The Life of William Grimes offers an eye-opening account of a life during and after slavery, written by a man who experienced and witnessed the worst. Unlike other slave memoirs, The Life of William Grimes has not been sanitized or otherwise edited for the benefit of what, at the time, was a mostly white readership. The tone set by Grimes in his recollections is one of bitter resentment and indignation at an experience which was demeaning, physically and mentally torturing, and an insult to his very humanity. Intelligent and perceptive, it was only through luck and trusting his own wits that William was able to escape his enslavement. The son of a white plantation owner and a black mother who worked as his father's slave, Grimes variously worked around the plantation grounds as a coach driver, stable boy, and in the fields.

Here is a feast of words that will whet the appetite of food and word lovers everywhere. William Grimes, former restaurant critic for The New York Times, covers everything from bird's nest soup to Trockenbeerenauslese in this wonderfully informative food lexicon.
Eating Your Words is a veritable cornucopia--a thousand-and-one entries on candies and desserts, fruits and vegetables, meats, seafood, spices, herbs, wines, cheeses, liqueurs, cocktails, sauces, dressings, and pastas. The book includes terms from around the world (basmati, kimchi, haggis, callaloo) and from around the block (meatloaf, slim jims, Philly cheesesteak). Grimes describes utensils (from tandoor and wok to slotted spoon and zester), cooking styles (a bonne femme, over easy), cuts of meat (crown roast, prime rib), and much more. Each definition includes a pronunciation guide and many entries indicate the origin of the word. Thus we learn that olla podrida is Spanish for 'rotten pot' and mulligatawny comes from the Tamil words milaku-tanni, meaning 'pepper water.' Grimes includes helpful tips on usage, such as when to write whiskey and when to write whisky. In addition, there are more than a dozen special sidebars on food and food word topics--everything from diner slang to bad fad diets--plus a time line of food trends by decade and a list of the best regional snack foods.
Even if you don't know a summer sausage from a spring chicken, you will find Eating Your Words a delectable treat. And for everyone who loves to cook, this superb volume is an essential resource--and the perfect gift.

The Life of William Grimes offers an eye-opening account of a life during and after slavery, written by a man who experienced and witnessed the worst. Unlike other slave memoirs, The Life of William Grimes has not been sanitized or otherwise edited for the benefit of what, at the time, was a mostly white readership. The tone set by Grimes in his recollections is one of bitter resentment and indignation at an experience which was demeaning, physically and mentally torturing, and an insult to his very humanity. Intelligent and perceptive, it was only through luck and trusting his own wits that William was able to escape his enslavement. The son of a white plantation owner and a black mother who worked as his father's slave, Grimes variously worked around the plantation grounds as a coach driver, stable boy, and in the fields.

William Grimes (1784-1865) was the son of Benjamin Grymes, the rich owner of a plantation in King James County, Virginia, and an enslaved servant of Grymes's neighbor, a Dr. Steward. William Grimes served at least ten different masters in Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia, working in such varied positions as house servant, valet, field worker, stable boy, and coachman. He was a light-skinned slave, a fact that enabled him to pass as white on various occasions. Oftentimes he was severely mistreated by both his masters and his fellow slaves, and Grimes also endured physical abuse in the house and in the field, and at times became combative or despondent. He escaped slavery in 1814 by stowing away on a ship bound for New York and became an entrepreneur in New England. He eventually settled in New Haven, Connecticut, and married Clarissa Caesar in 1817. They had eighteen children together, twelve of whom survived. After eventually finding a small measure of success, Grimes lost all of his property when his master discovered his location and forced him to buy his freedom or risk being returned to slavery. Grimes wrote the Life of William Grimes and published it in 1825, hoping to regain some of his lost funds. He published a second edition of his autobiography in 1855, updating it with humorous anecdotes and tempering some of his earlier bitterness. Grimes died in August 1865. The Life of William Grimes was the first book-length autobiography written by a fugitive American slave, and its publication. Furthermore, The Life of William Grimes is an important early text in the slave narrative genre, and it provides a raw and engaging first-hand account of the institution of slavery, unmediated by Abolitionist political aims.

New York is the greatest restaurant city the world has ever seen.

In "Appetite"" City," the former "New York Times "restaurant critic William Grimes leads us on a grand historical tour of New York's dining culture. Beginning with the era when simple chophouses and oyster bars dominated the culinary scene, he charts the city's transformation into the world restaurant capital it is today. "Appetite City "takes us on a unique and delectable journey, from the days when oysters and turtle were the most popular ingredients in New York cuisine, through the era of the fifty-cent French and Italian table d'hotes beloved of American "Bohemians," to the birth of Times Square--where food and entertainment formed a partnership that has survived to this day.

Enhancing his tale with more than one hundred photographs, rare menus, menu cards, and other curios and illustrations (many never before seen), Grimes vividly describes the dining styles, dishes, and restaurants succeeding one another in an unfolding historical panorama: the deluxe ice cream parlors of the 1850s, the boisterous beef-and-beans joints along Newspaper Row in the 1890s, the assembly-line experiment of the Automat, the daring international restaurants of the 1939 World's Fair, and the surging multicultural city of today. By encompassing renowned establishments such as Delmonico's and Le Pavillon as well as the Bowery restaurants where a meal cost a penny, he reveals the ways in which the restaurant scene mirrored the larger forces shaping New York, giving us a deliciously original account of the history of America's greatest city.

Rich with incident, anecdote, and unforgettable personalities, "Appetite City "offers the dedicated food lover or the casual diner an irresistible menu of the city's most savory moments.

"A short, engrossing history of the concoction in all its variety."
--Katherine Powers, The Boston Sunday Globe

The cocktail is as old as the nation that invented it, yet until this entertaining and authoritative account, its story had never been fully told. William Grimes traces the evolution of American drink from the anything-goes concoctions of the Colonial era to the frozen margarita, spiking his meticulously researched narrative with arresting details, odd facts, and colorful figures.

The book includes about one hundred recipes--half of them new for this edition--for both classics and innovations.