What She Ate

by Laura Shapiro

  Mrs. Nesbitt didn’t know”: Lillian Rogers Parks and Frances Spatz Leighton, The Roosevelts: A Family in Turmoil, 30.

  “Fluffy”: Ibid., 70.

  “dingy”: J. B. West with Mary Lynn Kotz, Upstairs at the White House, 27.

  “Father never told me”: James Roosevelt with Shalett, Affectionately, 382.

  “Of course, Henrietta”: Parks and Leighton, 69.

  “We leaned on salads”: Henrietta Nesbitt, The Presidential Cookbook, 124.

  “I am doing away”: Alice Rogers Hager, “The Vibrant First Hostess of the Land,” New York Times, May 14, 1933.

  “For Chinese people”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 74.

  “cornbreads and gumbos”: Ernestine Evans, memo to Mary Chamberlain, n.d., box 3, Nesbitt Papers.

  “a special sort of patriotism”: Sheila Hibben, National Cookbook, x.

  “Father, who would have been”: Elliott Roosevelt with James Brough, A Rendezvous with Destiny, 46.

  “some of that big white asparagus”: Grace Tully, F.D.R., My Boss, 114.

  “Laughing, FDR said she ought to send”: Parks and Leighton, 70.

  “I had to do a little”: Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day,” Feb. 27, 1937.

  “in a tizzy”: Nesbitt, White House Diary, 185.

  “When he said”: Ibid., 185–86.

  “I remember one day”: Bernard Asbell, ed., Mother and Daughter: The Letters of Eleanor and Anna Roosevelt, 177.

  “Eleanor and the President”: Parks and Leighton, 219.

  “They had the most separate”: West with Kotz, 23.

  “secret paradise”: Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 385.

  “ER’s Revenge”: Cook, vol. 2, 52.

  “After all, when one travels”: Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day,” March 28, 1938.

  “We went to a marvellous”: Asbell, ed., 117.

  “delicious Arab dinner”: Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day,” Feb. 15, 1952.

  “The French don’t like”: Ibid., May 3, 1951.

  “There is one art”: Ibid., Nov. 5, 1948.

  “She had no idea”: “Oral History Interview with Mrs. Marguerite Entrup,” Eleanor Roosevelt Oral History Transcripts, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, NY.

  “We all became”: Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day,” Jan. 14, 1936.

  “I did the ironing”: Eleanor Roosevelt to Hickok, Sept. 9, 10, and 11, 1936, box 4, Hickok Papers.

  “On the whole”: Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember, 350–51.

  Eva Braun

  “I could never imagine”: Gitta Sereny, Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth, 508.

  “She was of course very feminine”: Ibid., 193.

  “Eva Braun radiated”: Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich, translated by Richard and Clara Winston, 484.

  “Oh that girl”: Sereny, 532.

  “The Führer repeatedly”: Lizzie Collingham, The Taste of War, 156.

  “I’m sitting down”: Sarah Helm, Ravensbrück, 126.

  “celibate”: Janet Flanner, “Führer,” part 1, New Yorker, Feb. 29, 1936, 20.

  “Evi Braun”: “Hitler’s Girl Takes His Picture,” Life, Nov. 6, 1939, 27.

  “sources inside Germany”: Richard Norburt, “Is Hitler Married?,” Saturday Evening Post, Dec. 6, 1939, 14.

  “Obviously not good”: “Hitler’s Girl.”

  “Guten appetit”: Interview with Franziska and Fritz Braun, Sept. 4, 1948, 26, Justice Michael A. Musmanno Collection, University Archives and Special Collections, Gumberg Library, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA.

  “who volunteered”: Ibid.

  “We come from a decent”: Ibid., 1.

  “I disliked politics”: Ibid., 2.

  “That was in 1933”: Ibid., 3–5.

  “Is it true that you”: Ibid., 1.

  “I am so infinitely happy”: Diary of Eva Braun, Feb. 18, 1935, National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD.

