaste over her mother’s unbridled enthusiasm, writing, “Mother’s hobby is beginning to embarrass me, she carries it to such lengths,” Mendelson’s book shared.

All previous editions of “The Joy of Cooking” have been dedicated to my friend Mary Whyte Hartrich, and so is this one.

It is she who from the beginning volunteered to help me with my undertaking and who compiled the admirable index for each edition so well that my readers say, “You can really find what you are looking for!”

In addition she has been an excellent balance wheel for my flights of fancy, advising frequently against too much exuberance and adding a great deal that is valuable to my books.

Irma S. Rombauer, Foreword,” The Joy of Cooking” (1953).

A Basic Cookbook

It was a basic cookbook with nutritional suggestions and a unique approach to listing recipes. Irma tried something different — and that experiment paid off.

This was a moment in American history when women were moving far away from their families of origin, following their husbands into growing cities for jobs; the oral tradition of sharing recipes from mother-to-daughter was breaking down, and what had taken over were newspaper columns by home economists and advertisements from food purveyors like meat-packing firms who offered recipes to their readers in impersonal, formulaic ways.

Rombauer’s style represented a major departure from the home economics-driven recipes that looked like nothing more than math problems; her recipes became teaching tools, and following them felt to users as if there was a good friend standing right at their elbow guiding them along in words as well as numbers.

Kelly Alexander, The Daily Meal Hall Of Fame: Irma S. Rombauer, The Daily Meal, March 28, 2016, Accessed July 27, 2023.

That usability is what made “Joy” great. From beginning to end, including the index, this book considered its audience. I think we’ve all experienced the frustration of a shoddy index. Recipes from “The Joy of Cooking” are surprisingly easy to find. In fact, the comprehensive index is something JoC has long prided itself on, thanks to the work of Mary Whyte Hartrich.

Mary, or Maizie, was the niece of one of Edgar’s best friends. After Maizie’s father died, and her family’s finances were in disarray, Edgar reached into his own wallet, and paid for Maizie’s training as a legal secretary. Afterwards, he gave her a job in his own law office.

After Edgar’s death, Maizie volunteered to help Irma with the cookbook project, without pay, and it was Maizie’s series of hand-typed notebooks of “The Joy of Cooking” that were provided to the A.C. Clayton Company in 1931.

Maizie continued to assist with various editions of “Joy” through 1951, as well as with Irma’s other two cookbooks: “Streamlined Cooking” (1939) and “A Cookbook for Girls and Boys” (1946).

“A Cookbook for Girls and Boys” grew out of a series of articles written for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and even though the book never approached the bestseller status of “The Joy of Cooking,” it was a respectable entry into the limited field of cookbooks written for children.

“Maizie” and The Joy of Cooking, The Gastronomer, June 4, 2020; accessed July 23, 2023.

Is “The Joy of Cooking” Considered a Good Cookbook?

Sometimes I worry a little bit about how the Joy will make itself indispensable in this decluttered new world. Does the Joy…spark joy? I don’t have the patience to polish silver or have an eye for tomato-shaped salt and pepper shakers.

But “The Joy of Cooking” carries more weight than those things (not just because it’s extremely heavy). It’s not a tchotchke on a shelf but an explosion of knowledge in a tidy container. It’s the ultimate desert island cookbook.

Tidy me to hell, what other cookbook contains both a chocolate mousse recipe, a mezcal explainer, and shredded cheese conversion chart??? And if you’re lucky enough to have one that’s been handed down, then you know it contains much more.

Alex Beggs, A Case for Three Copies of The Joy of Cooking, Bon Appetit, February 3, 2020, Accessed July 20, 2023.

You either love the JoC or you hate it. Strong opinions accompany mentions of this cookbook in all corners of the internet. Some people love the lack of images, while others find it hard to use without them. Some people praise the cookbook for its formatting, while others find it distracting.

What do I think? I get why it’s a staple in so many kitchens. There’s a smattering of this and a sprinkle of that. The staples are here. But — it’s also fun to flip through the pages of Irma S. Rombauer’s work. Vintage “Joy” copies contain unique recipes you’ll chuckle over.

What Recipes in “The Joy of Cooking” Were the Authors’ Favorites?

