M F K

This collection of interviews captures the conversations of a writer about whom the Chicago Sun-Times says, "She is to literary prose what Sir Laurence Olivier is to acting or Willie Mays is to baseball." These interviews reveal M.F.K. Fisher's fierce wit and her uncompromising and frequently contradictory attitudes toward the luxuries and necessities of gastronomy - the idea that sensual appreciation, in all aspects of life, is or should be necessary.

This anthology draws together the renowned food writer’s reflections, insights, and personal journeys through the world of wine and spirits. For MFK Fisher, one of Americas most-read and best-loved food writers, wine was a passion nurtured during her time in France and, later, California. This anthology, edited by acclaimed biographer Anne Zimmerman (An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M.F.K. Fisher), is the first ever to gather Fishers finest writings on wine. In sparkling prose, Fisher reminisces about marvelous meals enjoyed and drinks savored; describes the many memorable restaurants that welcomed and even educated her; discuses rosés, sherry, chilled whites, and cocktails; and escorts readers from Dijon to Sonoma. Open a bottle, open the book, and linger over some of the best wine writing ever done.

Whether the subject of her fancy is the lowly, unassuming potato or the love life of that aphrodisiac mollusk the oyster, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher writes with a simplicity that belies the complexities of the life she often muses on. She is hailed as one of America's preeminent writers about gastronomy. But to limit her to that genre would be a disservice. She was passionate and well–traveled, and her narratives fill over two dozen highly acclaimed books. In this collection of some of her finest works, we learn that Fisher's palette was not only well trained in gastronomical masterpieces, but in life's best pleasures as well. Love in a Dish . . . and Other Culinary Delights by M.F.K. Fisher is an instructional manual on how to live, eat, and love brought together by prolific researcher and culinary enthusiast Anne Zimmerman. With great care she has selected essays that sometimes forgive our lustful appetites, yet simultaneously celebrate them, as in "Once a Tramp, Always . . . " and "Love in a Dish," which guides us down the path to marital bliss via the family dining table. It is through this carefully chosen selection, which includes two essays never before collected in book form, that we encounter Fisher's bold passion for cuisine and an introduction to her idea of what constitutes the delicious life.

A portrait of the life and career of noted culinary writer M. F. K. Fisher is set against the background of the many kitchens that she had known, the foods she had consumed in each of them, and their influence on her ideas about the art of eating, in an evocative retrospective complemented by original watercolors and personal recipes.

Enjoy M.F.K. Fisher's strong sense of place and deep love of Provence with this collection of rich, gorgeous photographs paired with some of Fisher's best-known essays. M.F.K. Fisher’s Provence highlights Fisher’s Celtic eye for detail with a comparison of Aix-en-Provence, a university town, the site of an international music festival and the former capital of Provence, and Marseille, the port town. Fisher’s description of the sights and smells belonging to an Aix bakery shop window is her Platonic ideal of a bakery shop to be found anywhere in France, for example, with its “delicately layered” scents of “fresh eggs, fresh sweet butter, grated nutmeg, vanilla beans, old kirsch and newly ground almonds.” Then, there is her portrayal of the sounds of Aix’s fountains mixed with the music of Mozart during the town’s festival, leaving her bedazzled. She would return again and again to stroll the narrow streets of Aix with two young daughters who “seemed to grow like water-flowers under the greening buds of the plane trees.” It is the quality of Fisher’s writing that inspired photographer Aileen Ah-Tye to look for her Provence. In a letter to Fisher, Aileen would report back from Marseille: “The eels and the prickly rascasse were exotique to my San Francisco eyes, the smells as pungent as you can get, and . . . miracle of all miracles . . . the men and women on the docks were exactly as you described them.” Thus began a collaboration that illustrates Fisher’s passion for life and all its sensual pleasures that nourish the soul. “It’s difficult to pick out just one favorite travel book. But if I had to pick just one favorite, it wouldn’t exactly be a travel book, but rather a ‘being there’ book – and that is Two Towns in Provence by M.F.K. Fisher . . . [Reading it] was one of the turning moments in my life. She was writing about a café I’ve subsequently come to know very well in Aix-en-Provence called the Deux Garçons. I could smell it, and I could taste the little things she and her children were having at the time. And I thought, That’s where I want to be.” —Peter Mayle

The fantastic adventure of a reclusive deaf girl with a mysterious power, who is traveling across a vast desert to scatter her mother’s ashes. In a world of sleeping gods, a broken government, and a fragile peace held in the hands of the corrupt, one youth must find the strength to stand up against evil and save humanity. This story is not about that youth. It’s about Abbie, who just wants to get to the mountain range called the Potter’s Spine, scatter her mother’s ashes, and then live out her life in sweet, blissful solitude. Unfortunately, everyone she meets wants to whine at her about their woes, tag along on her quest, arrest her for no reason, or blow her to bits. Journeys are hard on the social recluses of the world. Praise for M.F.K. “Manga elements . . . a vividly evoked setting, and intriguing worldbuilding make this a fine choice for fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender and other adventures where culture, history, and magic intertwine with larger-than-life action.” —Publishers Weekly “A lush fantasy adventure full of heart . . . . It’s great to see Insight Comics take notice of Magruder’s work and bring it to the printed page with such strong production values.” —A.V. Club

"M. F. K. Fisher, Julia Child, and Alice Waters celebrates the accomplishments and friendships of three women who changed the way Americans think about food and cooking, dining and pleasure." "In a series of three overlapping biographical portraits, Reardon reveals the private lives behind their public personas. Tracing major developments in their careers and quoting extensively from letters they exchanged, she recounts the times and places at which their lives intersected and shares testimonies of the friendship and respect that grew among them."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Six decades of correspondence sketch the story of a young adult who shouldered enormous domestic responsibilities as daughter, mother, and wife - a sensuous woman who managed to find success as a writer despite a paucity of money, time, and occasionally, spirit. These letters give voice to the self-doubt that lingered behind her strong public persona and tell of her long struggle to find a place in the world - not only as a writer but as a person.