  “mortally unhappy”: Ibid., March 4, 1935.

  “seriously ill”: Ibid., March 11, 1935.

  “Agreed that he’s been busy”: Ibid., May 28, 1935.

  “Her name is WALKURE”: Ibid., May 10, 1935.

  “decisive”: Ibid., May 28, 1935.

  “The weather is gorgeous”: Ibid., May 10, 1935.

  “On the terrace”: Albert Speer, Spandau: The Secret Diaries, translated by Richard and Clara Winston, 129.

  “a hand-painted flower pattern”: Traudl Junge, Until the Final Hour, translated by Anthea Bell, 64.

  “Two orderlies”: Ibid., 65.

  “nothing extravagant”: Quoted in Margret Nissen, Sind Sie die Tochter Speer?, 25. I am grateful to Carla Stockton for translating portions of this book.

  “Hitler himself would have”: Junge, 70.

  “stew Sundays”: Ursula Heinzelmann, Beyond Bratwurst, 260.

  “delicate stomachs”: Junge, 58.

  “Here on the Berghof”: Ibid., 73.

  “the summer residence”: Speer, Spandau, 129.

  “How nouveau riche”: Ibid., 131.

  “Most gracious and respected”: Ibid.

  “The idea of a caviar-eating Leader”: Speer, Third Reich, 128.

  “my spies”: William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary, 243.

  “Even in his meatless”: Ignatius Phayre [George Fitz-Gerald], “At Home with Hitler,” Homes & Gardens, Nov. 1938, 194.

  “He is not indifferent”: Hedwig Mauer Simpson, “Herr Hitler at Home in the Clouds,” New York Times Magazine, Aug. 20, 1939, 267.

  “trailing pink begonias”: George Ward Price, I Know These Dictators, 30.

  “the greatest German”: Stella Rudman, Lloyd George and the Appeasement of Germany, 1919–1945, 227.

  “slices of cold ham”: Thomas Jones, A Diary with Letters, 1931–1950, 249.

  liver dumplings: Therese Linke, unpublished memoir, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich. I am grateful to Ingrid MacGillis for translating this manuscript.

  “sour”: Heinz Linge, With Hitler to the End, translated by Geoffrey Brooks, 38.

  “For me, sweets”: Ibid., 133.

  “very thin pastry”: Christa Schroeder, He Was My Chief, translated by Geoffrey Brooks, 119.

  “She answered”: Interview with Traudl Junge, March 21, 1948, 4, Musmanno Collection.

  “the Italian way”: Ibid., 7.

  “She hated fat women”: Junge, 66.

  “Eva Braun cast me”: Ibid., 47.

  “had to make do”: Speer, Spandau, 55.

  “Torrents of champagne”: Bella Fromm, Blood and Banquets, 134.

  “Dinner started”: Ibid., 239.

  “It’s like a liquid symbol”: Janet Flanner, “A Reporter at Large,” New Yorker, Dec. 7, 1940, 59.

  “huge trucks”: Harry Flannery, Assignment to Berlin, 166.

  “For Ribbentrop”: “More Loot from France,” Observer, Sept. 8, 1940.

  “The Germans who are there”: Flanner, “Reporter at Large,” 57.

  “Every little bureaucrat”: Quoted in Roger Moorhouse, Berlin at War, 96.

  “wisely”: Marie Vassiltchikov, Berlin Diaries, 1940–1945, 122.

  “After a fist fight”: Ibid., 164.

  “empty rooms”: Marianne Feuersenger, Mein Kriegstagebuch, 152. I am grateful to Ursula Heinzelmann for translating portions of this book.

  “all needed big houses”: Speer, Third Reich, 217.

  “She had a very natural”: Linge, 39.

  “rather strict”: Interview, 10, Musmanno Collection.

  “She opened a file”: Quoted in Anna Maria Sigmund, Women of the Third Reich, 167.

