Jump to content

Examine individual changes

This page allows you to examine the variables generated by the Edit Filter for an individual change.

Variables generated for this change

VariableValue
Edit count of the user (user_editcount)
null
Name of the user account (user_name)
'117.221.233.80'
Age of the user account (user_age)
0
Groups (including implicit) the user is in (user_groups)
[ 0 => '*' ]
Whether or not a user is editing through the mobile interface (user_mobile)
false
Page ID (page_id)
990226
Page namespace (page_namespace)
0
Page title without namespace (page_title)
'M. F. K. Fisher'
Full page title (page_prefixedtitle)
'M. F. K. Fisher'
Last ten users to contribute to the page (page_recent_contributors)
[ 0 => '99.32.84.118', 1 => 'Bgwhite', 2 => '188.23.92.190', 3 => '173.225.254.46', 4 => 'P64', 5 => '67.183.140.74', 6 => 'LilHelpa', 7 => 'Justicediva', 8 => 'Jkugelmass', 9 => 'Gpmicel' ]
Action (action)
'edit'
Edit summary/reason (summary)
'/* California: 1932 - 1938 */ '
Whether or not the edit is marked as minor (no longer in use) (minor_edit)
false
Old page wikitext, before the edit (old_wikitext)
'{{infobox writer |name=M F K Fisher |image = |caption = |birth_name = Mary Frances Kennedy |pseudonym = Victoria Berne (shared) |birth_date = {{birth date|1908|07|03}} |birth_place= [[Albion, Michigan]], USA |death_date = {{death date and age|1992|06|22|1908|07|03}} |death_place= [[Glen Ellen, California]] |occupation = Writer |nationality= American |genre = Novel (as Berne) |subject = Food, travel, memoir |spouse = Alfred Young Fisher <br>[[Dillwyn Parrish]] <br>Donald Friede |children = Anna, Mary }} '''Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher''' (July 3, 1908 – June 22, 1992) was a preeminent American food writer. She was also a founder of the Napa Valley Wine Library. She wrote some 27 books, including a translation of ''The Physiology of Taste'' by [[Brillat-Savarin]]. Two volumes of her journals and correspondence came out shortly before her death in 1992. Her first book, ''Serve it Forth'', was published in 1937. Her books are an amalgam of food literature, travel and memoir. Fisher believed that eating well was just one of the "arts of life" and explored this in her writing. [[W. H. Auden]] once remarked: "I do not know of anyone in the United States who writes better prose."<ref>Lazar, David ''Conversations with M. F. K. Fisher' at 22 (University of Mississippi Press 1992) ISBN 0-87805-596-7</ref> ==Early life== Fisher was born Mary Frances Kennedy on July 3, 1908 at 202 Irwin Avenue, [[Albion, Michigan]]. She told Albion City Historian, Frank Passic:{{quote|"I&nbsp;... was delivered at home by "Doc" George Hafford, a man my parents Rex and Edith Kennedy were devoted to. Rex was then one of the volunteer firemen, and since I was born in a heatwave, he persuaded his pals to come several times and spray the walls of the house. My father Rex was sure I would be born on July 4, and he wanted to name me Independencia. My mother Edith was firmly against this completely un-Irish notion, and induced Doc Hafford to hurry things up a bit, in common pity."<ref>Passic, Frank ''Famous Food Writer M F K Fisher Was Born In Albion'' Albion Recorder at 4 (July 2, 1998)</ref>}}Rex was a co-owner (with his brother Walter) and editor of the Albion Evening Recorder newspaper.<ref>Reardon, Joan, ''Poet of the Appetites'' (hereafter ''Poet'') at 5 (North Point Press 2004).</ref> In 1911, Rex sold his interest in the paper to his brother, and moved the family to the West Coast, where he hoped to buy a fruit or citrus orchard.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 5.</ref> The family spent some time in Washington with relatives, and then traveled down the coast to Ventura, California, where Rex nearly purchased an orange grove, but backed out after discovering soil problems.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 5-8.</ref> He next purchased and briefly owned the ''Oxnard Courier'' in Oxnard, California.<ref name=poet8>''Poet, supra'' at 8.</ref> From there he traveled to San Diego, California, and worked for a local newspaper.<ref name=poet8/> In 1912 he purchased a controlling interest in the ''Whittier News'' and moved the family to Whittier, California.<ref name=poet8/> Rex initially purchased a house at 115 Painter Avenue.<ref name=poet15>''Poet, supra at, 15.</ref> In 1919, he purchased a large white house outside the city limits on South Painter Avenue.<ref name=poet20>''Poet, supra'' at 20.</ref> The house sat on thirteen acres, with an orange grove; it was referred to by the family as "The Ranch."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 20. The home has since been torn down and a municipal park named "Kennedy Park" now occupies the site.</ref> Although Whittier was primarily a [[Quaker]] community at that time, Mary Frances was brought up within the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]]. Mary received a formal education; however, she was an indifferent student who often skipped classes throughout her academic career.<ref>Zimmerman, Anne, ''An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M. F. K. Fisher'' (hereafter ''Passionate Years'') at 31-42 (Counterpoint 2011).</ref> At the age of sixteen, her parents enrolled her in a private school: The Bishop's School located in La Jolla, California.<ref name="Passionate Years, supra at 32">''Passionate Years, supra'' at 32.</ref> After one year there, she transferred to Harker's School For Girls in Palo Alto, California, adjacent to Stanford University; she graduated from Harker's in 1927.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 35.</ref> Upon graduation, she attended [[Illinois College]], but left after only one semester,<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 36-39.</ref> In 1928, she enrolled in summer school at [[UCLA]] in order to obtain enough credits to transfer to [[Occidental College]].<ref name="Passionate Years, supra at 39">''Passionate Years, supra'' at 39.</ref> While there, she met and fell in love with her future first husband: Alfred Fisher ("Al").<ref name="Passionate Years, supra at 39"/> She attended Occidental College for one year; however, she married Al on September 5, 1929, and moved with him to Dijon, France.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 41-42.</ref> Mary's informal education undoubtedly had a far greater impact on her writing career than her formal education. She loved reading as a child, and began writing poetry at the age of five.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 30.</ref> The Kennedys had a vast home library,<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 16.</ref> and her mother provided her access to many other books.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 31.</ref> Later, her father used her as stringer on his paper, and she would draft as many as fifteen stories a day.<ref name="Passionate Years, supra at 32"/> Food became an early passion in her life. Her earliest memory of taste was "the grayish-pink fuzz my grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 9.</ref> Her maternal grandmother Holbrook lived with them until her death in 1920. During that period, Holbrook was a source of tension in the household. She was a stern, rather joyless person, and a [[Campbellite]] who firmly believed in overcooked, bland food.<ref name=poet15/> She was also a follower of Dr. [[Will Keith Kellogg]]'s dietary strictions at the [[Battle Creek Sanitarium]].<ref name=poet15/> Fisher would later write that during her grandmother's absences at religious conventions: {{quote|[W]e indulged in a voluptuous riot of things like marshmallows in hot chocolate, thin pastry under the Tuesday hash, rare roast beef on Sunday instead of boiled hen. Mother ate all she wanted of cream of fresh mushroom soup; Father served a local wine, red-ink he called it, with the steak; we ate grilled sweetbreads and skewered kidneys with a daring dash of sherry on them.<ref>Fisher, M F K, ''To Begin Again'' (hereafter ''Begin Again'') at 50-51 (Pantheon Books 1992).</ref>}} An early food influence was "Aunt" Gwen. Aunt Gwen was not family, but the daughter of friends - the Nettleship family - "a strange family of English medical missionaries who preferred tents to houses."<ref name=begin24>''Begin Again, supra'' at 24.</ref> The Nettleships had an encampment on [[Laguna Beach]] and Mary would camp out there with Gwen.<ref name=begin24/> Rex would later buy the campsite and a cabin that had been built on it.<ref>''Begin Again, supra'' at 25.</ref> Mary recalled cooking outdoors with Gwen: steaming mussels on fresh seaweed over hot coals; catching and frying rock bass; skinning and cooking eel; and, making fried egg sandwiches to carry on hikes.<ref>''Begin Again, supra'' at 26-29.</ref> Mary wrote of her meals with Gwen and Gwen's brothers: "I decided at the age of nine that one of the best ways to grow up is to eat and talk quietly with good people."<ref>Reardon, Joan ''M. F. K. Fisher among the Pots and Pans'' (hereafter ''Pots and Pans'') at 15 (University of California Press 2008) ISBN 978-0-520-26168-6.</ref> Mary liked to cook meals in the kitchen at home, and "easily fell into the role of the cook's helper."<ref>''Begin Again, supra'' at 29.</ref> ==Dijon: 1928 - 1932== In September 1929, newlyweds Mary and Al sailed on the [[RMS Berengaria|RMS ''Berengaria'']] to Cherbourg (now [[Cherbourg-Octeville]]), France.<ref>''Passion, supra'' at 1.</ref> They traveled to Paris for a brief stay, before continuing south to [[Dijon]].<ref>Dijon is a well-known culinary center and would greatly expand Mary's food world. Her three years in Dijon are recounted in her 1991 book ''Long Ago in France.''</ref> They initially found a rental at 14 Rue de Petit-Potet in a home owned by the Ollangnier family.<ref>''Extravagant Hunger, supra'' at 54.</ref> The lodgings consisted of two rooms, with no kitchen, and no separate bathroom.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 54.</ref> Al attended the Faculte des Lettres at the [[University of Burgundy]] where he was working on his doctorate; when not in class, he worked on what he believed to be his epic poem; ''The Ghosts in the Underblows.''<ref>Fisher, M F K, ''Long Ago In France: The Years in Dijon'' (hereafter ''Long Ago'') at (Prentiss Hall 1991).</ref> The poem was based on the Bible and was analogous to [[James Joyce]]'s ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]''.<ref>Starr, Kevin ''Material Dreams'' (hereafter ''Material Dreams'') at 376 (Oxford University Press 1990) ISBN 0-19-504487-8.</ref> By 1931, Fisher would have finished the first twelve books of the poem, which he ultimately expected to contain sixty books.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' at 376. A long fragment of the poem was finally published in 1940. Despite some critical accolades, however, the book was a failure. Ironically the book's innovative graphics by Lustig are still widely admired and the book is a collector's item for that reason. ''Id.'' at 379.</ref> Mary attended night classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where she would spend three years studying painting and sculpture.<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 65.</ref> The Ollangniers served good food at home, although Madame Ollangnier was "extremely penurious and stingy."<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 12.</ref> Mary remembered big salads made at the table, deep-fried Jerusalem artichokes, and "reject cheese" that was always good.<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 14.</ref> To celebrate their three-month anniversary, Al and Mary went to the Aux Trois Faisans restaurant - their first of many visits.<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 29-30.</ref> There, Mary received her education in fine wine from a sommelier named Charles.<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 33.</ref> The Fishers visited all the restaurants in town, where in Mary's words:{{quote|We ate terrines of pate ten years old under their tight crusts of mildewed fat. We tied napkins under our chins and splashed in great odorous bowls of ecrevisses a la nuage. We addled our palates with snipes hung so long they fell from their hooks, to be roasted then on cushions of toast softened with the paste of their rotted innards and fine brandy.