Provence, 1970
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10 Eleanor Friede: Eleanor Kask Friede had married Donald Friede after he and M.F. divorced in 1950. She worked in publishing in New York, and became a good friend of M.F.’s and stepmother to her children. Donald Friede died in 1965.
11 “Perhaps Kip Fadiman”: M.F. to Eleanor Friede, February 13, 1971, Schlesinger.
12 “As for Beard”: M.F. to Gingrich, December 31, 1970, Schlesinger.
13 “as for talking about ‘us as us’ ”: Ibid.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: TWILIGHT OF THE SNOBS
1 “caught in unmentionable locations”: Fisher, With Bold Knife and Fork, p. 59.
2 There were stern dissertations: Described in M.F.’s 1970 journal, Fisher papers.
3 “valuable innovation”: Olney to James Olney, December 1970, Olney papers.
4 “I immediately tried it”: Ibid.
5 “nasty, vicious old cow”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 127.
6 “Simon-pure French”: Hazelton, “Genghis Khan’s Sauerkraut and Other Edibles,” New York Times, December 6, 1970.
7 “I am completely puzzled”: Olney to James Olney, December 1970, Olney papers. 155 “huge, gentle and benign”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 127.
8 “salt-free, alcohol-free”: Ibid.
9 “I have no idea”: Olney to James Olney, December 1970, Olney papers.
10 “He had arrived at the oracular period”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 139.
11 “selfishness and willingness to use friends”: Ibid., p. 136.
12 “I continue to moon around”: Olney to Beard, April 1972, Fales.
13 “Of course, I would teach him”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 178.
14 “deeply introspective”: Beard to M.F., July 28, 1972, Schlesinger.
15 “small and crisp”: M.F. to Gingrich, December 15, 1970, Schlesinger.
16 “Picasso was a happy man”: M.F. to Gingrich, December 13, 1970, Schlesinger.
17 “not into breaking up friends’ love relationships”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 128.
18 “Shrimp tails”: The menu described, ibid., p. 127.
19 “Some pleasant wines”: Bedford described the trip in a letter to Child, February 16, 1977, Schlesinger.
20 “We were living”: Bedford, Quicksands, p. 359.
21 Harper had attended the masquerade: The costumes were described in a letter, M.F. to Norah Barr, October 12, 1980, Schlesinger.
22 “admirable”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 127.
23 “do more than stand here”: M.F. journal, September 15, 1963, Fisher papers, quoted in Reardon, Poet of the Appetites, p. 302.
24 “We all sat there in the living room”: M.F. to Gingrich, September 2, 1970, Schlesinger.
25 “black as coal,” Ibid.
26 “The fact that she’s a television star”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 225.
27 “She remains sweet”: Ibid., p. 127.
28 “A pompous buffoon”: Ibid., p. 140.
29 “A pathetic creature”: Olney to James Olney, December 18, 1970, Olney papers.
30 “Bitter … irrationally anti-French”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 196.
31 “I came away feeling rather unclean”: Olney to James Olney, December 18, 1970, Olney papers.
32 “mad old Sybille”: Ibid.
33 “critical, negative, destructive”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 128.
34 “interminable and pointless”: Ibid.
35 “Very nice”: Ibid., p. 127.
36 “Trash”: Ibid.
37 “In Escoffier’s Guide Culinaire”: Olney, The French Menu Cookbook, p. 18.
38 “I have a feeling”: Olney to James Olney, December 18, 1970, Olney papers.
39 “Eda and Sybille were also there”: Olney to Beard, fall 1972, Fales.
40 “You don’t r-e-a-l-l-y”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 145.
41 “Her observations”: Ibid.
42 “Of course I am not supposed to say this”: Ibid., p. 240.
CHAPTER TWELVE: ESCAPE
1 avoiding any prickly remarks: Described in M.F.’s 1970 journal, Fisher papers.
2 the prospect of seeming sneaky: Ibid.
3 “I should be packing”: M.F. to Gingrich, December 16, 1970, Schlesinger.
4 like trying to find another Sheila Hibben: This scene is described in a letter, M.F. to Gingrich, December 16, 1970, Schlesinger.
5 “Dear Julia and Paul and Jim”: M.F. to Childs and Beard, December 16, 1970, Schlesinger.
6 “The Making of a Masterpiece”: McCall’s, October 1970.
7 “I am finished working”: Quotes and details from this scene are from Child, My Life in France, pp. 309–310.
8 “Now I don’t have to be”: Quoted in Shapiro, Julia Child: A Life, p. 93.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE GHOST OF ARLES AND AVIGNON
1 The restaurants were closed: All of the scenes and quotes in this chapter, except where noted, are from M.F.’s 1970 journal, Fisher papers.
2 “I know, at this far date”: M.F. to Gingrich, November 6, 1970, Schlesinger.
3 “It’s not the weather”: M.F. to Gingrich, December 21, 1970, Schlesinger.
4 “To hell with Noël”: M.F.’s 1971 journal, Fisher papers.
5 “All I did was cook”: M.F. to Hal Bieler, December 9, 1969, Schlesinger, quoted in Reardon, Poet of the Appetites, p. 367.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: CHRISTMAS AND RÉVEILLON
1 “Do come!”: Childs to M.F., late December 1970, Schlesinger.
2 “gossipy profession”: Child to Beard, September 28, 1968, Schlesinger.
3 “I am certain Pan Am”: Beard to Childs, December 28, 1970, Schlesinger.
4 “red gout chair”: Ibid.
