by Bob Spitz
His résumé reads like a fractured mosaic: “Supplemental Personal History Statement of Paul Child,” PC, diary entry, December 22, 1942, SA.
“She was cool, ironic”: Duncan Kennedy, interview with author, May 14, 2009.
“life-affirming”: “One night, when we were having dinner with Paul and Julia, my wife asked Paul what Edith was like, and he said ‘life-affirming.’ ” Ibid.
“If swamp mire nurtures”: PC, diary entry, May 1938, SA.
“damn good,” “gorgeously composed”: Duncan Kennedy interview.
he’d befriended Edward Steichen: Rachel Child interview.
possessed of great poise and pragmatism: Jon Child interview, July 29, 2010.
“an emotional anchor”: Erica Prud’homme interview, March 31, 2009.
her money gave him freedom: “Her money was never spoken of, but that’s what paid for Charlie’s career.” Martha Coigney, interview with author, November 16, 2009.
“beloved,” “heroic”: Erica Prud’homme interview, March 31, 2009.
“who spoiled” him and “made [their] relationship”: PC, diary entry, 1945, SA.
“She can’t read”: PC, letter to family, July 20, 1942, SA.
“that dreadful summer in Cambridge”: PC, letter to family, late July 1942, SA.
took up mechanical drawing: “I began to teach myself mechanical drawing at night in her room, using a shaky card table and a secondhand text book. I had to do something.” PC, letter to family, late July 1942, SA.
“It was strange,” Rachel recalled: Rachel Child interview.
“I suppose I shall never again”: PC, letter to family, February 1945, SA.
“out of a sense of patriotism”: “When the war started, they both went to Washington.” Erica Prud’homme interview, March 31, 2009.
Neither Paul nor Charlie was eager: “They talked up a big steam about it, but I know they were relieved when it turned out they were too old. They were scared.” Rachel Child interview.
He turned to an old Harvard buddy: This was Paul Nitze, who became a principal author of the Marshall Plan and served as Secretary of the Navy under JFK and LBJ. Museum of Living History, www.newseum.org.
“super-secret war devices”: PC, Washington journal, April 18, 1943, SA.
as well as animation for wartime instructional: “Two more hours were spent … with some aviators from a carrier who want [us] to do an animation job for 1them showing the eight major faults in landing a plane on a carrier’s flight deck.” Ibid.
“This highlights the ideas”: PC, Washington journal, November 6, 1943, SA.
“This could be it,” he concluded: Ibid.
“And by the way, you’ll fall heavily”: PC, Washington journal, November 5, 1943, SA.
Seven A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
“far removed from reality”: MacDonald, Undercover Girl, p. 132.
“Why did I come over as Registry?”: JC, diary entry, April 1944.
“I was a playgirl”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 95.
“It wasn’t like lightning”: Edith Efron, “Dinner with Julia Child,” TV Guide, p. 46.
“I thought not at all nice looking”: JC, diary entry, May 27, 1944.
But later that month: “I took another trip to Dambulla … with Sam, Jack, and Julia—fine day.” PC, letter to Charlie Child, July 27, 1944, SA.
“She has a somewhat ragged”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, July 9, 1944, SA.
“fun … always the most personable”: Byron Martin in Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 95.
“a bit of a know-it-all”: Fisher Howe, interview with author, February 24, 2009.
“I am one of the few really mature”: PC, letter to family, September 22, 1944, SA.
“What I want, I miss, I need”: Ibid.
Paul sent Charlie a grainy snapshot of her: “The 6’2” bien-jambée from Pasadena.” PC, letter to Charlie Child, July 19, 1944, SA.
“look of anticipatory lechery”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, October 11, 1945, SA.
“lovely legs, very tall”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, January 23, 1945, SA.
“I decided I thought Paul”: JC, diary entry, September 1944.
“desperate remedies”: Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, p. 1.
“fourteen to sixteen hours”: A. C. Wedermeyer, letter to William Donovan, September 20, 1944, SA.
building a war room: From an undated letter in PC’s OSS file, SA.
“I believe she would marry me”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, September 7, 1944, SA.