. . . Finally, in response to many requests from users of “The Joy” who ask, “What are your favorites?” we have added to some of our recipes the word “Cockaigne,” which signified in medieval times “a mythical land of peace and plenty,” and also happens to be the name of our country home.

Marion Becker, Forward and Guide, “The Joy of Cooking,” Page viii.

Write a cookbook and I am guessing it’s guaranteed every interviewer and reader will ask for your favorites. I assume it’s not much different than when interviewers used to ask about my favorite small town.

As you may recall, Nell B. Nichols of Farm Journal cookbooks responded to a similar question from her granddaughter with “Well, all of them!”

I understand that sentiment. If you’re editing a cookbook, you’re only including your favorites. But there are favorite, favorites too, right? In regards to my small town rambles, I’d respond, “It depends what you’re looking for.” Food-wise? Well, I love my brownie recipes (or I wouldn’t share them with you), but I love my cakey and frosting-covered brownie recipe just a little bit more. Fortunately, the authors of JoC labeled family favorite recipes.

What is Cockaigne? “While there have been many different versions of Cockaigne appearing in literature throughout the ages, in general, the Land of Cockaigne was a medieval dream world where the regular order things was flipped on its head,” Eric Grundhauser shared.

“In Cockaigne,” he continued, “the poor would be rich, food and sex were freely available, and sloth was treasured and respected above all else. It was often portrayed as the perfect daydream of the common peasant, a place where the drudgery and struggle of medieval life was nowhere to be seen.”

So, what are examples of “The Joy of Cooking” recipes that were family favorites? How do we know what recipes the Rombauer’s turned to time and again?

“But her daughter, Marion brought a new perspective to “The Joy of Cooking” series. She added the term “Cockaigne” to any recipe that was one that the family made in their own home. Items like Chocolate Chip Cookies Cockaigne and even Cincinnati Chili Cockaigne (which proliferated the myth of chocolate in Cincinnati Chili), started showing up in editions up to 1976, when Marion passed away and passed the biz along to her son Ethan,” Cincinnati, Bauhaus Architecture & “The Joy of Cooking” shared.

Irma’s favorite things to make by far were cookies and cake. Here’s what John had to say about the family’s favorite “Joy of Cooking” recipes, The Joy of Cooking’s Family History stated:

• First, the “Rombauer Special,” a chocolate cake topped with fluffy white icing. That’s been in the book from the first edition onward.
• Irma’s grandmother passed along perhaps the most delicious apple dessert I’ve ever had, “Sour Cream Apple Soufflé Cake Cockaigne.” It’s the quintessential “Joy” recipe, at least from the family’s perspective — it made the trip from Germany, after all.
• “Molasses Thins,” a delicious icebox cookie recipe, is thought to be the last one Irma penned. We find it special for that reason.

Baking cookies and cake? I think we’d get along great.

What Did Reddit Users Cite As Their Favorite Recipes From “The Joy of Cooking?”

If you’re unfamiliar with “The Joy of Cooking” cookbook, it might help to get an idea of the types of recipes other people consider their favorites. I combed over Reddit posts (and went off on more than one side quest) to read what people had to say about the work of Irma S. Rombauer today. From banana bread Cockaigne to Irma’s chocolate chip cookies, the result is a diverse list of favorite “Joy of Cooking” reliable recipes:

• “The Joy of Cooking” Brownies
• Falafel
• Pancakes (and Lemon Pancakes)
• Basil Pesto
• Rich Roll Cookies
• Red Pepper Pasta Sauce
• Sour Cream Muffins
• Butter Cookies
• Sweet and Sour Pork
• Hunters Chicken / Chicken Cacciatore (the one with white wine and mushrooms)
• Gazpacho
• Cottage Pie/Shepard’s Pie
• Pasta with Egg & Bacon
• Paprika Chicken
• Coq au Vin
• Banana Bread
• Ginger Cake (housewarming 1973)
• Split Pea Soup
• Pecan Pie
• Cloverleaf Rolls
• Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, you have your work cut out for you. Pick a recipe. Any recipe. Then get cookin’. Don’t forget to write in your cookbook. List your thoughts, your tweaks, and substitutions. Add the date for nostalgia’s sake.

What “Joy of Cooking” Edition is Right for You?

