Joseph Conrad, Author Of "Lord Jim," and "Typhoon" Enjoyed Cooking; We're Still Hunting Handwritten Relics For Our Archives

COLLECTING OLD COOKBOOKS AND HANDWRITTEN RECIPES……STRANGE? BUT TRUE, AND VERY ENJOYABLE AND SOMEWHAT PROFITABLE

I HAVE ONE "BIBLIO" MAGAZINE LEFT - AND IT CONTAINS MY FAVORITE FEATURE COOKERY ARTICLE

     IT HAS A PICTURE OF AMERICAN NOVELIST, TOM WOLFE ON THE FRONT COVER, CASUALLY LEANING ON A LADDER. THERE'S AN ARTICLE ON THE FAMED WRITER INSIDE. THE SHORT-LIVED MAGAZINE, "BIBLIO," WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE ALL-TIME PUBLICATIONS, BUT IT WAS ONLY IN PRODUCTION FOR A SHORT WHILE. AT LEAST TO MY KNOWLEDGE, OF THIS MAGAZINE, AIMED AT "EXPLORING THE WORLD OF BOOKS." MY INTEREST OF COURSE, WAS THE WORLD OF OLD BOOKS.

    I HAD THREE DIFFERENT MONTHS OF THE MAGAZINE TUCKED AWAY SAFELY, IN MY ARCHIVES; THOSE WITH FEATURE ARTICLES THAT ADDRESSED SOME OF MY MAJOR BOOK COLLECTING INTERESTS. NOW I ONLY HAVE ONE LEFT. I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS ABOUT MY ARCHIVES, THAT MAKES IMPORTANT STUFF DISAPPEAR….OR VAPORIZE. THE ISSUE I HAVE LEFT, HOWEVER, IS THE FEBRUARY 1999, NUMBER 2, OF VOLUME 4, AND IT CONTAINS A CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ARTICLE, ON "THE JOY OF COOKBOOKS - A MIDWESTERN SANCTUARY FOR BIBLIOPHILES, GASTRONOMES, AND OENOPHILES THE WORLD OVER," BY WRITER ROY MEADOR. ROY MEADOR, BY THE WAY, IS A BOOK COLLECTOR, AND WAS A CONTRIBUTOR TO THE "BIBLIO" MAGAZINE, AND HE JUST HAPPENED TO RESIDE DOWN THE ROAD, FROM "THE WINE AND FOOD LIBRARY," IN ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN.

     THE ARTICLE ON THE SPECIALTY BOOK SHOP, BEGAN ON PAGE 42, WHICH IS PRETTY WORN DOWN NOW, AND UNCEREMONIOUSLY FOLDED, AT THE TOP AND IN THE MIDDLE FOR REFERENCE. THAT'S PRETTY GOOD, CONSIDERING HOW MANY OF OUR COLLECTOR FRIENDS HAVE READ IT, AND HOW OFTEN I'VE CONSULTED IT, WITH SUZANNE, SINCE THE WINTER OF 1999. IT GAVE US A LOT OF INSPIRATION, YOU SEE, ABOUT CREATING SOMETHING SIMILAR IN GRAVENHURST, ONTARIO. SO IT'S TRUE, I HAVE VERY MUCH OBSESSED, FOR FAR TOO LONG NOW, OVER THIS WONDERFULLY ENLIGHTENING FEATURE STORY, ABOUT JAN AND DAN LONGONE, AND THEIR INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN, "WINE AND FOOD LIBRARY." ACCORDING TO THE AUTHOR, ROY MEADOR, "THOUGH MANY FEEL CALLED TO VOCATIONS THAT MIGHT INCREASE CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING, FEW WOULD LIKELY THINK OF FINDING SUCH A MISSION AS A PURVEYOR OF COOKBOOKS. BUT FOR JANICE LONGONE, AND INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN DEALER OF GASTRONOMIC AND ENOLOGICAL BOOKS, THAT'S EXACTLY THE VALUE SERVED BY STUDYING 'OUR CULINARY ROOTS.' THE PROPRIETOR OF THE WINE AND FOOD LIBRARY, IN ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, TRACES HER INTEREST TO HER YEARS AS A GRADUATE STUDENT AT CORNELL. HER HUSBAND, DANIEL LONGONE, WAS WORKING TOWARD HIS PH.D, IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, AND SHE STUDIED CHINESE AND INDIAN HISTORY. THEY DEVELOPED FRIENDSHIPS WITH FOREIGN STUDENTS, AND THEIR CONVERSATIONS TURNED TOWARD DIFFERENT NATIONAL FOODS." THE COUPLE, ACCORDING TO MEADOR, STARTED TO DELVE INTO THESE INTERESTING ETHNIC RECIPES, BUT THEIR INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS WANTED MOST OF ALL, TO HAVE A "TYPICAL AMERICAN MEAL," INSTEAD OF THEIR OWN ETHNIC DISHES.