He appreciated her passions: “She is a gourmet and likes to cook.” [This, of course, was a complete projection on Paul’s part. Julia loved to eat, but cooking, even boiling water, would have been a stretch.] “She is devoted to music.” Ibid.
“a sloppy mess”: Tuchman, Stilwell, p. 250.
“on two hours’ notice”: “I left Ceylon with enormous suddenness …” PC, letter to Betsy and George Kubler, February 3, 1945, SA.
There were also some rumblings: “In a letter to a former colleague in Kandy, Julia confided that the OSS intended to send her to Calcutta, … and that she indeed received ‘propositions.’ ” Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 113.
“through air currents so turbulent”: Tuchman, Stilwell, p. 387.
“You could look down”: Fisher Howe interview.
“the most hazardous flight route”: Tuchman, Stilwell, p. 316.
“We were caught in a storm”: Betty McIntosh, interview with author, June 28, 2009.
“who calmly read a book”: McIntosh, Sisterhood of Spies, p. 296.
Jacques Pépin would later joke: Jacques Pépin, interview with author, January 6, 2009.
China was odd: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 110.
Kunming was a medieval walled city: USA China Corps, www.usachina-corp.com/resources/china-factbook/Kunming-china-factbook.html.
“ominous and austere”: Eleanor Thiry to Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 110.
“secret currency”: Ibid., p. 108.
“dull, slow, dense”: JC, diary entry, March 1945.
“extremely fond of her”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, August 8, 1945, SA.
“There were a lot of attractive women”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 117.
“wonderfully interesting and alive”: Shapiro, Julia Child, p. 15.
“When am I going to meet”: Ibid.
Julia suffered from being compared: “I cannot seem to rid myself of the touchstone of Edith, against which I try the others.” PC, letter to Charlie Child, May 19, 1945, SA.
“Christ, there are only a few”: “[She had] an Ali Baba’s cave of the best human qualities.” PC, letter to Charlie Child, January 28, 1945, SA.
“I don’t see why the Indians”: Shapiro, Julia Child, p. 17.
“the terrible army food”: JC, “How I Learned to Love Cooking,” p. 13.
“The Chinese food was wonderful”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 114.
“making these great swooping, slurping”: Ibid.
And he was a virtuoso: “Paul taught me how to use chopsticks, and ever since I’ve been pretty proficient.” JC interview.
“I feel lost”: PC, letter to Freddie Child, January 23, 1945, SA.
“one of the clichés of human life”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, October 2, 1944, SA.
“a wildly stimulating spot”: “Chungking … I rate as one of the world’s most fascinating cities.” PC, letter to Freddie Child, January 23, 1945, SA.
“This busted and ragged city”: PC, letter to Betsy and George Kubler, February 3, 1945, SA.
A different kind of shell shock silenced: “The sudden end of the war was taken in stride, with no noise, and work going on as unremitting as ever.” PC, letter to Charlie Child, August 12, 1945, SA.
“How like the Autumn’s warmth”: PC, “A Birthday Sonnet for Julia,” August 15, 1945, SA.
“become extremely fond”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, August 16, 1945, SA.
; “eight or ten different regional”: “That was just great … an unexampled chance to eat this wonderful food.” JC, Smith College memoir, p. 31.
reading Hemingway’s short stories: “Julia is here beside me, and we have been reading aloud to each other from a collection of Hemingway’s short stories.” PC letter to Charlie Child, September 19, 1945, SA.
“One was about sex”: Betty McIntosh in Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 120.
“I am not the woman for him”: JC, diary entry, August 1945.
“Everything is shifting”: “We are still engaged in wildly dramatic exploits.” PC, letter to Charlie Child, August 18, 1945, SA.
he was drawing maps: PC, letter to Charlie Child, September 13, 1945, SA.
They made tentative plans to have Thanksgiving: “I have invited Julia (Julie) McWilliams to join us for Thanksgiving dinner.” PC, letter to Charlie Child, October 11, 1945, SA.
Paul and Julia enjoyed a farewell dinner: “Last night, Julie and I went again to our favorite restaurant in town, a Peking-cuisine place called Ho-The-Foo.” PC, letter to Charlie Child, October 8, 1945, SA.