  “Deutschland, Deutschland”: Album 6, Eva Braun’s Photo Albums, 1913–1944, National Archives at College Park, College Park,
MD.

  “I shan’t go on living”: Eva Braun to Adolf Hitler, quoted in Angela Lambert, The Lost Life of Eva Braun, 395.

  “Everything is kept secret”: Quoted in ibid., 337.

  “silvery blue brocade”: Junge, 159.

  “Children, I wish you”: Henrik Eberle and Matthias Uhl, eds., The Hitler Book, translated by Giles MacDonogh, 258.

  “I want to be”: Junge, 177.

  “I cannot understand”: Eva Braun to Herta Schneider, quoted in Lambert, 426.

  “Why do so many more”: Speer, Third Reich, 484.

  “the only person”: Ibid.

  “Unfortunately my diamond”: Eva Braun to Gretl Fegelein, quoted in Lambert, 430.

  “the Fuhrer’s favourite”: Junge, 187.

  “We just thought”: Helm, Ravensbrück, 617.

  Barbara Pym

  “[We] stopped at a beautiful”: Julia Child to Avis DeVoto, March 4, 1953, Julia Child Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

  “faded lettuce”: P. Morton Shand, A Book of Food, 13.

  “Our Cooking”: “Lambs’ Tails and Hop-Tops,” Manchester Guardian, March 29, 1932.

  “It was a time”: Quoted in Michael Bateman, Cooking People, 156.

  “Soup, jelly”: MS Pym 53, March 1, 1961, Papers of Barbara Mary Crampton Pym, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

  “In the dining-room”: Barbara Pym, Some Tame Gazelle, 13.

  “Boiled Chicken with Special Sauce”: Helen Simpson, The Cold Table, 92.

  “stringy cabbage”: Pym, Gazelle, 206.

  “Life’s problems”: Barbara Pym, No Fond Return of Love, 13.

  “tame”: John Betjeman, “In London, SW 1,” Daily Telegraph, March 14, 1952.

  “tragic”: See Nicola Shulman, “To Marry or to Smoulder Gently,” Times Literary Supplement, Dec. 25, 1987, 1420; Hilary Laurie, “An Indexer Observes,” Times Literary Supplement, July 29, 1988, 832; Margaret Bradham, “Lonesome Piners,” Times Literary Supplement, Sept. 8, 1989, 967; Lorna Sage, review of Less Than Angels, Observer, Aug. 8, 1993.

  “wanly Christian”: John Updike, “Lem and Pym,” New Yorker, Feb. 26, 1979, 115.

  “11 March 1938”: MS Pym 103, March 11, 1938.

  “the loveliest cocktail”: Ibid., 102, Nov. 25, 1933.

  “huge toast sandwiches”: Ibid., 101, March 5, 1938.

  “We had eggs”: Ibid., 103, March 5, 1938.

  “Our greater English poets”: Pym, Gazelle, 81.

  “snatched kisses”: MS Pym 110, Sept. 17, 1944.

  “There is so much”: Pym to Henry Harvey, Feb. 20, 1946, quoted in Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym, eds., A Very Private Eye, 251.

  “More household detail”: MS Pym 3, [1945].

  “but the food isn’t bad”: Ibid., 102, March 29, 1934.

  “Two women at my table”: Ibid., 40, [1948].

  “This middle-aged lady”: Ibid., 41, [1950].

  “The back view”: Ibid., 43, [1952–1953].

  “In the hotel”: Ibid., 40, Sept. 27, 1948.

  “Later (in Lyons)”: Ibid., 65, Dec. 12, 1967.

  “What is this”: Ibid., 41, [1950].

  “Dear Colleague”: Ibid., 45, [1954].

  SECRET LOVE: Ibid., 48, Oct. 5, 1956.

  “and he didn’t like it”: Ibid., 49, Aug. 8, 1957.