<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 37.</ref>}} In 1930, [[Lawrence Clark Powell]] came to Dijon to obtain his doctorate at the University of Burgundy.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' at 377.</ref> He came at Mary's suggestion. Powell had become acquainted with Mary when Mary's sister was attending Occidental College, and roomed with Powell's girlfriend. Powell moved into the attic above the Fishers and became lifelong friends with Mary. He described the food at the Fishers' pensione: {{quote|Oh my god, how was the food? Jim it was heavenly! Madame Rigoulet [Ollangnier's successor] ... was a great cook, and her husband was a great cook of omelets so he always did the omelet. And the food just floated through the air. You reached up in the air and drew it down - marvelous food.<ref>Powell, Lawrence ''Looking Back at Sixty oral history transcript - recollections of Lawrence Clark Powell, librarian, teacher and writer'' (hereafter ''Looking Back'') at 107 (University of California Library 1973)</ref>}} In {{When|date=October 2011}} Mary and Al moved to their own apartment, above a pastry shop at 26 Rue Monge.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' at 378.</ref> It was Mary's first kitchen. It was only five feet by three feet and contained a two-burner hotplate.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 46.</ref> Despite the kitchen's limitations, Mary began developing her own personal cuisine, with the goal of: "cooking meals that would 'shake [her guests] from their routines, not only of meat-potatoes-gravy, but of thought, of behavior.'"<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 47-49.</ref> In ''The Gastronomical Me'' she describes one such meal:{{quote|There in Dijon, the cauliflowers were very small and succulent, grown in that ancient soil. I separated the flowerlets and dropped them in boiling water for just a few minutes. Then I drained them and put them in a wide shallow casserole, and covered them with heavy cream, and a thick sprinkling of freshly grated Gruyere, the nice rubbery kind that didn't come from Switzerland at all, but from the Jura. It was called râpé in the market, and was grated while you watched, in a soft cloudy pile, onto your piece of paper.<ref>''Fisher, M F K ''The Art of Eating'' (hereafter ''Art of Eating'') at 44 (Hungry Minds Inc. 1990).</ref>}} After Al was awarded his doctorate, they moved briefly to [[Strasbourg]], France, where Al continued to study and write.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 64.</ref> Mary became depressed from loneliness and being cooped up in a cold, sordid apartment.<ref name="Poet, supra at 66">''Poet, supra'' at 66.</ref> Unable to afford better accommodations, the Fishers next moved to a tiny French fishing village: Cros-des-Cagnes.<ref name="Poet, supra at 66"/> Powell briefly visited with them there for six weeks. He observed that Al was growing more introspective. He had stopped work on his poem, and was trying to write novels. Al did not want to return to the States where he knew job prospects were poor. He could not, however, see a way to stay in France.<ref>''Looking Back, supra'' at 112.</ref> After running out of funds, the Fishers returned to California, sailing on the Feltre out of [[Marseilles]].<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 68.</ref> ==California: 1932 - 1938== Back in California, Al and Mary initially moved in with Mary's family at "The Ranch."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 71.</ref> They later moved into the Laguna cabin. This was during the [[Great Depression]] and work was hard to find. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College.<ref>Fisher, M F K ''Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me'' (hereafter ''Stay Me'') at ix (Pantheon 1993).</ref> Mary began writing and she published her first piece - ''Pacific Village'' - in the February 1935 issue of ''[[Westways]] magazine'' (previously known as ''Touring Topics''). The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' 380</ref> In 1934, Lawrence Powell moved to Laguna with his wife Fay.<ref>''Stay Me, supra'' at ix.</ref> In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife [[Gigi Parrish]] moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 116; and ''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 52.</ref> When Al began teaching at Occidental, the Fishers initially moved to [[Eagle Rock, Los Angeles|Eagle Rock]] where the Parrishes helped them paint and fix up an older house they had rented.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 52.</ref> Unfortunately the home was sold shortly thereafter, and the Fishers had to move to another rented house in [[Highland Park, Los Angeles, California|Highland Park]].<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 82-83.</ref> Mary worked part-time in a card shop and researched old cookery books at the Los Angeles Public Library. She began writing short pieces on gastronomy. Parrish's sister Anne showed them to her publisher at Harpers who expressed an interest in them.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 53.</ref> The pieces were later to become her first book: ''Serve It Forth.'' Mary next began work on a novel she never finished; it was based on the founding of Whittier.<ref name="Poet, supra at 86">''Poet, supra'' at 86.</ref> During this period, Mary's marriage with Al was beginning to fail. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary found herself falling in love with him. In Mary's words, she one day sat next to Parrish at the piano and told him she loved him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84.</ref> Mary's biographer Joan Reardon, however, interviewed Gigi who told a different story. She stated that Parrish told her that one night after he had dined alone with Mary, she later let herself into his house and slipped into bed with him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84 and 84 n.39.</ref> In 1935, with Al's permission, Mary traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380">''Material Dreams, supra'' at 380.</ref> The Parrishes had money and they sailed on the luxury liner Hansa.<ref name="Poet, supra at 86"/> While in Europe,they spent four days in Paris, and traveled through Provence, Languedoc, and the French Riviera.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 87-89.</ref> Mary also revisited Dijon and ate with Parrish at Aux Trois Faisans where she was recognized and served by her old friend, the waiter Charles.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54">''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 54.</ref> She later wrote a piece on their visit - ''The Standing and the Waiting'' - which was to become the centerpiece of ''Serve It Forth.''<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54"/> Upon her return from Europe, Mary informed Al of her developing relationship with Parrish.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380"/> In 1936, Dillwyn invited the Fishers to join him in creating an artists' colony at Le Paquis - a two-story stone house that Parrish had bought with his sister north of [[Vevey]], Switzerland.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 55.</ref> Notwithstanding the clear threat to his marriage, Al agreed. ==Vevey: 1936 - 1939== [[File:SBB RBDe 560 Train des Vignes.jpg|thumb|View from Chexbres toward Vevey]]The Fishers sailed to Holland on a small Dutch passenger freighter, and from there took a train to Vevey.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 96-97.</ref> "Le Paquis" means the grazing ground. The house sat on a sloping meadow on the north shore of Lake Geneva, looking across to the snowcapped alps. They had a large garden in which:{{quote|We grew beautiful salads, a dozen different kinds, and several herbs. There were shallots and onion and garlic, and I braided them into long silky ropes and hung them over rafters in the attic.<ref>''Art of Eating, supra'' at 486-87.</ref>}} In mid-1937 Al and Mary separated. He traveled to Austria and then returned to the States where he began a distinguished career as a teacher and poet at [[Smith College]].<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 103 and 108.</ref> In a February 2, 1937 letter to Powell, Mary explained her side of the marital breakup. She stated that Al was afraid of physical love; he was sexually impotent in their marriage. Moreover he was an intellectual loner who was emotionally estranged from Mary. Mary stated that contrary to Al's belief, she had not left him for another man; she had left him because he could not satisfy her emotional and physical needs.<ref>Fisher, M F K ''A Life in Letters'' at 40-43 (Counterpoint 1997).</ref> In 1938, Mary returned home briefly to inform her parents in person of her separation and pending divorce from Al.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 109-10.</ref> Meanwhile, her first book ''Serve It Forth'' had opened to largely glowing reviews, including reviews in [[Harper's Monthly]], the [[New York Times]] and the [[Chicago Tribune]]. Mary, however, was disappointed in the book's meager sales because she needed the money.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 103-04.</ref> During this same period, Mary and Parrish also co-wrote (alternating chapters) a light romance entitled ''Touch and Go'' under the pseudonym Victoria Berne. The book was published by Harper and Brothers in 1939.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 112-13.</ref><ref name=LCC8>[http://lccn.loc.gov/39013756 "Touch and go"]. Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 2013-10-17.</ref> In September 1938, Mary and Parrish could no longer afford to live at Les Paquis and they moved to Bern.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 115.</ref> After only two days in Bern, however, Parrish suffered severe cramping in his left leg. Hospitalized, he underwent two surgeries to remove clots. Gangrene then set in and his left leg had to be amputated. Parrish was in considerable pain and could not get a good diagnosis from his doctors. With the onset of WWII, and Parrish' need for medical care, Mary and Parrish returned to the States, where he saw a number of doctors. He ultimately was diagnosed as having Buerger's disease ([[Thromboangiitis obliterans]]) - a circulatory system malady that causes extreme thrombosis of the arteries and veins, causing severe pain, and often necessitating multiple amputations. The disease is progressive and there is no known treatment. They returned briefly to Switzerland to close out their apartment and returned to California. They also needed to accumulate a stock of the painkiller Analgeticum. It was the only painkiller that Parrish found efficacious; however, it was unavailable in the States. ==California and Provence: 1939 - 1955== Once in California, Mary searched for a warm dry climate that would be beneficial for Parrish' health. She found a small cabin on ninety acres of land south of Hemet, California. They bought the property and named it "Bareacres" after the character Lord Bareacres in ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)]]'' by [[Thackeray]]. Lord Bareacres was land-poor; his only asset was his estate. Mary wrote Powell: "God help us&nbsp;... We've put our last penny into 90 acres of rocks and rattlesnakes."<ref>''Life in Letters, supra'' at 46-47.</ref> Although Parrish' life at Bareacres had its ups and downs, its course was a downward spiral. He continued to paint, and Powell staged an exposition of his works. Mary was always trying to find ways to obtain Analgeticum; she even wrote President Roosevelt at one point to urge him to lift the import restriction on the drug.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 194.</ref> Ultimately, Parrish could no longer tolerate the pain and the probable need for additional amputations. On the morning of August 6, 1941, Mary was awakened by a gunshot. Venturing outside, she discovered that Parrish had committed suicide.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 196.</ref> Mary later would write: "I have never understood some (a lot of) taboos and it seems silly to me to make suicide one of them in our social life."