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Sign up todayThe Gourmands’ Way
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Learn moreA biography of six writers on food and wine whose lives and careers intersected in mid-twentieth-century France
During les trente glorieuses―a thirty-year boom period in France between the end of World War II and the 1974 oil crisis―Paris was not only the world’s most delicious, stylish, and exciting tourist destination; it was also the world capital of gastronomic genius and innovation. The Gourmands’ Way explores the lives and writings of six Americans who chronicled the food and wine of “the glorious thirty,” paying particular attention to their individual struggles as writers, to their life circumstances, and, ultimately, to their particular genius at sharing awareness of French food with mainstream American readers. In doing so, this group biography also tells the story of an era when America adored all things French. The group is comprised of the war correspondent A. J. Liebling; Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein’s life partner, who reinvented herself at seventy as a cookbook author; M. F. K. Fisher, a sensualist and fabulist storyteller; Julia Child, a television celebrity and cookbook author; Alexis Lichine, an ambitious wine merchant; and Richard Olney, a reclusive artist who reluctantly evolved into a brilliant writer on French food and wine.
Together, these writer-adventurers initiated an American cultural dialogue on food that has continued to this day. Justin Spring’s The Gourmands’ Way is the first book ever to look at them as a group and to specifically chronicle their Paris experiences.
Justin Spring is the author of two previous biographies: Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art and Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, the latter a finalist for the National Book Award. His writing on visual art includes monographs and museum catalogs, most recently Andy Warhol: Fame and Misfortune and Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude. He is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Leon Levy Center for Biography, and numerous universities.
Bronson Pinchot, Audible’s Narrator of the Year for 2010, has won Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Awards, AudioFile Earphones Awards, Audible’s Book of the Year Award, and Audie Awards for several audiobooks, including Matterhorn, Wise Blood, Occupied City, and The Learners. A magna cum laude graduate of Yale, he is an Emmy- and People’s Choice-nominated veteran of movies, television, and Broadway and West End shows. His performance of Malvolio in Twelfth Night was named the highlight of the entire two-year Kennedy Center Shakespeare Festival by the Washington Post. He attended the acting programs at Shakespeare & Company and Circle-in-the-Square, logged in well over 200 episodes of television, starred or costarred in a bouquet of films, plays, musicals, and Shakespeare on Broadway and in London, and developed a passion for Greek revival architecture.
Reviews
“An entertaining look at a half-dozen American writers and enthusiastic eaters…Spring juggles all six of his subjects’ stories ably, treating them with affection while dispensing criticism where appropriate.”
“A well-crafted and entertaining book in which readers will constantly find something new to think about or discuss, particularly at the dinner table.”
“Spring’s book is a wonderful culinary history.”
"[Spring] has packed an enormous amount of material into this book, which is erudite, gossipy, entertaining, and eminently readable.”
“An entirely new perspective on a group of people we thought we knew….[from a] biographer who seems to have left no diary unopened, no letter unread, no manuscript unscrutinized.”
“Clear, confident, witty prose supported by robust research carries the day in this absorbing work.”
“The broad outline of Spring’s thesis is so persuasive, the details so evocative), that anyone interested in the evolution of cooking in America will find The Gourmands’ Way informative and indispensable.”
“Spring’s book is both a critical and highly entertaining chronicle…Spring brings each of his six subjects (as well as a fair share of colorful side characters who orbit them) to life with psychological insight and a sharp focus on historical context, backing up his findings with meticulous, near-forensic research.”
“A stunning account of six eclectic, electric personalities…It is fascinating to read how these six figures discovered French food, wine, and cooking and how each developed a specialty and then brought that knowledge to a public eager to read about it all…[The Gourmands’ Way is] a literary meal both luscious and lively—and essential to understanding our vacillating love affair with the French.”
“So different and yet so similar, these heroes of mine—writers, gourmands and adventurers who were passionately curious about French cuisine, wines, and lifestyle—immersed themselves in the culinary culture of Paris. Their writing had a transformational impact in the US and initiated the American gastronomic revolution that began in the 70s.”
“A brilliant, informative, and entertaining study…The charm of Justin Spring’s book comes from the light touch with which he brings to life the literary and political background of the postwar years in France, his impeccable knowledge of all things culinary, and his talent for ferreting out the most telling and amusing anecdotes.”
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