     THE AUTHOR NOTES THAT, TO FIND OUT, WHAT THE "TYPICAL AMERICAN MEAL," REPRESENTED IN CULINARY TRADITION, "SHE LEARNED NOT ONLY THAT SHE WAS A GIFTED NATURAL COOK, BUT THAT FOOD HISTORY IS A CRITICAL PART OF THE HUMAN PANORAMA - AND THAT THE KITCHEN AND THE BOOKSHELF ARE EMPHATICALLY CONNECTED."

MAKING FOOD A BUSINESS WITHOUT OPENING A RESTAURANT

     In 1973 the Longones, with considerable education in the field, opened the Wine and Food Library, after closely examining "the need for a bookstore specializing in the vast number of books and related materials on food, wine, and the culinary arts." According to the article's author, Jan was the food specialist and Dan was the wine expert. The response to the specialty shop was positive, and it became obvious, soon into the venture, they had made a life-changing move for the better. Roy Meader reported that, "The Longones' start-up inventory included two large purchases of new and out of print cookbooks, from an Ohio store, and a Michigan book dealer. Today (circa 1999) the Wine and Food Library stocks about twenty thousand items - 'spanning the five hundred years of printed history, from the rare and scarce to select recent works of importance,' as noted in their catalogue of cookbooks available.

     The reason I've held onto this magazine, was not only because it was an article that profiled a business I wanted to parallel one day, but because it appealed to me as a book collector at the same time. By time this article appeared on the magazine store shelf, I'd been collecting old books for about fifteen years, selling them for ten of those years. I had apprenticed with a well known Ontario book collector, Dave Brown, of Hamilton, Ontario. In fact, even by this time, I was working on his biography, which included a split study between his career as a leader in provincial outdoor education programming, and his reputation as a huge collector of non-fiction; mostly natural histories, regional Canadiana and Americana. Dave used to lodge with us, when he was coming back from one of his canoe trips, up north, or while on a buying trip, and Suzanne and I got our tutorials on being astute old book buyers and sellers. Even though Dave didn't sell books, (but wasn't adverse to trading), he told us hundreds of stories about rare book shops, and major book sales, he had attended, in Ontario and United States, and where he often found his most valuable treasures (resources).

     Dave kindly offered us some great advice about how to make major purchases, and to buy astutely at auctions. Dave knew every trick in the trade, and he could count many of the most prolific auctioneers, in the Hamilton area, as his friends. At the time of his death, he had close to 100,000 books jammed into in his Hamilton bungalow. Some of his collection was donated to McMaster University. Point is, when he knew we had an interest in old cookbooks, we could expect a box of them, each time he arrived here at Birch Hollow. He would buy a thousand books at one auction, and he would separate any culinary titles and cookery related booklets for us. His rule was simple. He didn't want us using his trade secrets in the business, to intrude upon his activities, and that included when traveling with him on buying junkets here in Muskoka. I played the role of dutiful apprentice, and let him do the talking, when it came to delicate negotiations at estate sales. He would show me where the old cookbooks were situated, and then he would give his opinion on the books' rarity or uniqueness, as far as its historical value. Some regional Canadiana (particularly Quebec and the Maritimes) and Americana, that had small printings, are obviously more collectible and valuable, than those printed for an international market. Or those that had been reprinted numerous times, and really didn't have anything too enticing to offer.