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 121.</ref> During the period leading up to Tim's death (Parrish was often called "Tim" by family and friends, but referred to as "Chexbres" in Fisher's autobiographical books), Mary completed three books. The first was a novel entitled: ''The Theoretical Foot.'' The novel was a fictional account of expatriates enjoying a summer romp when the protagonist, suffering great pain, ends up losing a leg.<ref>Passionate Years, supra'' at 185.</ref> Transparently based on Tim, the novel was rejected by publishers. The second book was an unsuccessful attempt by her to revise a novel written by Tim: ''Daniel Among The Women.''<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 128.</ref> Third, she completed and published: ''Consider the Oyster,'' which she dedicated to Tim. The book was humorous and informative. It contained numerous recipes incorporating oysters, mixed with musings on: the history of the oyster, oyster cuisine, and the love life of the oyster,<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at .</ref> In 1942, Mary published: ''How to Cook a Wolf.'' The book was published at the height of WWII food shortages. "Pages offered housewives advice on how to achieve a balanced diet, stretch ingredients, eat during blackouts, deal with sleeplessness and sorrow, and care for pets during wartime.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 212.</ref> The book received good reviews and attained literary success, leading to a feature article on Mary in [[Look (American magazine)|''Look'' magazine]] in July 1942.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 214.</ref> In May 1942 Mary began working in Hollywood for [[Paramount Studios]]. While there she wrote gags for [[Bob Hope]], [[Bing Crosby]], and [[Dorothy Lamour]].<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 216.</ref> Mary became pregnant in 1943, and secluded herself in a boarding house in [[Altadena]]. While there she worked on the book that would become: ''The Gastronomical Me.''<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 219.</ref> On August 15, 1943, she gave birth to Anne Kennedy Parrish (later known as Anna).<ref name="ReferenceA">''Passionate Years, supra'' at 220.</ref> Mary listed a fictional father on the birth certificate - Michael Parrish.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Mary initially claimed she had adopted the baby; she never would reveal the father's identity. In 1944, Mary broke her contract with Paramount. On a trip to New York, she met and fell in love with publisher Donald Friede. In a letter to Powell she wrote: "I accidentally got married to Donald Friede." She spent the summer in Greenwich Village with Friede, working on the book that would become ''Let Us Feast.''<ref>Pots and Pans, supra'' at 88.</ref> Her relationship with Friede gave her entree to additional publishing markets, and she wrote articles for ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]'', ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'', ''[[Town & Country (magazine)|Town and Country]]'', ''Today's Woman'' and ''Gourmet''. In fall 1945, Friede's publishing entity failed, and Mary and Donald returned to Bareacres - both to write.<ref>Pots and Pans, supra'' at 89-90.</ref> On March 12, 1946, Mary gave birth to her second daughter - Kennedy Mary Friede.<ref name=pots90>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 90.</ref> Mary began work on ''With Bold Knife and Fork.'' Mary's mother died in 1948.<ref name=pots90/> In 1949, she moved to the Ranch to take care of her father Rex.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 93">''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 93.</ref> On Christmas Eve 1949, the limited edition release of her translation of Savarin's ''[[The Physiology of Taste]]'' received rave reviews. "[[Craig Claiborne]] of the ''[[New York Times]]'' said Fisher's prose perfectly captured the wit and gaeity of the book and lauded the hundreds of marginal glosses that [she] added to elucidate the text."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 203.</ref> During this period, Mary also was working on a biography of [[Recamier]] for which she had received an advance. Her marriage with Donald was starting to unravel. He became ill with intestinal pains and after considerable medical treatment, it became apparent that the pain was psychosomatic, and Don began receiving psychiatric care. Mary in turn had been under considerable stress. She had been caretaker for Tim, had weathered his suicide, suffered her brother's suicide a year later, followed by the death of her mother, only to be thrust into the role of caretaker for Rex. Despite her financially successful writing career, Don lived a lifestyle that exceeded their income, leaving her $27,000 in debt,<ref name=poet195>''Poet, supra'' at 195.</ref> She sought psychiatric counseling for what essentially was a nervous breakdown. By 1949, Donald had become frustrated by his isolation in a small Southern California town, and separated from Mary,<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 93"/> Don sought further treatment at the Harkness Pavilion in New York.<ref name=poet195/> Mary and Don divorced on August 8, 1950.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 210.</ref> Her father died June 2, 1953.<ref name=pots102>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 102.</ref> Mary subsequently sold the Ranch and the newspaper.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 110">''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 110.</ref> She rented out Bareacres and moved to [[Napa Valley]], renting "Red Cottage" south of [[St. Helena, California]].<ref name=pots102/> Dissatisfied with the educational opportunities available to her children, Mary sailed to France in 1954.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 103. She sailed out of [[Oakland, California|Oakland]] on the MS ''Diemendyk'' to [[Antwerp]], where they traveled directly to Aix through Paris.''Poet, supra'' at 237.</ref> She ended up in [[Aix en Provence]], France. She planned to live in Aix using the proceeds from the sale of her father's paper.<ref>''Life in Letters, supra'' at 129.</ref> Once in Aix, Mary lodged with Mme Lanes at 17 [[rue Cardinale]].<ref name=poet240>''Poet, supra'' at 240.</ref> She employed a French tutor, and enrolled Anna and Kennedy, then aged 11 and 8, in the Ecole St Catherine.<ref name=poet240/> She described Mme Lanes as 'incredibly fusty and 'correcte,'" part of the "poor but proud aristocracy."<ref>''Life in Letters, supra'' at 132-33.</ref> In Aix, her life developed a pattern. Each day she would walk across town to pick up the girls from school at noon and in late afternoon. They ate snacks or ices at the Deux Garçons or Glacière.<ref>Fisher, M F K ''Two Towns in Provence'' (hereafter ''Two Towns'') at 59-60.</ref> She never felt completely at home. She felt patronized because she was an American: "I was forever in their eyes the product of a naive, undeveloped, and indeed infantile civilization&nbsp;...".<ref>''Two Towns, supra'' at 63.</ref> At one point, an important local woman, introduced to her through mutual friends in Dijon, invited her to lunch. During the meal, the woman sneered at Mary:{{quote|"Tell me dear lady," she would shriek down the table at me, "tell me&nbsp;... explain to all of us, how one can dare to call herself a writer on gastronomy in the United States, where, from everything we hear, gastronomy does not yet exist?"<ref>''Arugula, supra'' at 67.</ref>}} ==St Helena, CA: 1955 - 1970== Mary left Provence in July 1955, and sailed for [[San Francisco]] on the freighter Vesuvio,<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 108.</ref> After living in the city for a short period, she decided that the intense urban environment did not provide the children enough freedom.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 110"/> She sold Bareacres, and used the proceeds to buy an old Victorian house on Oak Street in St. Helena.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 111.</ref> She would own the house until 1970, using it as a base for frequent travels. During extended absences she would rent it out. In fall 1959 she moved the family to [[Lugano, Switzerland]], where she hoped to introduce her daughters to a new language and culture. [[File:Societe du Canal de Provence 20100206 1.jpg|thumb|left|Fisher Home in Aix en Provence]]<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 115</ref> She enrolled the girls in the Istituto Sant'Anna Convent boarding school.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 115.</ref> She revisited Dijon and Aix. Falling back in love with Aix, she rented the L'Harmas farmhouse outside of Aix.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 114.</ref> In July 1961, she returned to San Francisco.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 124.</ref> In 1963, Mary decided to try her hand at teaching at the African-American [[Piney Woods Country Life School]] in Mississippi.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 125.</ref> It was not a good experience for her. She received mixed reviews and was not invited back for another term. She next contracted to write a series of cookbook reviews for ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine. Because her St. Helena home was rented, she moved to her sister's home in [[Genoa, Nevada]] to work on the assignment.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 126.</ref> In 1966, [[Time-Life]] hired Mary to write ''The Cooking of Provincial France.''<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 122.</ref> She traveled to Paris to research material for the book. While there, she met Paul and [[Julia Child]], and through them [[James Beard]].<ref>''Life in Letters, supra'' at 118.</ref> Child was hired to be a consultant on the book; Michael Field was the consulting editor.<ref>Kamp, David ''The United States of Arugula'' (hereafter ''Arugula'') at 106 (Broadway Books 2006).</ref> Field rented out the Childs' country home—La Pitchoune—to work on the book. When Fisher later moved into the home immediately after Field, she found the refrigerator empty. She remarked: "How could a person who loves food be in the south of France and not at least have a piece of cheese in the refrigerator."<ref>''Arugula, supra'' at 106.</ref> Fisher was disappointed in the book's final form; it contained restaurant recipes, without regard to regional cuisine, and much of her signature prose had been cut.<ref>''Arugula, supra'' at 106-07.</ref> ==Last House, Glen Ellen, CA: 1970 - 1992== In 1971, Mary's friend, [[David Bouverie]], who owned a ranch in [[Glen Ellen, California]], offered to build Mary a house on his ranch. Mary designed the home, calling it "Last House." The presence of ranch staff made it easy for her to use the home as a base for frequent travels. She would return to France in 1970, 1973, 1976 and 1978, visiting, inter alia: La Roquette, Marseilles and Aix.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 140.</ref> [[File:M F K Fisher home in St Helena.jpg|thumb|M F K Fisher Home in St Helena - Photo by Tash]] ==Death== After Timmy Parrish's death, Fisher considered herself a "ghost" of a person, but she continued to have a long and productive life, dying in Glen Ellen, California in 1992 at the age of 83. She had long suffered from [[Parkinson's disease]] and arthritis. She spent the last twenty years of her life in "Last House," a house built for her in a vineyard.<ref>{{cite news |first= Molly|last= O'Neill|title=M.F.K. Fisher, Writer on the Art of Food and the Taste of Living, Is Dead at 83.|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7D61338F937A15755C0A964958260|quote=M. F. K. Fisher, the writer whose artful personal essays about food created a genre, died on Monday at her home on the Bouverie Ranch in [[Glen Ellen, California]]. She was 83 years old.