In offering my recipes to the public I give unreservedly my highest and best knowledge of the art... Betty Lyles Wilson

{HISTORY}

Most famous for her White House bound Presedential Fruit Cake, Betty Lyles Wilson (1859-1924) was a highly regarded figure of Southern cooking during the World War I years. A native of Nashville, Tennesse Betty, rose to fame for her presentations of cakes and sandwiches. After first developing an interest in baking as a young wife, her fascination with the art of confectionaries led her to  eventually perfect it well enough for others to take notice. In several cities throughout the South, Betty opened one week cooking  schools in collaboration with local newspapers where she taught homecooks the skills she had practiced to perfection.

Humbly referring to herself as a homemaker and a housekeeper, women across the Southern US appreciated Betty's self-taught candor and her desire for incorporating a sense of enthusiasm and pleasure  into household responsibilities like cooking and cleaning. Not believing that these tasks should be full of drudgery and discontentment,  Betty invited and encouraged beauty when it came to the food making process and embraced innovation when it came to homekeeping. She published her first cookbook, Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book in 1914, and then this revised edition Mrs. Wilson's New Cook Book in 1920. 

Now a very rare, hard to find cookbook, Mrs. Wilson's New Cook Book is a marvel in and of itself. Not only is it a fascinating look into domestic life in the early 1900's, as well as was what Americans were eating and drinking during those years, but it also speaks of women's desires to move beyond the science and nutrition of cooking, and into the act and art of pleasurable eating. Throughout the book,  she includes recipes for all meals of the day - ones  that are most captivating to eaters and most visually interesting for cooks to prepare, so that everyone in the household can be seduced by the power of food. 

Also, this book features some printed typos (upside down print blocks) which are interesting flaws of the time period as well as black and white photography of some of the recipe's techniques or final presentation. 

There are so many interesting and unique recipes in this cookbook. Examples include:  Vanderbilt -Sewannee Salad (named after Vanderbilt University!), Chrysanthemum Salad for Fall, Very Delicate Waffles, Hickorynut Bread, Chestnut Balls Nice to Serve With Roast Turkey, Daisy Eggs, Hotch Potch Pickle, U No. All Mints, Pretty Candy Bowls to Serve Homemade Candy In , We Three Sherbet, Southern Blackberry Pudding, Seafoam Icing, and Presidents Fruit Cake

{SPECIAL FEATURES}

- Published by Foster & Parkers, 1920, Fourth Printing

- Very rare, hard to find cookbook

- 161 pages 

- Illustrated with black and white photographs

- Printing typos

{CONDITION}

In lovely antique condition. Some rub marks on the front cover, spine and back cover. Foxing and light water stains on the back endpapers. Spine is tight. All pages are intact and are clean and bright with the exception of a couple of errant cooking stains on a couple of pages. A few pages have a slight wrinkle to them. The inside front cover is beginning to pull away from the cloth binding . (Please see detailed photos).

{SIZE}

Measures 6" inches (width) x 9.25" inches (length) x .75" inches (thickness) and weighs 1.3lbs