Cookbook authors don’t often span generations. But in the case of JoC, it became a family project, handed down from Irma S. Rombauer to her daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker and her husband, John. It then passed to the Becker’s son, Ethan Becker, and then to Ethan’s son, John Becker, and his wife, Megan Scott.

There are eight JoC editions that mark genuine stages of the books history, according to Mendelson (xiii preface). These include:

• the original privately-published book (1931)
• the first Bobbs-Merrill edition (1936)
• the best-selling wartime edition (1943)
• the first post-war edition printed from the 1943 plates with minimal changes (1946)
• the first Rombauer-Becker edition (1951)
• the first unauthorized edition (1962)
• the first authorized edition prepared by Marion Becker (1963)
• Marion’s last edition (1975)

Bon Appetit shared:

• After the first trade edition, published in 1936, there has been a new edition roughly every decade as the family attempted to account for the changing world of available ingredients, kitchen appliances, food safety, and trends.
  
• The fifth edition, first published in 1962 without Marion Rombauer Becker’s permission, had “so many corrections by Marion that the type had to be reset.” It was cleaned up and reissued, and then became the first to be published in paperback as well as to include pâté and Bolognese sauce. It was around this time that “the” in “The Joy of Cooking” was dropped from the copyright, making it just “Joy of Cooking.”

Now, settle in for a heap of interesting commentary on real people’s JoC thoughts:

• And here all my “Joy of Cooking” (not the 1943 one) book says, written on the inside cover, is a message from my Grandmother: “If this book is in your house YOU STOLE IT,” stabbytastical
• “The vast number of recipes is the point. It’s the reference book in a collection. It’s the book you turn to when you need to remember the temperature at which to roast Brussel’s sprouts, or need to whip up a pie for Thanksgiving tomorrow, or just ran over a mountain goat and are wondering if you can eat it. Pick something you like to eat, and there’s probably a recipe for it in JoC,” Tacticus1.

The Kitchn readers shared their thoughts and favorite editions, too:

• “I have my mom’s copy of the 1964 edition (although a 1972 printing). It has her notes, as well as mine. I love it both for the recipes I use (peanut butter cookies) and the ones I don’t (boudin noir, possum). I love it most of all because of the stains on so many pages from the early years of parents marriage,” RedToast, March 5, 2013.
• “I cherish my mom’s 1975 copy. The binding is falling apart, so I don’t use it too much for reference anymore, but I always turn to it for certain recipes. It wouldn’t be Christmas without turning to the recipe for Rich Roll Cookies and seeing annotations in my mom’s handwriting,” OlivePlanet, March 5, 2013.
• “I have two: 1963 and 1975. The former was a wedding gift in 1964; the latter came with the second husband. 🙂 Still use them as references. And for my coveted hazelnut “toffee,” actually JoC’s “Nut Crunch,” and the oh-so-delicious Vanilla Cream Caramels,” OrangePumpkin, March 5, 2013.

So, what JoC book should you choose?

Best Vintage Edition for Cooks: The 1975 edition matched Marion Rombauer Becker’s revisions and stayed in print for over 20 years. It is a good fit for modern cooks.
Best Edition for Cookbook Collectors: The original 1931 edition is rare, due to Rombauer printing a mere 3,000 copies.
The “Worst” Cookbook Edition: Although cookbook love is subjective, the 1962 print was published without Marion Becker’s approval and has a ton of errors. Do not cook with the 1962 first edition.

Why Does the Internet Hate the 1997 Edition?

But there’s no escaping the fact that for the first time “Joy” belongs not to the Rombauer Becker family but to an outsider, editor Maria Guarnaschelli of Simon & Schuster’s Scribner imprint.

Russ Parsons, A Heaping Cupful of Conflict, The Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1997.

If you’re wondering if there’s a particular version of the book you should avoid, there is. The 1997 version is often listed among the least popular editions of the cookbook. Instead of being a family effort, 100 food writers and a test kitchen contribution were enlisted to populate the latest edition. The tone changed, too.

Ms. Guarnaschelli’s “All New All Purpose Joy of Cooking,” published in 1997, shrugged off the cozy Midwestern charm of the original work, but it was met with criticism and didn’t sell as well as the original.

. . .

The new version was praised as comprehensive and functional, but it was also called “joyless” by one critic and “corporate” by Molly O’Neill in The Times, and failed to reproduce the sales figures of the original.