  “Often it is just”: Ibid., 98, “The Novelist’s Use of Every-day Life,” [1950s].

  “Hazel and I”: Ibid., 60, Dec. 27, 1964.

  “Food—a fresh salad”: Ibid., 40, [1948].

  “impoverished gentlewomen”: Barbara Pym, Excellent Women, 12.

  “I washed a lettuce”: Ibid., 156.

  “How one learns to dread”: Elizabeth David, Summer Cooking, 26.

  “I went upstairs”: Pym, Excellent Women, 174.

  “curried whale”: Ibid., 102.

  “a very nice bird”: Ibid., 254.

  “After the service”: Ibid., 134.

  “a woman’s meal”: Ibid., 174.

  “Why is it that men”: Pym to Robert Smith, Dec. 8, 1963, MS Pym 162/1.

  “quite extraordinary deadness”: A. N. Wilson, introduction to Pym, Excellent Women (Penguin), xv.

  “is regarded as an extraordinary”: Ibid., xiii.

  “Man fussing about wine”: MS Pym 40, [1948].

  “‘It might,’ he said seriously”: Pym, Excellent Women, 67.

  “mousy”: Ibid., 7.

  “I sat down”: Ibid., 14.

  “This uncompromisingly English”: Evelyn Board, The Right Way to His Heart, 71.

  “sometimes smelled of garlic”: Barbara Pym, Less Than Angels, 26.

  “Oh, what joy”: Ibid., 104.

  “to perfection”: Pym, No Fond Return of Love, 144.

  “like Americans”: Barbara Pym, An Unsuitable Attachment, 30.

  “boiled baby”: Pym, No Fond Return of Love, 95.

  “How would she eat”: MS Pym 50, April 8, 1958.

  “a dry sausage roll”: Ibid., 49, March 14, 1957.

  “delicious creamy cake”: Ibid., 62, Oct. 26, 1965.

  “Macaroni Bolognaise”: Ibid., 45, Oct. 11, 1954.

  “Tio Pepe, ravioli”: Ibid., 61, March 30, 1965.

  “gorgeous roast beef”: Ibid., 47, Oct. 7, 1955.

  “We had much congenial talk”: Ibid., 77, March 3, 1977.

  “I am writing”: Pym to Robert Smith, Sept. 29, 1974, MS Pym 162/2.

  “fish fingers”: MS Pym 65, Aug. 18, 1968.

  “Miracle Whip??”: Ibid., 66, [1970].

  “Vin rouge”: Ibid., 60, [1956].

  “Coke, Beaujolais”: Ibid., 65, Aug. 18, 1968.

  “veal escalopes”: Ibid., 48, [1956].

  “Pesto Alle Genovese”: Ibid., 79, June 24, 1978.

  “We ate kipper paté”: Ibid., 77, April 23, 1977.

  “Sunday—eggs and bacon”: Ibid., 75, Feb. 22–28, 1976.

  “our Indian cooking”: Pym to Robert Smith, May 11, 1978, MS Pym 162/2.

  “all those Sundays”: MS Pym 40, [1949].

  “Tin fruit”: Ibid., 49, Jan. 1957.

  “Steak, etc.”: Ibid., 60, Feb. 2, 1965.

  “Here, she knew”: Barbara Pym, Jane and Prudence, 198.

  “where great joints”: Barbara Pym, A Glass of Blessings, 98.

  “The first picture”: Raymond Postgate, ed., The Good Food Guide, 1951–1952, 25.

  “Real cream”: Ibid., 70.

  “real coffee”: Ibid.

  “real mayonnaise”: Ibid., 47.

  “duckling which really is”: Ibid., 59.

  “home-cured mild sweet”: Ibid., 144.

  “good, plain English”: Ibid., 99.

  “the best place for ravioli”: Ibid., 185.

  “the authentic, best cuisine”: Ibid., 198.

  “Food rich, substantial”: Ibid., 184.

