Over the last decade there has been an intense and widespread interest in the writing and publishing of cookery books; yet there remains surprisingly little contextualized analysis of the recipe as a generic form. This essay collection asserts that the recipe in all its cultural and textual contexts - from the quintessential embodiment of lifestyle choices to the reflection of artistic aspiration - is a complex, distinct and important form of cultural expression. In this volume, contributors address questions raised by the recipe, its context, its cultural moment and mode of expression. Examples are drawn from such diverse areas as: nineteenth and twentieth-century private publications, official government documents, campaigning literature, magazines, and fictions as well as cookery writers themselves, cookbooks and TV cookery. In subjecting the recipe to close critical analysis, The Recipe Reader serves to move the study of this cultural form forward. It will interest scholars of literature, popular culture, social history and women's studies as well as food historians and professional food writers. Written in an accessible style, this collection of essays expands the range of writers under consideration, and brings new perspectives, contexts and arguments into the existing field of debate about cookery writing.

Although the last decade has seen an intense and widespread interest in the writing and publishing of cookery books, surprisingly little contextualized analysis of the recipe as a generic form has appeared. This essay collection asserts that the recipe in all its cultural and textual contexts—from the quintessential embodiment of lifestyle choices to the reflection of artistic aspiration—is a complex, distinct, and important form of cultural expression. Contributors address questions raised by the recipe and its context, cultural moment, and mode of expression. Examples are drawn from such diverse areas as nineteenth- and twentieth-century private publications, official government documents, campaign literature, magazines, and fiction, as well as cookery writers themselves, cookbooks, and TV cookery. The Recipe Reader brings new perspectives, contexts, and arguments into the existing debate about cookery writing and will interest scholars of literature, popular culture, social history, and women’s studies, as well as food historians and professional food writers.

Mines have always been hard and dangerous places. They have also been as dependent upon imaginative writing as upon the extraction of precious materials. This study of a broad range of responses to gold and silver mining in the late nineteenth century sets the literary writings of figures such as Mark Twain, Mary Hallock Foote, Bret Harte, and Jack London within the context of writing and representation produced by people involved in the industry: miners and journalists, as well as writers of folklore and song. Floyd begins by considering some of the grand narratives the industry has generated. She goes on to discuss particular places and the distinctive work they generated--the short fictions of the California Gold Rush, the Sagebrush journalism of Nevada's Comstock Lode, Leadville romance, and the popular culture of the Klondike. With excursions to Canada, South Africa, and Australia, Floyd looks at how the experience of a destructive and chaotic industry produced a global literature.