The Becker family soon disavowed the book; in 2006, after Ms. Guarnaschelli had moved on to W.W. Norton, Scribner published another revision that restored much of the 1975 edition.

Julia Moskin, Maria Guarnaschelli, Book Editor Who Changed What We Cook, Dies at 79, The New York Times, Published Feb. 11, 2021, Updated Feb. 13, 2021, Accessed September 30, 2023.

What Should You Look For When Buying a New or Vintage “Joy of Cooking” Cookbook?

In the process, they began weeding out recipes, like shrimp wiggle, that no longer seemed applicable and adding new ones, like Kao soi gai, that reflect what people eat now. (And there you have 90 years of American culinary history.)

They added recipes from Megan’s family and recipes they had invented themselves. They made sure not to get rid of undisputed classics, like Marion’s banana bread. They revived recipes, like lemony butter wafers, that had been dropped between editions. They also consulted Ethan to make sure they weren’t committing any unforgivable desecrations.

Aimee Levitt, The new Joy Of Cooking keeps it in the family, The Takeout, October 14, 2019, Accessed July 23, 2023.

Buying vintage cookbooks can be tricky. Sometimes, people republish older cookbooks, creating a poor facsimile to the original. Look to trusted sources to purchase cookbooks. Online destinations, such as Amazon, will include a mention in the “about” text that the book is a copy of the original, and not the original. This is especially true of the 1931 edition.

• Book Quality: Decide if you want a clean copy or if you, like me, prefer one that has seen some things. I love when my cookbook has writing and notes inside of it. It’s why I also write in my cookbooks. A new copy will likely be impossible to find, but you may find an excellent or very good copy.
• Dust Jackets: These protective elements add to the value of the book. They also prevent a cookbook from becoming extra messy from time in the kitchen.
• First Editions: Learn how to read your cookbook title page to determine your cookbook’s edition.
• Real or Facsimile: Some editions, such as the first edition, may be sold as a copy of the original. Read the fine print carefully. A 1931 version with only 3,000 total books printed will cost far more than $20.

Where Can You Buy “The Joy of Cooking?”

Everywhere. Anywhere. Nowhere. It depends on what you want. Are you looking for a first edition of The Joy of Cooking, the one Irma S. Rombauer published on her own? You and me both. Also, good luck.

In the meantime, you can browse “The Joy of Cooking” versions for sale above.

Do You Want a Copy of “The Joy of Cooking” with the Squirrel?

Of the 1951 edition, for which Marion was named co-author, New York Times food critic Jane Nickerson wrote, “When its enthusiastic users get together, they play an ‘it even has’ game.” We played the same game in my family, and the winning entry was always squirrel, from the section on game.
That edition also marked the replacement of Marion’s paper-cuts with diagrammatic illustrations by Ginnie Hofmann, including a now infamous drawing of said squirrel being relieved of its coat, the tail pinned down under the slender boot of an elegant and capable woman wearing thick gardening gloves to protect her hands from rodent entrails.

Why Three Generations of Americans All Have the Same Favorite Cookbook

Of course, there is one other factor to consider when choosing your Joy of Cooking cookbook: The squirrel. Look inside certain editions of Irma S. Rombauer’s JoC and you’ll discover quite the illustration. It’s the squirrel-skinning process.

Now, here is where the mystery lies: squirrel is included in 1946 (reprint of the 1943 edition), 1963 (reprint of 1962 with corrections), 1964 (more corrections), 1971, 1975 (5th revision) and 2006, the 75th Anniversary edition.

But, dear readers, it is not included in the 1997 edition, now titled “The All-New, All-Purpose Joy of Cooking.”

Sue Jimenez, A Vintage Cookbookery Mystery – The Curious Case of Irma Rombauer and the Missing Squirrel, January 26, 2014, Accessed August 1, 2023.

Squirrel? No squirrel? It’s one more decision to weigh when choosing which copy of JoC is the best fit for you.

Why Was “The Joy of Cooking” a Bestseller?

Other books Americans were buying in 1931 include “The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck, Dash Hammett’s “The Glass Key” and Faulkner’s “Sanctuary.” The memoir of the Russian Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, granddaughter of Tsar Alexander II, was also a bestseller.

In other words, books that were popular in 1931 feel very 1931. 