|publisher=[[New York Times]]|date=June 24, 1992|accessdate=2007-09-25 }}</ref> A full list of her works can be found at [http://www.mfkfisher.com/books.htm The MFK Fisher Foundation Webpage]. ==Books== * ''Serve It Forth'' (Harper 1937) ISBN 0-86547-369-2 * ''Touch and Go'' (Harper and Brothers 1939) (with Dillwyn Parrish under the psudonym Victoria Berne) * ''[[Consider the Oyster]]'' (Duell, Sloan and Pierce 1941) ISBN 0-86547-335-8 * ''How to Cook a Wolf'' (Duell, Sloan and Pierce 1942) ISBN 0-86547-336-6 * ''The Gastronomical Me'' (Duell, Sloan and Pierce 1943) ISBN 0-86547-392-7 * ''Here Let Us Feast, A Book of Banquets'' (Viking 1946) ISBN 0-86547-206-8 * ''Not Now but Now'' (Viking 1947) ISBN 0-86547-072-3 * ''An Alphabet for Gourmets'' (Viking 1949) ISBN 0-86547-391-9 * ''[[The Physiology of Taste]]'' [translator] (Limited Editions Club 1949) ISBN 978-1-58243-103-1 * ''The Art of Eating'' (MacMillan 1954) ISBN 0-394-71399-0 * ''A Cordiall Water: A Garland of Odd & Old Receipts to Assuage the Ills of Man or Beast'' (Little Brown 1961) ISBN 0-86547-036-7 * ''The Story of Wine in California'' (University of California Press 1962) {{OCLC|560806180}} {{LCCN|62018711}} * ''Map of Another Town: A Memoir of Provence'' (Little Brown 1964) {{OCLC|1597658}} {{LCCN|64010958}} * ''Recipes: The Cooking of Provincial France'' (Time-Life Books 1968) [reprinted in 1969 as ''The Cooking of Provincial France''] ISBN * ''With Bold Knife and Fork'' (Putnam 1969) ISBN 0-399-50397-8 * ''Among Friends'' (Knopf 1971) ISBN 0-86547-116-9 * ''A Considerable Town'' (Knopf 1978) ISBN 0-394-42711-4 * ''Not a Station but a Place'' (Synergistic Press 1979) ISBN 0-912184-02-7 * ''As They Were'' (Knopf 1982) ISBN 0-394-71348-6 * ''Sister Age'' (Vintage 1983) ISBN 0-394-72385-6. * ''Spirits of the Valley'' (Targ Editions 1985) * ''Fine Preserving: M.F.K. Fisher's Annotated Edition of Catherine Plagemann's Cookbook'' (Aris Books 1986) ISBN 0-671-63065-2 * ''Dubious Honors'' (North Point Press 1988) ISBN 0-86547-318-8 * ''The Boss Dog: A Story of Provence'' (Yolla Bolly Press 1990) ISBN 0-86547-465-6 * ''Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon'' (Prentice Hall 1991) ISBN 0-13-929548-8 * ''To Begin Again: Stories and Memoirs 1908-1929'' (Pantheon 1992) ISBN 0-679-41576-9 * ''Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: Journals and Stories 1933-1941'' (Pantheon 1993) ISBN 0-679-75825-9 * ''Last House: Reflections, Dreams and Observations 1943-1991'' (Pantheon 1995) ISBN 0-679-77411-4 * ''Aphorisms of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin from His Work, The Physiology of Taste'' (1998) * ''A Life in Letters'' (Counterpoint 1998) ISBN 1-887178-46-5 * ''From the Journals of M.F.K. Fisher'' (Pantheon 1999) ISBN 0-375-70807-3 * ''Two Kitchens in Provence'' (Yolla Bolly Press 1999) * ''Home Cooking: An Excerpt from a Letter to Eleanor Friede, December, 1970'' (Weatherford Press 2000) ==References== {{reflist|2}} ==Further reading== *Barr, Norah Kennedy (1993), Foreword to ''Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me'': journals and stories, 1933–1941, M. F. K. Fisher''. New York: Pantheon Books *[http://www.cateweb.org/CA_Authors/mfkfisher.html A biography of M. F. K. Fisher by Janice Albert] *Ferrarry, Jeannette (1998) ''M. F. K. Fisher and Me: a Memoir of Food and Friendship'' ISBN 0-312-19442-0 *Reardon, Joan (2004) ''Poet of the Appetites'' New York: North Point Press ISBN 0-86547-562-8 (also see [http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0205/0205poetappetites.htm bio of M. F. K. Fisher by Joan Reardon]) *[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2342/is_3_37/ai_n6006605 Derwin, Susan (2003), "The poetics of M. F. K. Fisher", in: ''Style'', Fall 2003] *[http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/travel/31footsteps.html Green, Michelle (2003) "M. F. K. Fisher’s Sonoma -- a House Built to Feed Body and Soul"], Michelle Green, in: ''[[New York Times]]'' Aug. 31, 2008 *Zealand, Donald (2010) "M.F.K. Fisher: An Annotated Bibliography" ISBN 1-4563-0793-2 *Zimmerman, Anne (Counterpoint 2011) "An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M.F.K. Fisher" ISBN 1-58243-546-4 *Zimmerman, Anne (Sterling Epicure 2012) "M. F. K. Fisher: Musings on Wine and Other Libations" ISBN 978-1402778131 ==External links== *[http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch00206 M.F.K. Fisher Papers 1860–1995] at the [[Schlesinger Library]], Harvard University *Short radio segment (script and audio) [http://californialegacy.org/radio_anthology/scripts/fisher.html ''A Thing Shared''] from ''The Gastronomical Me'' at [[California Legacy Project]] * {{LCAuth|n79095520|M.F.K. Fisher|74|}} * [http://lccn.loc.gov/n81118711 Victoria Berne] at LC Authorities — Fisher and [[Dillwyn Parrish]] as co-authors {{Authority control|VIAF=112620349 |LCCN=n/79/095520 |GND=119156822 }} {{Persondata | NAME = Fisher, M. F. K. | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Kennedy, Mary Frances (birth name); Fisher, Mary Frances Kennedy (full married name) | SHORT DESCRIPTION = American writer | DATE OF BIRTH = July 3, 1908 | PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Albion, Michigan]], USA | DATE OF DEATH = June 22, 1992 | PLACE OF DEATH = [[Glen Ellen, California]], USA }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, M. F. K.}} [[Category:American food writers]] [[Category:American Episcopalians]] [[Category:American diarists]] [[Category:Writers from California]] [[Category:1908 births]] [[Category:1992 deaths]]'
New page wikitext, after the edit (new_wikitext)
'{{infobox writer |name=M F K Fisher |image = |caption = |birth_name = Mary Frances Kennedy |pseudonym = Victoria Berne (shared) |birth_date = {{birth date|1908|07|03}} |birth_place= [[Albion, Michigan]], USA |death_date = {{death date and age|1992|06|22|1908|07|03}} |death_place= [[Glen Ellen, California]] |occupation = Writer |nationality= American |genre = Novel (as Berne) |subject = Food, travel, memoir |spouse = Alfred Young Fisher <br>[[Dillwyn Parrish]] <br>Donald Friede |children = Anna, Mary }} '''Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher''' (July 3, 1908 – June 22, 1992) was a preeminent American food writer. She was also a founder of the Napa Valley Wine Library. She wrote some 27 books, including a translation of ''The Physiology of Taste'' by [[Brillat-Savarin]]. Two volumes of her journals and correspondence came out shortly before her death in 1992. Her first book, ''Serve it Forth'', was published in 1937. Her books are an amalgam of food literature, travel and memoir. Fisher believed that eating well was just one of the "arts of life" and explored this in her writing. [[W. H. Auden]] once remarked: "I do not know of anyone in the United States who writes better prose."<ref>Lazar, David ''Conversations with M. F. K. Fisher' at 22 (University of Mississippi Press 1992) ISBN 0-87805-596-7</ref> ==Early life== Fisher was born Mary Frances Kennedy on July 3, 1908 at 202 Irwin Avenue, [[Albion, Michigan]]. She told Albion City Historian, Frank Passic:{{quote|"I&nbsp;... was delivered at home by "Doc" George Hafford, a man my parents Rex and Edith Kennedy were devoted to. Rex was then one of the volunteer firemen, and since I was born in a heatwave, he persuaded his pals to come several times and spray the walls of the house. My father Rex was sure I would be born on July 4, and he wanted to name me Independencia. My mother Edith was firmly against this completely un-Irish notion, and induced Doc Hafford to hurry things up a bit, in common pity."<ref>Passic, Frank ''Famous Food Writer M F K Fisher Was Born In Albion'' Albion Recorder at 4 (July 2, 1998)</ref>}}Rex was a co-owner (with his brother Walter) and editor of the Albion Evening Recorder newspaper.<ref>Reardon, Joan, ''Poet of the Appetites'' (hereafter ''Poet'') at 5 (North Point Press 2004).</ref> In 1911, Rex sold his interest in the paper to his brother, and moved the family to the West Coast, where he hoped to buy a fruit or citrus orchard.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 5.</ref> The family spent some time in Washington with relatives, and then traveled down the coast to Ventura, California, where Rex nearly purchased an orange grove, but backed out after discovering soil problems.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 5-8.</ref> He next purchased and briefly owned the ''Oxnard Courier'' in Oxnard, California.<ref name=poet8>''Poet, supra'' at 8.</ref> From there he traveled to San Diego, California, and worked for a local newspaper.<ref name=poet8/> In 1912 he purchased a controlling interest in the ''Whittier News'' and moved the family to Whittier, California.<ref name=poet8/> Rex initially purchased a house at 115 Painter Avenue.<ref name=poet15>''Poet, supra at, 15.</ref> In 1919, he purchased a large white house outside the city limits on South Painter Avenue.<ref name=poet20>''Poet, supra'' at 20.</ref> The house sat on thirteen acres, with an orange grove; it was referred to by the family as "The Ranch."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 20. The home has since been torn down and a municipal park named "Kennedy Park" now occupies the site.</ref> Although Whittier was primarily a [[Quaker]] community at that time, Mary Frances was brought up within the [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal Church]]. Mary received a formal education; however, she was an indifferent student who often skipped classes throughout her academic career.<ref>Zimmerman, Anne, ''An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M. F. K. Fisher'' (hereafter ''Passionate Years'') at 31-42 (Counterpoint 2011).</ref> At the age of sixteen, her parents enrolled her in a private school: The Bishop's School located in La Jolla, California.<ref name="Passionate Years, supra at 32">''Passionate Years, supra'' at 32.</ref> After one year there, she transferred to Harker's School For Girls in Palo Alto, California, adjacent to Stanford University; she graduated from Harker's in 1927.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 35.</ref> Upon graduation, she attended [[Illinois College]], but left after only one semester,<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 36-39.</ref> In 1928, she enrolled in summer school at [[UCLA]] in order to obtain enough credits to transfer to [[Occidental College]].<ref name="Passionate Years, supra at 39">''Passionate Years, supra'' at 39.</ref> While there, she met and fell in love with her future first husband: Alfred Fisher ("Al").<ref name="Passionate Years, supra at 39"/> She attended Occidental College for one year; however, she married Al on September 5, 1929, and moved with him to Dijon, France.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 41-42.</ref> Mary's informal education undoubtedly had a far greater impact on her writing career than her formal education. She loved reading as a child, and began writing poetry at the age of five.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 30.</ref> The Kennedys had a vast home library,<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 16.</ref> and her mother provided her access to many other books.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 31.</ref> Later, her father used her as stringer on his paper, and she would draft as many as fifteen stories a day.<ref name="Passionate Years, supra at 32"/> Food became an early passion in her life. Her earliest memory of taste was "the grayish-pink fuzz my grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 9.</ref> Her maternal grandmother Holbrook lived with them until her death in 1920. During that period, Holbrook was a source of tension in the household. She was a stern, rather joyless person, and a [[Campbellite]] who firmly believed in overcooked, bland food.<ref name=poet15/> She was also a follower of Dr. [[Will Keith Kellogg]]'s dietary strictions at the [[Battle Creek Sanitarium]].<ref name=poet15/> Fisher would later write that during her grandmother's absences at religious conventions: {{quote|[W]e indulged in a voluptuous riot of things like marshmallows in hot chocolate, thin pastry under the Tuesday hash, rare roast beef on Sunday instead of boiled hen. Mother ate all she wanted of cream of fresh mushroom soup; Father served a local wine, red-ink he called it, with the steak; we ate grilled sweetbreads and skewered kidneys with a daring dash of sherry on them.<ref>Fisher, M F K, ''To Begin Again'' (hereafter ''Begin Again'') at 50-51 (Pantheon Books 1992).