“It was a strange life, dislocated”: JC, Smith College memoir, p. 29.
“We were, by that time, fairly”: PC, Smith College memoir.
“a splendid old palace”: PC, letter to Betsy and George Kubler, October 15, 1945, SA.
“a nostalgic sense of forlorn majesty”: Ibid.
“Beloved Julie”: PC, letter to JC, October 15, 1945, SA.
Eight LUCKY TO BE ALIVE
Julia toyed with seeking work: “I haven’t looked around for opportunities in Hollywood yet, but plan to shake my antennae at them.” JC, letter to PC, February 1, 1946, SA.
“What have you done to me”: “When I read one of your letters I am engulfed with pleasurable warmth and delight.” JC, letter to PC, January 15, 1946, SA.
“You play a leading role”: PC, letter to JC, February 6, 1946, SA.
“I want to see you, touch you”: PC, letter to JC, April 26, 1946, SA.
“I am only existing until”: JC, letter to PC, May 7, 1946, SA.
“We can eat each other”: “Why don’t you come to Washington and be my cook?” PC, letter to JC, May 16, 1946, SA.
“comfortable and lovely, but not for me”: JC, letter to PC, February 1, 1946, SA.
He’d had an offer to teach in Peking: “[Al] Ravenholt has lined up a job for me in Peking (if I want it) at Yenching University.” PC, letter to Charlie Child, September 13, 1945, SA.
“I should have been making contacts”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, September 22, 1944, SA.
“unusual number of talents”: “It will probably be useful to remind myself that I am liked and appreciated for myself, that I have an unusual number of talents.” PC, diary entry, January 23, 1948, SA.
“If you could find your niche”: JC, letter to PC, March 19, 1946, SA.
“coming out of [her] cocoon”: “I am gradually coming out of my cocoon and looking around at life as it is to be lived.” JC, letter to PC, February 1, 1946, SA.
“I am starting on The Cosmological Eye”: JC, letter to PC, January 25, 1946.
She’d already clawed her way: “I have been reading Hayakawa’s semantics, and it is good stuff.” JC, letter to PC, February 10, 1946, SA.
“Ah, life,” she sighed: JC, letter to PC, March 19, 1946, SA.
everyone, that is, except for Julia’s father: “He just plain didn’t like Paul.” Jo McWilliams, interview with author, May 5, 2009.
“quite stale and stultified”: “She has been here since 1941 and is quite stale.” JC, letter to PC, February 1, 1946, SA.
Julia’s opinion that “she needs to cut loose”: JC, letter to PC, April 22, 1946, SA.
“a vigorous and attractive fellow”: “He is really fine-looking I think.” Ibid.
his “Republican attitudes”: Ibid.
“Julia and her father just disagreed”: Jo McWilliams interview.
“we ended up not being able to agree”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 133.
“I think they get along with each other”: JC, letter to PC, April 22, 1946, SA.
“quite a dame!”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, undated, SA.
“She’s direct and simple”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, undated, SA.
“We had heard about Julia in the letters”: Erica Prud’homme, interview with author, March 31, 2009.
“They looked so happy”: “I remember them coming through the woods.” Rachel Child, interview with author, April 7, 2009, SA.
“I liked her from the moment”: Jon Child, interview with author, April 8, 2009.
Julia and Freddie hit it off: “My mom took to Julie right away.” Rachel Child interview.
“He was very gregarious”: Erica Prud’homme interview.
“self-centered and cocky”: Pat Pratt, interview with author, December 2, 2008.
“was an exact copy of Paul”: Ibid.
“terribly rudimentary”: Erica Prud’homme interview.
“There was a system”: Jon Child interview.
“She loved the house”: Rachel Child interview.
“Word around the house was”: Jon Child interview.
“in service to the old-fashioned culinary”: Brochure, Hillcliffe School of Cookery, undated, private collection.
“I do love to cook”: JC, letter to PC, April 22, 1946, SA.
friends brought her several ducks: “Last Saturday, I went duck shooting, got two and missed seven, but was given ten more for a duck dinner.” JC, letter to PC, January 15, 1946, SA.