  “an excellent little restaurant”: Ibid., 183.

  “smorrebrod”: Ibid., 187.

  “Pekinese chicken noodle”: Ibid., 185.

  “Arroz alla Valenciana”: Ibid., 196.

  “Apfel strudel”: Ibid., 186.

  “They were only tolerable”: Raymond Postgate, ed., The Good Food Guide, 1963–1964, xii.

  “roast woodcock”: Postgate, ed., Guide, 1951–1952, 153.

  “splendidly cooked chateaubriand”: Ibid., 47.

  “first-class French chef”: Ibid., 164.

  “delicious jugged hare”: Ibid., 113.

  “unexpectedly high quality”: Ibid., 25.

  “only French butter”: Postgate, ed., Guide, 1963–1964, 423.

  “Several of us”: Wren Howard to Pym, March 19, 1963, MS Pym 164.


  “was really run down”: Nicholas Wroe, “Talent Spotter,” Guardian, March 12, 2005.

  “For my first seven years”: Tom Maschler, Publisher, 64.

  “I have got a new typewriter”: Pym to Robert Smith, May 24, 1963, MS Pym 162/1.

  “mild novels”: Ibid., June 11, 1963, MS Pym 162/1.

  “so well written”: Ibid., March 24, 1970, MS Pym 162/2.

  “I am bound to admit”: Ibid., Sept. 14, 1971, MS Pym 162/2

  “perfection of taste”: Ibid., Jan. 26, 1970, MS Pym 162/2

  “in perfect taste”: Ibid., March 24, 1970, MS Pym 162/2.

  “accomplished”: Ibid., Nov. 6, 1970, MS Pym 162/2.

  “it was ‘virtually impossible’”: Ibid., March 7, 1972, MS Pym 162/2.

  “They are all like SHEEP”: Ibid., Dec. 3, 1969, MS Pym 162/1.

  “a delicious book”: Review by Siriol Hugh-Jones, Tatler, Feb. 1, 1961, in Yvonne Cocking, Barbara in the Bodleian, 163.

  “amusing”: Marie Hannah, “Trouble Brewing,” Times Literary Supplement, Nov. 18, 1955, 685.

  “My new novel”: Pym to Smith, Jan. 23, 1964, MS Pym, 162/1.

  “I have finished”: Ibid., Sept. 26, 1967, MS Pym 162/1.

  “I am trying”: Ibid., April 2, 1968, MS Pym 162/1.

  “Lunch at the Royal”: MS Pym 65, July 31, 1968.

  “Is there a rather good”: Ibid., 69, April 9, 1971.

  “I think, why”: Ibid., 70, May 10, 1972.

  “What is wrong”: Ibid., 68, Nov. 9, 1970.

  “‘Notebook of an unsuccessful’”: Ibid., 68, Sept. 6, 1970.

  “a failing novelist”: Ibid., 69, Nov. 10, 1971.

  “an unpublished novelist”: Ibid., 76, Dec. 13, 1976.

  “Miss Pym (a failure)”: Ibid., 59, [1964].

  “charlatan”: “Reputations Revisited,” Times Literary Supplement, Jan. 21, 1977, 66.

  “almost any contemporary”: Ibid.

  “Young girls in love”: Ibid.

  “my name appeared”: MS Pym 76, [Jan. 1977].

  “Hilary and I invented”: Quoted in Hazel Holt, A Lot to Ask, 254.

  “I sometimes think”: A talk to the Senior Wives Fellowship, United Reform Church Hall, Headlington, May 15, 1978, MS Pym 98.

  “(Finstock. Barn Cottage Restaurant . . .)”: Pym to Smith, July 15, 1977, MS Pym 162/2.

  “awful good food guide”: MS Pym 77, March 7, 1977.

  “tasting, sampling”: Barbara Pym, A Few Green Leaves, 10.

  “That celery”: Ibid., 25.