</ref>}} An early food influence was "Aunt" Gwen. Aunt Gwen was not family, but the daughter of friends - the Nettleship family - "a strange family of English medical missionaries who preferred tents to houses."<ref name=begin24>''Begin Again, supra'' at 24.</ref> The Nettleships had an encampment on [[Laguna Beach]] and Mary would camp out there with Gwen.<ref name=begin24/> Rex would later buy the campsite and a cabin that had been built on it.<ref>''Begin Again, supra'' at 25.</ref> Mary recalled cooking outdoors with Gwen: steaming mussels on fresh seaweed over hot coals; catching and frying rock bass; skinning and cooking eel; and, making fried egg sandwiches to carry on hikes.<ref>''Begin Again, supra'' at 26-29.</ref> Mary wrote of her meals with Gwen and Gwen's brothers: "I decided at the age of nine that one of the best ways to grow up is to eat and talk quietly with good people."<ref>Reardon, Joan ''M. F. K. Fisher among the Pots and Pans'' (hereafter ''Pots and Pans'') at 15 (University of California Press 2008) ISBN 978-0-520-26168-6.</ref> Mary liked to cook meals in the kitchen at home, and "easily fell into the role of the cook's helper."<ref>''Begin Again, supra'' at 29.</ref> ==Dijon: 1928 - 1932== In September 1929, newlyweds Mary and Al sailed on the [[RMS Berengaria|RMS ''Berengaria'']] to Cherbourg (now [[Cherbourg-Octeville]]), France.<ref>''Passion, supra'' at 1.</ref> They traveled to Paris for a brief stay, before continuing south to [[Dijon]].<ref>Dijon is a well-known culinary center and would greatly expand Mary's food world. Her three years in Dijon are recounted in her 1991 book ''Long Ago in France.''</ref> They initially found a rental at 14 Rue de Petit-Potet in a home owned by the Ollangnier family.<ref>''Extravagant Hunger, supra'' at 54.</ref> The lodgings consisted of two rooms, with no kitchen, and no separate bathroom.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 54.</ref> Al attended the Faculte des Lettres at the [[University of Burgundy]] where he was working on his doctorate; when not in class, he worked on what he believed to be his epic poem; ''The Ghosts in the Underblows.''<ref>Fisher, M F K, ''Long Ago In France: The Years in Dijon'' (hereafter ''Long Ago'') at (Prentiss Hall 1991).</ref> The poem was based on the Bible and was analogous to [[James Joyce]]'s ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]''.<ref>Starr, Kevin ''Material Dreams'' (hereafter ''Material Dreams'') at 376 (Oxford University Press 1990) ISBN 0-19-504487-8.</ref> By 1931, Fisher would have finished the first twelve books of the poem, which he ultimately expected to contain sixty books.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' at 376. A long fragment of the poem was finally published in 1940. Despite some critical accolades, however, the book was a failure. Ironically the book's innovative graphics by Lustig are still widely admired and the book is a collector's item for that reason. ''Id.'' at 379.</ref> Mary attended night classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where she would spend three years studying painting and sculpture.<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 65.</ref> The Ollangniers served good food at home, although Madame Ollangnier was "extremely penurious and stingy."<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 12.</ref> Mary remembered big salads made at the table, deep-fried Jerusalem artichokes, and "reject cheese" that was always good.<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 14.</ref> To celebrate their three-month anniversary, Al and Mary went to the Aux Trois Faisans restaurant - their first of many visits.<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 29-30.</ref> There, Mary received her education in fine wine from a sommelier named Charles.<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 33.</ref> The Fishers visited all the restaurants in town, where in Mary's words:{{quote|We ate terrines of pate ten years old under their tight crusts of mildewed fat. We tied napkins under our chins and splashed in great odorous bowls of ecrevisses a la nuage. We addled our palates with snipes hung so long they fell from their hooks, to be roasted then on cushions of toast softened with the paste of their rotted innards and fine brandy.<ref>''Long Ago, supra'' at 37.</ref>}} In 1930, [[Lawrence Clark Powell]] came to Dijon to obtain his doctorate at the University of Burgundy.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' at 377.</ref> He came at Mary's suggestion. Powell had become acquainted with Mary when Mary's sister was attending Occidental College, and roomed with Powell's girlfriend. Powell moved into the attic above the Fishers and became lifelong friends with Mary. He described the food at the Fishers' pensione: {{quote|Oh my god, how was the food? Jim it was heavenly! Madame Rigoulet [Ollangnier's successor] ... was a great cook, and her husband was a great cook of omelets so he always did the omelet. And the food just floated through the air. You reached up in the air and drew it down - marvelous food.<ref>Powell, Lawrence ''Looking Back at Sixty oral history transcript - recollections of Lawrence Clark Powell, librarian, teacher and writer'' (hereafter ''Looking Back'') at 107 (University of California Library 1973)</ref>}} In {{When|date=October 2011}} Mary and Al moved to their own apartment, above a pastry shop at 26 Rue Monge.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' at 378.</ref> It was Mary's first kitchen. It was only five feet by three feet and contained a two-burner hotplate.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 46.</ref> Despite the kitchen's limitations, Mary began developing her own personal cuisine, with the goal of: "cooking meals that would 'shake [her guests] from their routines, not only of meat-potatoes-gravy, but of thought, of behavior.'"<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 47-49.</ref> In ''The Gastronomical Me'' she describes one such meal:{{quote|There in Dijon, the cauliflowers were very small and succulent, grown in that ancient soil. I separated the flowerlets and dropped them in boiling water for just a few minutes. Then I drained them and put them in a wide shallow casserole, and covered them with heavy cream, and a thick sprinkling of freshly grated Gruyere, the nice rubbery kind that didn't come from Switzerland at all, but from the Jura. It was called râpé in the market, and was grated while you watched, in a soft cloudy pile, onto your piece of paper.<ref>''Fisher, M F K ''The Art of Eating'' (hereafter ''Art of Eating'') at 44 (Hungry Minds Inc. 1990).</ref>}} After Al was awarded his doctorate, they moved briefly to [[Strasbourg]], France, where Al continued to study and write.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 64.</ref> Mary became depressed from loneliness and being cooped up in a cold, sordid apartment.<ref name="Poet, supra at 66">''Poet, supra'' at 66.</ref> Unable to afford better accommodations, the Fishers next moved to a tiny French fishing village: Cros-des-Cagnes.<ref name="Poet, supra at 66"/> Powell briefly visited with them there for six weeks. He observed that Al was growing more introspective. He had stopped work on his poem, and was trying to write novels. Al did not want to return to the States where he knew job prospects were poor. He could not, however, see a way to stay in France.<ref>''Looking Back, supra'' at 112.</ref> After running out of funds, the Fishers returned to California, sailing on the Feltre out of [[Marseilles]].<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 68.</ref> ==California: 1932 - 1938== u cgagjkcajkaLJSD;/dAD,JFHKFYBack in California, Al and Mary initially moved in with Mary's family at "The Ranch."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 71.</ref> They later moved into the Laguna cabin. This was during the [[Great Depression]] and work was hard to find. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College.<ref>Fisher, M F K ''Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me'' (hereafter ''Stay Me'') at ix (Pantheon 1993).</ref> Mary began writing and she published her first piece - ''Pacific Village'' - in the February 1935 issue of ''[[Westways]] magazine'' (previously known as ''Touring Topics''). The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' 380</ref> In 1934, Lawrence Powell moved to Laguna with his wife Fay.<ref>''Stay Me, supra'' at ix.</ref> In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife [[Gigi Parrish]] moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 116; and ''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 52.</ref> When Al began teaching at Occidental, the Fishers initially moved to [[Eagle Rock, Los Angeles|Eagle Rock]] where the Parrishes helped them paint and fix up an older house they had rented.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 52.</ref> Unfortunately the home was sold shortly thereafter, and the Fishers had to move to another rented house in [[Highland Park, Los Angeles, California|Highland Park]].<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 82-83.</ref> Mary worked part-time in a card shop and researched old cookery books at the Los Angeles Public Library. She began writing short pieces on gastronomy. Parrish's sister Anne showed them to her publisher at Harpers who expressed an interest in them.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 53.</ref> The pieces were later to become her first book: ''Serve It Forth.'' Mary next began work on a novel she never finished; it was based on the founding of Whittier.<ref name="Poet, supra at 86">''Poet, supra'' at 86.</ref> During this period, Mary's marriage with Al was beginning to fail. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary found herself falling in love with him. In Mary's words, she one day sat next to Parrish at the piano and told him she loved him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84.</ref> Mary's biographer Joan Reardon, however, interviewed Gigi who told a different story. She stated that Parrish told her that one night after he had dined alone with Mary, she later let herself into his house and slipped into bed with him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84 and 84 n.39.</ref> In 1935, with Al's permission, Mary traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380">''Material Dreams, supra'' at 380.</ref> The Parrishes had money and they sailed on the luxury liner Hansa.<ref name="Poet, supra at 86"/> While in Europe,they spent four days in Paris, and traveled through Provence, Languedoc, and the French Riviera.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 87-89.</ref> Mary also revisited Dijon and ate with Parrish at Aux Trois Faisans where she was recognized and served by her old friend, the waiter Charles.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54">''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 54.</ref> She later wrote a piece on their visit - ''The Standing and the Waiting'' - which was to become the centerpiece of ''Serve It Forth.''<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54"/> Upon her return from Europe, Mary informed Al of her developing relationship with Parrish.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380"/> In 1936, Dillwyn invited the Fishers to join him in creating an artists' colony at Le Paquis - a two-story stone house that Parrish had bought with his sister north of [[Vevey]], Switzerland.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 55.</ref> Notwithstanding the clear threat to his marriage, Al agreed.afakfgahjdtrbbgjjfyyfgZdfjakkj.kkfuiuytekd11238849aghajhafuftyhjf124598876dnmdtgnsafdaguaefuio737686373.68kd ==Vevey: 1936 - 1939== [[File:SBB RBDe 560 Train des Vignes.jpg|thumb|View from Chexbres toward Vevey]]The Fishers sailed to Holland on a small Dutch passenger freighter, and from there took a train to Vevey.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 96-97.</ref> "Le Paquis" means the grazing ground. The house sat on a sloping meadow on the north shore of Lake Geneva, looking across to the snowcapped alps. They had a large garden in which:{{quote|We grew beautiful salads, a dozen different kinds, and several herbs. There were shallots and onion and garlic, and I braided them into long silky ropes and hung them over rafters in the attic.