“awfully easy when the tricks are known”: “I have recently and successfully made a most satisfactory, light, delectable béarnaise sauce.” JC, letter to PC, March 19, 1946, SA.
“My mother taught Julia how to cook”: Erica Prud’homme interview.
“She possessed more than a touch”: Charles Child, Roots in the Rock, p. 123.
“We were all abuzz”: Rachel Child interview.
the village of Blueville: “As a young person, Charlie had worked in Blueville, for a professor at Harvard who had two sons. And he looked across at this island and said, ‘Some day I’m going to have a house there.’ ” Ibid.
He believed that Julia could have done better: “Julia didn’t marry who he would have liked her to marry.” Jo McWilliams interview.
whose politics were more in line: “Chandler was, in his later years, a total reactionary.” Dennis McDougal, interview with author, October 27, 2009.
again refused Harrison Chandler: “I have finally told a fellow who has been sucking around for years with 2 million $ … that it was high time he got married and stopped wasting his time.” JC, letter to PC, February 1, 1946, SA.
“got Julia and Paul off”: Dort McWilliams in Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 144.
“gallivanting around Europe”: “Charlie and Paul didn’t like her.” Erica Prud’homme interview.
Paul glanced in the rearview mirror: Erica Prud’homme, interview with author, September 9, 2010.
“hit the windshield”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 142.
“lucky to be alive”: Rachel Child interview.
“exuberant”: “Julia was exuberant and warm and gorgeous.” Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 143.
“Julia was tall”: Jon Child interview.
Nine DEVOURING PARIS WHOLE
Tourists, like Julia’s father: JC, My Life in France, p. 13. Julia maintains her father had “never actually been to Europe,” but he visited Egypt and then France with her mother, just after they’d met.
Pigeonneau Cocotte Forestiére: Menu, Hôtel de la Couronne, Julia Child Birthday Album, August 2004, WGBH Archives, p. 28.
“spoke [French] beautifully”: “Paul had lived and worked in France in the 1920s, spoke the language beautifully, and adored French food and wine.” JC, My Life, p. 12.
“absurd”: “At first, I thought the way he talked about food was absurd.” JC, interview with author, September 16, 1992.
“There were days in the Registry”: Ibid.
“It was a lovely little place”: Ibid.
“25 cookbooks on the shelf”: PC, letter to George and Betty Kubler, February 9, 1947, SA.
“I was not much of a cook”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 149.
“I put it in the oven for twenty”: “I needed better directions.” Ibid.
“I was hopeless”: JC interview.
“the simplicity of art, the purity”: Olney, Simple French Food, p. 10.
“She made a chowder with cod”: Charlotte Snyder Turgeon, interview with author, October 14, 2008.
“Paul loved brilliant talk”: JC interview.
“She was completely unmolded”: “Paul told me that he was determined to create the adult Julia.” Pat Pratt, interview with author, December 2, 2008.
“slight atmosphere of hysteria”: This was a character trait of Julia’s that Paul often referenced in the days before they were married. PC, letter to Charlie Child, October 7, 1944, SA.
“the creaking of flames downstairs”: “I opened the bedroom door. Whoosh!” PC, letter to George and Betsy Kubler, February 9, 1947, SA.
While Charlie and Freddie were obliging: “There was real tension between Paul and Charlie—and there had been all their lives.” Pratt interview.
Paul and Charlie would be squeezed out of: “Both Charlie and I will be officially squeezed out of the Department on March 15th.” PC, letter to George and Betsy Kubler, March 6, 1947, SA.
“average men with average minds”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, September 1, 1945, SA.
“do visual presentation graphics”: PC, letter to Charlie Child, October 2, 1944, SA.
“If you could find your niche”: JC, letter to PC, March 19, 1946, SA.
fuel his “various anxieties and fears”: “Well, I allowed myself to suffer a sense of inferiority vis-à-vis Charlie.” PC, diary entry, January 23, 1948, SA.
“marrying a girl with a good income”: Ibid.
“sucking at the govt. tit”: PC, letter to George and Betsy Kubler, October 26, 1948, SA.
Paul’s job title: PC, letter to Jefferson Caffery, U.S. Ambassador to Paris, September 30, 1948, SA.