   The good Mr. Brown never set down precise book values, because he didn't wish to corrupt his underling, encouraging reckless quests for the so called holy grail. One day, he took a new book price guide I had just purchased, from a local book shop, closed it, put it under his arm, and tossed it unceremoniously in a closet. His point. Don't hinge book collecting on price guides. Valuations come with experience, and an understanding of the book industry as it has existed and prevailed from the beginning. "You will learn more from those involved in the book enterprise Ted, than you'll ever find in those kind of books." He just taught me to be frugal and demanding in these situations, and not wind-up buying books that were of lesser quality, just because the packaging was elegant. I can't tell you how much his friendly tutorials, over dinner and an evening glass of wine, have helped us become better book buyers, and even in the area of cookbooks. Truthfully, Dave really didn't know much about cookbooks, at all, but he knew an awful lot about rarity, and the significance of having a book, with important information, by an accomplished author, that was in demand by the world…..not just a neighborhood or a few buyers. In his mind, the possessor of critical information, had significant power, and almost immeasurable capability to market it…..based on prevailing demand. Sometimes books and authors fell into disregard, when theories were disproven, and beliefs debunked. He looked at cookbooks as he would regional histories, and natural histories, and he knew the kind of books and publishers, that would have only printed small quantities, thusly increasing their value and desirability, especially if they became source books of research, for other future histories.

   He had a nose for books, and he pushed us to learn more, and never be so cocky, as to feel, dishonestly, that we knew it all. He kept us grounded. Right up to a few days before his death, he was still offering advice on our book acquisitions, and we appreciated every bit of expertise he passed on, over our years of collaboration. His biography? It sold out! He had been a popular Hamilton teacher, well known Ontario outdoor educator, and a very well known book collector. And he was our personal instructor. And when we open our cookery heritage collection, on Canada Day this year, we will name it after Dave Brown, our mentor in old books.

     So over time, we have continued buying and selling books, but admittedly, we have found it necessary to down-size a tad, from the many thousands of texts we had jammed into our small house here in Gravenhurst. What we decided to do, some time ago, was to narrow down our book titles, and specialize in the acquisition and selling of rare and out of print cookbooks, which we have been doing for quite a few years, but not as a specialty. Along with this, as I've mentioned previously, Suzanne and I have been collecting regionally found "handwritten" recipes, which we find amazing and under-recognized works of social / cultural heritage, and will, by this coming summer season, have a catalogue, and potentially a data base, of these individual recipes found in and around Muskoka…..some dating back to homesteads from the 1860's. We are not collecting these handwritten pieces from all over the country, or the world, but rather, for historical relevance, trying to stick to what has been used, in household culinary arts, in this region of the Province of Ontario. We do think there are regional Muskoka differences, especially going back into the pioneering period, which began in the late 1850's. This was a difficult region to settle, and to suggest pioneers had to be hale and hardy to survive, would be a gross understatement. Many settlers didn't survive. Many homesteads failed. Thousands of emigrants arrived here, only to find they did not have the grit and knowledge of farming, it would take to turn pine forests and rock strewn fields into working, arable farmsteads. So the homestead cooks, working on recipes they had brought from overseas, were forced to adapt to what was available in supplies, locally, and what could be grown in a short summer season. Truthfully, they were the real heroes of frontier life…..and we want to recognize their efforts helping to build the foundation of our present towns, and municipalities, by stubborn resistance, and the ability to adapt to unrelenting, harsh realities, in order to feed their families……and survive on their backwoods homesteads.

     As Roy Meader points out, in his article,…. the interest in culinary heritage, is not solely limited to those who actually cook. As so poignantly expressed by well known author, Joseph Conrad, commenting on the purpose of the cookery book,….. it remains, "the only product of the human mind altogether above suspicion." Conrad, according to Meader, wrote, "The purpose of a cookery book is one and unmistakable. Its object can conceivably be no other than to increase the happiness of mankind."

     I will not part with this dog eared copy of Biblio Magazine, and when we finally are able to bring our little cookery heritage section, to fruition, in our present antique shop in Gravenhurst, we will have this fine publication, and insightful article about the Longone family, by Roy Meader, available as a primary resource….free to use by all our cookery lovers, who have come for a little look-see.

     Nice to have you folks here for a visit. It's been a long day for an old writer, as I've been working at this keyboard for the better part of this day. I have become a little tardy with my writing schedule, so I had to catch-up on some articles for regional publications this week, as well as continuing my freelance history, for a local recreational organization. So it was nice to write this comfortable piece for my daily friends. See you again soon.