<ref>''Art of Eating, supra'' at 486-87.</ref>}} In mid-1937 Al and Mary separated. He traveled to Austria and then returned to the States where he began a distinguished career as a teacher and poet at [[Smith College]].<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 103 and 108.</ref> In a February 2, 1937 letter to Powell, Mary explained her side of the marital breakup. She stated that Al was afraid of physical love; he was sexually impotent in their marriage. Moreover he was an intellectual loner who was emotionally estranged from Mary. Mary stated that contrary to Al's belief, she had not left him for another man; she had left him because he could not satisfy her emotional and physical needs.<ref>Fisher, M F K ''A Life in Letters'' at 40-43 (Counterpoint 1997).</ref> In 1938, Mary returned home briefly to inform her parents in person of her separation and pending divorce from Al.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 109-10.</ref> Meanwhile, her first book ''Serve It Forth'' had opened to largely glowing reviews, including reviews in [[Harper's Monthly]], the [[New York Times]] and the [[Chicago Tribune]]. Mary, however, was disappointed in the book's meager sales because she needed the money.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 103-04.</ref> During this same period, Mary and Parrish also co-wrote (alternating chapters) a light romance entitled ''Touch and Go'' under the pseudonym Victoria Berne. The book was published by Harper and Brothers in 1939.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 112-13.</ref><ref name=LCC8>[http://lccn.loc.gov/39013756 "Touch and go"]. Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 2013-10-17.</ref> In September 1938, Mary and Parrish could no longer afford to live at Les Paquis and they moved to Bern.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 115.</ref> After only two days in Bern, however, Parrish suffered severe cramping in his left leg. Hospitalized, he underwent two surgeries to remove clots. Gangrene then set in and his left leg had to be amputated. Parrish was in considerable pain and could not get a good diagnosis from his doctors. With the onset of WWII, and Parrish' need for medical care, Mary and Parrish returned to the States, where he saw a number of doctors. He ultimately was diagnosed as having Buerger's disease ([[Thromboangiitis obliterans]]) - a circulatory system malady that causes extreme thrombosis of the arteries and veins, causing severe pain, and often necessitating multiple amputations. The disease is progressive and there is no known treatment. They returned briefly to Switzerland to close out their apartment and returned to California. They also needed to accumulate a stock of the painkiller Analgeticum. It was the only painkiller that Parrish found efficacious; however, it was unavailable in the States. ==California and Provence: 1939 - 1955== Once in California, Mary searched for a warm dry climate that would be beneficial for Parrish' health. She found a small cabin on ninety acres of land south of Hemet, California. They bought the property and named it "Bareacres" after the character Lord Bareacres in ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)]]'' by [[Thackeray]]. Lord Bareacres was land-poor; his only asset was his estate. Mary wrote Powell: "God help us&nbsp;... We've put our last penny into 90 acres of rocks and rattlesnakes."<ref>''Life in Letters, supra'' at 46-47.</ref> Although Parrish' life at Bareacres had its ups and downs, its course was a downward spiral. He continued to paint, and Powell staged an exposition of his works. Mary was always trying to find ways to obtain Analgeticum; she even wrote President Roosevelt at one point to urge him to lift the import restriction on the drug.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 194.</ref> Ultimately, Parrish could no longer tolerate the pain and the probable need for additional amputations. On the morning of August 6, 1941, Mary was awakened by a gunshot. Venturing outside, she discovered that Parrish had committed suicide.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 196.</ref> Mary later would write: "I have never understood some (a lot of) taboos and it seems silly to me to make suicide one of them in our social life."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 121.</ref> During the period leading up to Tim's death (Parrish was often called "Tim" by family and friends, but referred to as "Chexbres" in Fisher's autobiographical books), Mary completed three books. The first was a novel entitled: ''The Theoretical Foot.'' The novel was a fictional account of expatriates enjoying a summer romp when the protagonist, suffering great pain, ends up losing a leg.<ref>Passionate Years, supra'' at 185.</ref> Transparently based on Tim, the novel was rejected by publishers. The second book was an unsuccessful attempt by her to revise a novel written by Tim: ''Daniel Among The Women.''<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 128.</ref> Third, she completed and published: ''Consider the Oyster,'' which she dedicated to Tim. The book was humorous and informative. It contained numerous recipes incorporating oysters, mixed with musings on: the history of the oyster, oyster cuisine, and the love life of the oyster,<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at .</ref> In 1942, Mary published: ''How to Cook a Wolf.'' The book was published at the height of WWII food shortages. "Pages offered housewives advice on how to achieve a balanced diet, stretch ingredients, eat during blackouts, deal with sleeplessness and sorrow, and care for pets during wartime.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 212.</ref> The book received good reviews and attained literary success, leading to a feature article on Mary in [[Look (American magazine)|''Look'' magazine]] in July 1942.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 214.</ref> In May 1942 Mary began working in Hollywood for [[Paramount Studios]]. While there she wrote gags for [[Bob Hope]], [[Bing Crosby]], and [[Dorothy Lamour]].<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 216.</ref> Mary became pregnant in 1943, and secluded herself in a boarding house in [[Altadena]]. While there she worked on the book that would become: ''The Gastronomical Me.''<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 219.</ref> On August 15, 1943, she gave birth to Anne Kennedy Parrish (later known as Anna).<ref name="ReferenceA">''Passionate Years, supra'' at 220.</ref> Mary listed a fictional father on the birth certificate - Michael Parrish.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Mary initially claimed she had adopted the baby; she never would reveal the father's identity. In 1944, Mary broke her contract with Paramount. On a trip to New York, she met and fell in love with publisher Donald Friede. In a letter to Powell she wrote: "I accidentally got married to Donald Friede." She spent the summer in Greenwich Village with Friede, working on the book that would become ''Let Us Feast.''<ref>Pots and Pans, supra'' at 88.</ref> Her relationship with Friede gave her entree to additional publishing markets, and she wrote articles for ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]'', ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'', ''[[Town & Country (magazine)|Town and Country]]'', ''Today's Woman'' and ''Gourmet''. In fall 1945, Friede's publishing entity failed, and Mary and Donald returned to Bareacres - both to write.<ref>Pots and Pans, supra'' at 89-90.</ref> On March 12, 1946, Mary gave birth to her second daughter - Kennedy Mary Friede.<ref name=pots90>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 90.</ref> Mary began work on ''With Bold Knife and Fork.'' Mary's mother died in 1948.<ref name=pots90/> In 1949, she moved to the Ranch to take care of her father Rex.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 93">''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 93.</ref> On Christmas Eve 1949, the limited edition release of her translation of Savarin's ''[[The Physiology of Taste]]'' received rave reviews. "[[Craig Claiborne]] of the ''[[New York Times]]'' said Fisher's prose perfectly captured the wit and gaeity of the book and lauded the hundreds of marginal glosses that [she] added to elucidate the text."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 203.</ref> During this period, Mary also was working on a biography of [[Recamier]] for which she had received an advance. Her marriage with Donald was starting to unravel. He became ill with intestinal pains and after considerable medical treatment, it became apparent that the pain was psychosomatic, and Don began receiving psychiatric care. Mary in turn had been under considerable stress. She had been caretaker for Tim, had weathered his suicide, suffered her brother's suicide a year later, followed by the death of her mother, only to be thrust into the role of caretaker for Rex. Despite her financially successful writing career, Don lived a lifestyle that exceeded their income, leaving her $27,000 in debt,<ref name=poet195>''Poet, supra'' at 195.</ref> She sought psychiatric counseling for what essentially was a nervous breakdown. By 1949, Donald had become frustrated by his isolation in a small Southern California town, and separated from Mary,<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 93"/> Don sought further treatment at the Harkness Pavilion in New York.<ref name=poet195/> Mary and Don divorced on August 8, 1950.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 210.</ref> Her father died June 2, 1953.<ref name=pots102>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 102.</ref> Mary subsequently sold the Ranch and the newspaper.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 110">''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 110.</ref> She rented out Bareacres and moved to [[Napa Valley]], renting "Red Cottage" south of [[St. Helena, California]].<ref name=pots102/> Dissatisfied with the educational opportunities available to her children, Mary sailed to France in 1954.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 103. She sailed out of [[Oakland, California|Oakland]] on the MS ''Diemendyk'' to [[Antwerp]], where they traveled directly to Aix through Paris.''Poet, supra'' at 237.</ref> She ended up in [[Aix en Provence]], France. She planned to live in Aix using the proceeds from the sale of her father's paper.<ref>''Life in Letters, supra'' at 129.</ref> Once in Aix, Mary lodged with Mme Lanes at 17 [[rue Cardinale]].<ref name=poet240>''Poet, supra'' at 240.</ref> She employed a French tutor, and enrolled Anna and Kennedy, then aged 11 and 8, in the Ecole St Catherine.<ref name=poet240/> She described Mme Lanes as 'incredibly fusty and 'correcte,'" part of the "poor but proud aristocracy."<ref>''Life in Letters, supra'' at 132-33.</ref> In Aix, her life developed a pattern. Each day she would walk across town to pick up the girls from school at noon and in late afternoon. They ate snacks or ices at the Deux Garçons or Glacière.<ref>Fisher, M F K ''Two Towns in Provence'' (hereafter ''Two Towns'') at 59-60.</ref> She never felt completely at home. She felt patronized because she was an American: "I was forever in their eyes the product of a naive, undeveloped, and indeed infantile civilization&nbsp;...".<ref>''Two Towns, supra'' at 63.</ref> At one point, an important local woman, introduced to her through mutual friends in Dijon, invited her to lunch. During the meal, the woman sneered at Mary:{{quote|"Tell me dear lady," she would shriek down the table at me, "tell me&nbsp;... explain to all of us, how one can dare to call herself a writer on gastronomy in the United States, where, from everything we hear, gastronomy does not yet exist?"<ref>''Arugula, supra'' at 67.</ref>}} ==St Helena, CA: 1955 - 1970== Mary left Provence in July 1955, and sailed for [[San Francisco]] on the freighter Vesuvio,<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 108.</ref> After living in the city for a short period, she decided that the intense urban environment did not provide the children enough freedom.