Abigail Weil, Why Three Generations of Americans All Have the Same Cookbook, Electric Literature, November 27, 2019, Accessed August 31, 2023.

The books at the time of JoC’s publication weren’t big on personality (except for “The Good Earth,” of course). Have you ever looked at books for kids back then? Not quite the same. Rombauer’s self-published book became available in 1931, two years into The Great Depression (1929-1939). What else happened in 1931?

• The TWA Flight 599 crashes and kills University of Notre Dame head football coach Knute Rockne
• The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City
• Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison
• The Star Spangled Banner became the national anthem

Irma’s gung-ho promotion and lively personality didn’t hurt. Hand-delivered copies made their way into St. Louisans hands and appeared in local shops.

Key Take Aways and Glossary

• Irma S. Rombauer was about 52 when she wrote “The Joy of Cooking.”
• Rombauer wrote the book in response to her husband’s suicide, her grown children leaving home, and needing something to do to pass the time and to make money.
• She initially self-published 3,000 books, selling the majority of those books by 1932. It wouldn’t be until 1936 that it would receive printing via a publisher, the Bobbs-Merrill Company.
• There are 9 official JoC editions. The most recent edition was in 2019. These books have since sold 19,000,000 copies, according to The Guardian.
• The 1975 version is often considered the best “Joy of Cooking” edition.
• “Joy” has never been out of print.

I think Irma, with the help of her wonderful biographer Anne Mendelson, will always be remembered as a Lebenskünstler, or “life artist.” What does that mean exactly? Full of life, precocious, extroverted, the life (or hostess) of the party, an agile mind with a cheerful temperament, strong opinions, fine tastes, and an inability to stay at rest for long.

My father, Ethan, remembers visiting “Granny Rom” at her apartment in St. Louis’s West End, where he was showered with affection, cookies, and cakes — which were by far Irma’s favorite thing to cook. . . .

The Joy of Cooking’s Family History, American Museum of Natural History, December 7, 2012, Accessed September 30, 2023.

Marion eventually got over her “embarrassment” and pitched in, choosing a different focus. After decades of dealing with undiagnosed food allergies, she found the concept of nutrition intriguing and reflected this interest in her JoC versions.

“Having served as the first professional director of the Cincinnati Modern Art Society,” geschenke2015 wrote, “Marion brought a modern design perspective to the books that shunned photography and used only line drawings to demonstrate methods. She also added new recipes utilizing whole grains and introduced Americans to new foods like tofu, jicama, and kiwi.”

That’s not all. Marion later had help from her husband, John. “When Irma’s daughter Marion Becker took over the cookbook from her mother in 1963, she was living in Cincinnati at her Bauhaus estate in Anderson Township, which the family referred to as Cockaigne, named after a medieval fantasy land.

Her husband, John William Becker, was the foremost Bauhaus architect in Cincinnati, and had built Cockaigne from his designs in 1940. . . . Although more known for his architecture, and wild 70s Trumpian combover, Becker also contributed to the Joy cookbook series with his wit and humor,” geschenke2015 shared.

It began as a self-published work, a way to hopefully earn enough money to survive, and turned into a family legacy.

There are eight JoC editions that mark genuine stages of the books history, according to Mendelson (xiii preface). These include:

• the original privately-published book (1931)
• the first Bobbs-Merrill edition (1936)
• the best-selling wartime edition (1943)
• the first post-war edition printed from the 1943 plates with minimal changes (1946)
• the first Rombauer-Becker edition (1951)
• the first unauthorized edition (1962)
• the first authorized edition prepared by Marion Becker (1963)
• Marion’s last edition (1975)

JoC Glossary

• Bauhaus: A design school (1919 to 1933) and, later, a design style.
• Cockaigne: A playful descriptor for family-favorite recipes that references both the ultimate dream during Medieval times and the name of the family’s beloved country home.
• Jicama: A root vegetable native to Mexico.
• Lebenskünstler: Life artist, a term affectionately used to describe Irma by her great-grandson John Becker.
• Mimeographed: A duplicated document created by using a mimeograph machine.
• Irma von Starkloff: Born Irma Louise von Starkloff in 1877 until her marriage to Edgar Rombauer October 14, 1899.
• Zeitgist: The spirit of a particular period of time.

Books About Irma S. Rombauer and “The JoC”

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