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 110"/> She sold Bareacres, and used the proceeds to buy an old Victorian house on Oak Street in St. Helena.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 111.</ref> She would own the house until 1970, using it as a base for frequent travels. During extended absences she would rent it out. In fall 1959 she moved the family to [[Lugano, Switzerland]], where she hoped to introduce her daughters to a new language and culture. [[File:Societe du Canal de Provence 20100206 1.jpg|thumb|left|Fisher Home in Aix en Provence]]<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 115</ref> She enrolled the girls in the Istituto Sant'Anna Convent boarding school.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 115.</ref> She revisited Dijon and Aix. Falling back in love with Aix, she rented the L'Harmas farmhouse outside of Aix.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 114.</ref> In July 1961, she returned to San Francisco.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 124.</ref> In 1963, Mary decided to try her hand at teaching at the African-American [[Piney Woods Country Life School]] in Mississippi.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 125.</ref> It was not a good experience for her. She received mixed reviews and was not invited back for another term. She next contracted to write a series of cookbook reviews for ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine. Because her St. Helena home was rented, she moved to her sister's home in [[Genoa, Nevada]] to work on the assignment.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 126.</ref> In 1966, [[Time-Life]] hired Mary to write ''The Cooking of Provincial France.''<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 122.</ref> She traveled to Paris to research material for the book. While there, she met Paul and [[Julia Child]], and through them [[James Beard]].<ref>''Life in Letters, supra'' at 118.</ref> Child was hired to be a consultant on the book; Michael Field was the consulting editor.<ref>Kamp, David ''The United States of Arugula'' (hereafter ''Arugula'') at 106 (Broadway Books 2006).</ref> Field rented out the Childs' country home—La Pitchoune—to work on the book. When Fisher later moved into the home immediately after Field, she found the refrigerator empty. She remarked: "How could a person who loves food be in the south of France and not at least have a piece of cheese in the refrigerator."<ref>''Arugula, supra'' at 106.</ref> Fisher was disappointed in the book's final form; it contained restaurant recipes, without regard to regional cuisine, and much of her signature prose had been cut.<ref>''Arugula, supra'' at 106-07.</ref> ==Last House, Glen Ellen, CA: 1970 - 1992== In 1971, Mary's friend, [[David Bouverie]], who owned a ranch in [[Glen Ellen, California]], offered to build Mary a house on his ranch. Mary designed the home, calling it "Last House." The presence of ranch staff made it easy for her to use the home as a base for frequent travels. She would return to France in 1970, 1973, 1976 and 1978, visiting, inter alia: La Roquette, Marseilles and Aix.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 140.</ref> [[File:M F K Fisher home in St Helena.jpg|thumb|M F K Fisher Home in St Helena - Photo by Tash]] ==Death== After Timmy Parrish's death, Fisher considered herself a "ghost" of a person, but she continued to have a long and productive life, dying in Glen Ellen, California in 1992 at the age of 83. She had long suffered from [[Parkinson's disease]] and arthritis. She spent the last twenty years of her life in "Last House," a house built for her in a vineyard.<ref>{{cite news |first= Molly|last= O'Neill|title=M.F.K. Fisher, Writer on the Art of Food and the Taste of Living, Is Dead at 83.|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7D61338F937A15755C0A964958260|quote=M. F. K. Fisher, the writer whose artful personal essays about food created a genre, died on Monday at her home on the Bouverie Ranch in [[Glen Ellen, California]]. She was 83 years old.|publisher=[[New York Times]]|date=June 24, 1992|accessdate=2007-09-25 }}</ref> A full list of her works can be found at [http://www.mfkfisher.com/books.htm The MFK Fisher Foundation Webpage]. ==Books== * ''Serve It Forth'' (Harper 1937) ISBN 0-86547-369-2 * ''Touch and Go'' (Harper and Brothers 1939) (with Dillwyn Parrish under the psudonym Victoria Berne) * ''[[Consider the Oyster]]'' (Duell, Sloan and Pierce 1941) ISBN 0-86547-335-8 * ''How to Cook a Wolf'' (Duell, Sloan and Pierce 1942) ISBN 0-86547-336-6 * ''The Gastronomical Me'' (Duell, Sloan and Pierce 1943) ISBN 0-86547-392-7 * ''Here Let Us Feast, A Book of Banquets'' (Viking 1946) ISBN 0-86547-206-8 * ''Not Now but Now'' (Viking 1947) ISBN 0-86547-072-3 * ''An Alphabet for Gourmets'' (Viking 1949) ISBN 0-86547-391-9 * ''[[The Physiology of Taste]]'' [translator] (Limited Editions Club 1949) ISBN 978-1-58243-103-1 * ''The Art of Eating'' (MacMillan 1954) ISBN 0-394-71399-0 * ''A Cordiall Water: A Garland of Odd & Old Receipts to Assuage the Ills of Man or Beast'' (Little Brown 1961) ISBN 0-86547-036-7 * ''The Story of Wine in California'' (University of California Press 1962) {{OCLC|560806180}} {{LCCN|62018711}} * ''Map of Another Town: A Memoir of Provence'' (Little Brown 1964) {{OCLC|1597658}} {{LCCN|64010958}} * ''Recipes: The Cooking of Provincial France'' (Time-Life Books 1968) [reprinted in 1969 as ''The Cooking of Provincial France''] ISBN * ''With Bold Knife and Fork'' (Putnam 1969) ISBN 0-399-50397-8 * ''Among Friends'' (Knopf 1971) ISBN 0-86547-116-9 * ''A Considerable Town'' (Knopf 1978) ISBN 0-394-42711-4 * ''Not a Station but a Place'' (Synergistic Press 1979) ISBN 0-912184-02-7 * ''As They Were'' (Knopf 1982) ISBN 0-394-71348-6 * ''Sister Age'' (Vintage 1983) ISBN 0-394-72385-6. * ''Spirits of the Valley'' (Targ Editions 1985) * ''Fine Preserving: M.F.K. Fisher's Annotated Edition of Catherine Plagemann's Cookbook'' (Aris Books 1986) ISBN 0-671-63065-2 * ''Dubious Honors'' (North Point Press 1988) ISBN 0-86547-318-8 * ''The Boss Dog: A Story of Provence'' (Yolla Bolly Press 1990) ISBN 0-86547-465-6 * ''Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon'' (Prentice Hall 1991) ISBN 0-13-929548-8 * ''To Begin Again: Stories and Memoirs 1908-1929'' (Pantheon 1992) ISBN 0-679-41576-9 * ''Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: Journals and Stories 1933-1941'' (Pantheon 1993) ISBN 0-679-75825-9 * ''Last House: Reflections, Dreams and Observations 1943-1991'' (Pantheon 1995) ISBN 0-679-77411-4 * ''Aphorisms of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin from His Work, The Physiology of Taste'' (1998) * ''A Life in Letters'' (Counterpoint 1998) ISBN 1-887178-46-5 * ''From the Journals of M.F.K. Fisher'' (Pantheon 1999) ISBN 0-375-70807-3 * ''Two Kitchens in Provence'' (Yolla Bolly Press 1999) * ''Home Cooking: An Excerpt from a Letter to Eleanor Friede, December, 1970'' (Weatherford Press 2000) ==References== {{reflist|2}} ==Further reading== *Barr, Norah Kennedy (1993), Foreword to ''Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me'': journals and stories, 1933–1941, M. F. K. Fisher''. New York: Pantheon Books *[http://www.cateweb.org/CA_Authors/mfkfisher.html A biography of M. F. K. Fisher by Janice Albert] *Ferrarry, Jeannette (1998) ''M. F. K. Fisher and Me: a Memoir of Food and Friendship'' ISBN 0-312-19442-0 *Reardon, Joan (2004) ''Poet of the Appetites'' New York: North Point Press ISBN 0-86547-562-8 (also see [http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0205/0205poetappetites.htm bio of M. F. K. Fisher by Joan Reardon]) *[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2342/is_3_37/ai_n6006605 Derwin, Susan (2003), "The poetics of M. F. K. Fisher", in: ''Style'', Fall 2003] *[http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/travel/31footsteps.html Green, Michelle (2003) "M. F. K. Fisher’s Sonoma -- a House Built to Feed Body and Soul"], Michelle Green, in: ''[[New York Times]]'' Aug. 31, 2008 *Zealand, Donald (2010) "M.F.K. Fisher: An Annotated Bibliography" ISBN 1-4563-0793-2 *Zimmerman, Anne (Counterpoint 2011) "An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M.F.K. Fisher" ISBN 1-58243-546-4 *Zimmerman, Anne (Sterling Epicure 2012) "M. F. K. Fisher: Musings on Wine and Other Libations" ISBN 978-1402778131 ==External links== *[http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch00206 M.F.K. Fisher Papers 1860–1995] at the [[Schlesinger Library]], Harvard University *Short radio segment (script and audio) [http://californialegacy.org/radio_anthology/scripts/fisher.html ''A Thing Shared''] from ''The Gastronomical Me'' at [[California Legacy Project]] * {{LCAuth|n79095520|M.F.K. Fisher|74|}} * [http://lccn.loc.gov/n81118711 Victoria Berne] at LC Authorities — Fisher and [[Dillwyn Parrish]] as co-authors {{Authority control|VIAF=112620349 |LCCN=n/79/095520 |GND=119156822 }} {{Persondata | NAME = Fisher, M. F. K. | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Kennedy, Mary Frances (birth name); Fisher, Mary Frances Kennedy (full married name) | SHORT DESCRIPTION = American writer | DATE OF BIRTH = July 3, 1908 | PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Albion, Michigan]], USA | DATE OF DEATH = June 22, 1992 | PLACE OF DEATH = [[Glen Ellen, California]], USA }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, M. F. K.}} [[Category:American food writers]] [[Category:American Episcopalians]] [[Category:American diarists]] [[Category:Writers from California]] [[Category:1908 births]] [[Category:1992 deaths]]'
Unified diff of changes made by edit (edit_diff)
'@@ -35,11 +35,11 @@ ==California: 1932 - 1938== -Back in California, Al and Mary initially moved in with Mary's family at "The Ranch."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 71.</ref> They later moved into the Laguna cabin. This was during the [[Great Depression]] and work was hard to find. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College.<ref>Fisher, M F K ''Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me'' (hereafter ''Stay Me'') at ix (Pantheon 1993).</ref> Mary began writing and she published her first piece - ''Pacific Village'' - in the February 1935 issue of ''[[Westways]] magazine'' (previously known as ''Touring Topics''). The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' 380</ref> In 1934, Lawrence Powell moved to Laguna with his wife Fay.<ref>''Stay Me, supra'' at ix.</ref> In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife [[Gigi Parrish]] moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 116; and ''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 52.</ref> +u cgagjkcajkaLJSD;/dAD,JFHKFYBack in California, Al and Mary initially moved in with Mary's family at "The Ranch."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 71.</ref> They later moved into the Laguna cabin. This was during the [[Great Depression]] and work was hard to find. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College.<ref>Fisher, M F K ''Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me'' (hereafter ''Stay Me'') at ix (Pantheon 1993).</ref> Mary began writing and she published her first piece - ''Pacific Village'' - in the February 1935 issue of ''[[Westways]] magazine'' (previously known as ''Touring Topics''). The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' 380</ref> In 1934, Lawrence Powell moved to Laguna with his wife Fay.<ref>''Stay Me, supra'' at ix.</ref> In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife [[Gigi Parrish]] moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 116; and ''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 52.</ref> When Al began teaching at Occidental, the Fishers initially moved to [[Eagle Rock, Los Angeles|Eagle Rock]] where the Parrishes helped them paint and fix up an older house they had rented.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 52.</ref> Unfortunately the home was sold shortly thereafter, and the Fishers had to move to another rented house in [[Highland Park, Los Angeles, California|Highland Park]].<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 82-83.</ref> Mary worked part-time in a card shop and researched old cookery books at the Los Angeles Public Library. She began writing short pieces on gastronomy. Parrish's sister Anne showed them to her publisher at Harpers who expressed an interest in them.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 53.</ref> The pieces were later to become her first book: ''Serve It Forth.'' Mary next began work on a novel she never finished; it was based on the founding of Whittier.<ref name="Poet, supra at 86">''Poet, supra'' at 86.</ref> -During this period, Mary's marriage with Al was beginning to fail. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary found herself falling in love with him. In Mary's words, she one day sat next to Parrish at the piano and told him she loved him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84.</ref> Mary's biographer Joan Reardon, however, interviewed Gigi who told a different story. She stated that Parrish told her that one night after he had dined alone with Mary, she later let herself into his house and slipped into bed with him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84 and 84 n.39.</ref> In 1935, with Al's permission, Mary traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380">''Material Dreams, supra'' at 380.</ref> The Parrishes had money and they sailed on the luxury liner Hansa.<ref name="Poet, supra at 86"/> While in Europe,they spent four days in Paris, and traveled through Provence, Languedoc, and the French Riviera.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 87-89.</ref> Mary also revisited Dijon and ate with Parrish at Aux Trois Faisans where she was recognized and served by her old friend, the waiter Charles.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54">''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 54.</ref> She later wrote a piece on their visit - ''The Standing and the Waiting'' - which was to become the centerpiece of ''Serve It Forth.''<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54"/> Upon her return from Europe, Mary informed Al of her developing relationship with Parrish.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380"/> In 1936, Dillwyn invited the Fishers to join him in creating an artists' colony at Le Paquis - a two-story stone house that Parrish had bought with his sister north of [[Vevey]], Switzerland.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 55.</ref> Notwithstanding the clear threat to his marriage, Al agreed. +During this period, Mary's marriage with Al was beginning to fail. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary found herself falling in love with him. In Mary's words, she one day sat next to Parrish at the piano and told him she loved him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84.</ref> Mary's biographer Joan Reardon, however, interviewed Gigi who told a different story. She stated that Parrish told her that one night after he had dined alone with Mary, she later let herself into his house and slipped into bed with him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84 and 84 n.39.</ref> In 1935, with Al's permission, Mary traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380">''Material Dreams, supra'' at 380.</ref> The Parrishes had money and they sailed on the luxury liner Hansa.<ref name="Poet, supra at 86"/> While in Europe,they spent four days in Paris, and traveled through Provence, Languedoc, and the French Riviera.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 87-89.</ref> Mary also revisited Dijon and ate with Parrish at Aux Trois Faisans where she was recognized and served by her old friend, the waiter Charles.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54">''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 54.</ref> She later wrote a piece on their visit - ''The Standing and the Waiting'' - which was to become the centerpiece of ''Serve It Forth.''<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54"/> Upon her return from Europe, Mary informed Al of her developing relationship with Parrish.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380"/> In 1936, Dillwyn invited the Fishers to join him in creating an artists' colony at Le Paquis - a two-story stone house that Parrish had bought with his sister north of [[Vevey]], Switzerland.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 55.</ref> Notwithstanding the clear threat to his marriage, Al agreed.afakfgahjdtrbbgjjfyyfgZdfjakkj.kkfuiuytekd11238849aghajhafuftyhjf124598876dnmdtgnsafdaguaefuio737686373.68kd ==Vevey: 1936 - 1939== [[File:SBB RBDe 560 Train des Vignes.jpg|thumb|View from Chexbres toward Vevey]]The Fishers sailed to Holland on a small Dutch passenger freighter, and from there took a train to Vevey.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 96-97.</ref> "Le Paquis" means the grazing ground. The house sat on a sloping meadow on the north shore of Lake Geneva, looking across to the snowcapped alps. They had a large garden in which:{{quote|We grew beautiful salads, a dozen different kinds, and several herbs. There were shallots and onion and garlic, and I braided them into long silky ropes and hung them over rafters in the attic.<ref>''Art of Eating, supra'' at 486-87.</ref>}} In mid-1937 Al and Mary separated. He traveled to Austria and then returned to the States where he began a distinguished career as a teacher and poet at [[Smith College]].<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 103 and 108.</ref> In a February 2, 1937 letter to Powell, Mary explained her side of the marital breakup. She stated that Al was afraid of physical love; he was sexually impotent in their marriage. Moreover he was an intellectual loner who was emotionally estranged from Mary. Mary stated that contrary to Al's belief, she had not left him for another man; she had left him because he could not satisfy her emotional and physical needs.<ref>Fisher, M F K ''A Life in Letters'' at 40-43 (Counterpoint 1997).</ref> In 1938, Mary returned home briefly to inform her parents in person of her separation and pending divorce from Al.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 109-10.</ref> '
New page size (new_size)
39568
Old page size (old_size)
39431
Size change in edit (edit_delta)
137
Lines added in edit (added_lines)
[ 0 => 'u cgagjkcajkaLJSD;/dAD,JFHKFYBack in California, Al and Mary initially moved in with Mary's family at "The Ranch."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 71.</ref> They later moved into the Laguna cabin. This was during the [[Great Depression]] and work was hard to find. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College.<ref>Fisher, M F K ''Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me'' (hereafter ''Stay Me'') at ix (Pantheon 1993).</ref> Mary began writing and she published her first piece - ''Pacific Village'' - in the February 1935 issue of ''[[Westways]] magazine'' (previously known as ''Touring Topics''). The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' 380</ref> In 1934, Lawrence Powell moved to Laguna with his wife Fay.<ref>''Stay Me, supra'' at ix.</ref> In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife [[Gigi Parrish]] moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 116; and ''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 52.</ref>', 1 => 'During this period, Mary's marriage with Al was beginning to fail. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary found herself falling in love with him. In Mary's words, she one day sat next to Parrish at the piano and told him she loved him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84.</ref> Mary's biographer Joan Reardon, however, interviewed Gigi who told a different story. She stated that Parrish told her that one night after he had dined alone with Mary, she later let herself into his house and slipped into bed with him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84 and 84 n.39.</ref> In 1935, with Al's permission, Mary traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380">''Material Dreams, supra'' at 380.</ref> The Parrishes had money and they sailed on the luxury liner Hansa.<ref name="Poet, supra at 86"/> While in Europe,they spent four days in Paris, and traveled through Provence, Languedoc, and the French Riviera.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 87-89.</ref> Mary also revisited Dijon and ate with Parrish at Aux Trois Faisans where she was recognized and served by her old friend, the waiter Charles.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54">''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 54.</ref> She later wrote a piece on their visit - ''The Standing and the Waiting'' - which was to become the centerpiece of ''Serve It Forth.''<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54"/> Upon her return from Europe, Mary informed Al of her developing relationship with Parrish.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380"/> In 1936, Dillwyn invited the Fishers to join him in creating an artists' colony at Le Paquis - a two-story stone house that Parrish had bought with his sister north of [[Vevey]], Switzerland.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 55.</ref> Notwithstanding the clear threat to his marriage, Al agreed.afakfgahjdtrbbgjjfyyfgZdfjakkj.kkfuiuytekd11238849aghajhafuftyhjf124598876dnmdtgnsafdaguaefuio737686373.68kd' ]
Lines removed in edit (removed_lines)
[ 0 => 'Back in California, Al and Mary initially moved in with Mary's family at "The Ranch."<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 71.</ref> They later moved into the Laguna cabin. This was during the [[Great Depression]] and work was hard to find. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College.<ref>Fisher, M F K ''Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me'' (hereafter ''Stay Me'') at ix (Pantheon 1993).</ref> Mary began writing and she published her first piece - ''Pacific Village'' - in the February 1935 issue of ''[[Westways]] magazine'' (previously known as ''Touring Topics''). The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach.<ref>''Material Dreams, supra'' 380</ref> In 1934, Lawrence Powell moved to Laguna with his wife Fay.<ref>''Stay Me, supra'' at ix.</ref> In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife [[Gigi Parrish]] moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends.<ref>''Passionate Years, supra'' at 116; and ''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 52.</ref>', 1 => 'During this period, Mary's marriage with Al was beginning to fail. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary found herself falling in love with him. In Mary's words, she one day sat next to Parrish at the piano and told him she loved him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84.</ref> Mary's biographer Joan Reardon, however, interviewed Gigi who told a different story. She stated that Parrish told her that one night after he had dined alone with Mary, she later let herself into his house and slipped into bed with him.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 84 and 84 n.39.</ref> In 1935, with Al's permission, Mary traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380">''Material Dreams, supra'' at 380.</ref> The Parrishes had money and they sailed on the luxury liner Hansa.<ref name="Poet, supra at 86"/> While in Europe,they spent four days in Paris, and traveled through Provence, Languedoc, and the French Riviera.<ref>''Poet, supra'' at 87-89.</ref> Mary also revisited Dijon and ate with Parrish at Aux Trois Faisans where she was recognized and served by her old friend, the waiter Charles.<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54">''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 54.</ref> She later wrote a piece on their visit - ''The Standing and the Waiting'' - which was to become the centerpiece of ''Serve It Forth.''<ref name="Pots and Pans, supra at 54"/> Upon her return from Europe, Mary informed Al of her developing relationship with Parrish.<ref name="Material Dreams, supra at 380"/> In 1936, Dillwyn invited the Fishers to join him in creating an artists' colony at Le Paquis - a two-story stone house that Parrish had bought with his sister north of [[Vevey]], Switzerland.<ref>''Pots and Pans, supra'' at 55.</ref> Notwithstanding the clear threat to his marriage, Al agreed.' ]
Whether or not the change was made through a Tor exit node (tor_exit_node)
0
Unix timestamp of change (timestamp)
1397803484