5 “Some progress”: Ibid.
6 “Soupe de l’enfant Barbue”: Ibid.
7 “thump-thump-thump”: Jones, The Tenth Muse, p. 83.
8 “What a dear pair”: Child to Beard, January 5, 1971, Schlesinger.
9 “The pâté de bécasse”: Jones, The Tenth Muse, p. 86.
10 “Just like pulling the cork”: Ibid., p. 87.
11 “Precise measures bore me”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 219.
12 “The implication was”: Jones, The Tenth Muse, p. 58.
13 “Although a pint of water”: Child, From Julia Child’s Kitchen, p. 673.
14 “Poor old Julia”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 219.
15 “After all”: Child, From Julia Child’s Kitchen, p. ix.
16 “My fowl”: Ibid., p. 227.
17 “Apéritif: vermouth, Dubonnet”: Menu described in Jones, The Tenth Muse, p. 87.
18 “They seem much less fat”: Child to Beard, January 1971, Schlesinger.
19 “Simone Beck: The Cookbook Author without a Show on TV”: New York Times, November 12, 1970.
20 “It seems to me”: Jones to Beck, November 13, 1970, Schlesinger.
21 “You were the one”: Jones, interview with author.
22 “Well, let’s just settle this”: Ibid.
23 “Of course, dear”: Ibid.
24 “It is a fact”: Child, My Life in France, p. 317.
25 “Caviar”: Menu described in Jones, The Tenth Muse, p. 87.
26 “Autumn in Normandy”: Beck, Simca’s Cuisine, p. ix.
27 “Certainly I am able to read”: Jones to Beck, November 13, 1970, Schlesinger.
28 “who adore to cook”: Beck, Simca’s Cuisine, p. xiii.
29 “There was no need to”: Child, My Life in France, p. 318.
30 “41 minutes into 1971”: M.F. to Gingrich, December 31, 1970, Schlesinger.
31 “I came to think of him”: Fisher, A Considerable Town, p. 185.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: GOING HOME
1 “Helicopters dropped food”: Associated Press, January 4, 1971.
2 “I think this way of life”: Fisher, interviewed by Publishers Weekly, March 29, 1971, excerpted in David Lazar, Conversations with M. F. K. Fisher, p. 10.
3 “latent sensuality”: Fisher, Among Friends, p. 283.
4 “It made me feel creative”: Ibid., p. 291.
5 “solo performance”: M.F.’s 1970 journal, Fisher papers.
6 “nasty pile of work”: M.F. to Childs, January 6, 1971, Schlesinger.
7 she’d had enough of eating in restaurants: Described in a letter, M.F. to Gingrich, December 26, 1970. After this period of “living in restaurants,” she wrote, “I am consummately bored—ugh, I say, even at the thought of Prunier!”
8 “Oh yeah, Gay Paree”: M.F. to Gingrich, February 6, 1971, Fisher papers.
9 “The captains and kings”: Child to Beard, January 5, 1971, Schlesinger.
10 “the rudest and most incompetent”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 128.
11 “grayish-white, stone-like objects”: Ibid.
12 “It is annoying”: Beard to Child, January 8, 1971, Schlesinger.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: LAST HOUSE
1 “Murder”: M.F. to Gingrich, January 28, 1971, Fisher papers.
2 “Split living is not for me”: M.F. to Gingrich, February 6, 1971, Fisher papers.
3 “Her subject is hunger”: Fisher, Art of Eating, p. xv.
4 “Except for the new Quaker stuff”: M.F. to Gingrich, 1971, Schlesinger.
5 “Mrs. Fisher is a woman”: Fisher, Art of Eating, p. xix.
6 “We are re-reading”: Paul Child to M.F., February 24, 1971, Schlesinger.
7 “We are delighted”: Child to M.F., February 28, 1971, Schlesinger.
8 “a work of skill”: Sokolov, “In Literature of Food, Two Books to Satisfy a Reader’s Appetite,” New York Times, December 30, 1971.
9 “This memoir of M. F. K. Fisher”: Jean Stafford, “Love Match of Pleasures,” Vogue, January 1972, quoted in Reardon, Poet of the Appetites, p. 390.
10 “almost impalpable Jim Crow arrangement”: “Books,” The New Yorker, November 13, 1971.
11 “At this stage in our lives”: M.F. to Mary Kennedy Wright, April 2, 1972, Schlesinger.
12 “Any publication of mine”: M.F. to Gingrich, December 31, 1970, Schlesinger.
13 “and at the grave risk”: Norah Barr to M.F., fall 1971, Schlesinger.
14 “Dearest N.”: M.F. to Norah Barr, December 17, 1971, Schlesinger.
15 “I suppose that I really believe”: Norah Barr to M.F., fall 1971, Schlesinger.
16 “it does seem strange”: M.F. to Norah Barr, December 17, 1971, Schlesinger.
17 “Explanation for Mary Frances!”: David Bouverie to M.F., 1971, Fisher papers.
18 “turned into Madame Butterfly”: M.F. to Gingrich, September 28, 1971, Schlesinger.
19 “as amiably sexless”: Ibid.
20 “Flew direct from New York”: David Bouverie to M.F., December 19, 1971, Fisher papers.
21 “My dear RR”: David Bouverie to M.F., October 10, 1971, Fisher papers.
22 “I am no longer the woman”: M.F. to Gingrich, September 28, 1971, Schlesinger.
23 “I hope you won’t collapse”: M.F. to Childs, October 11, 1971, Schlesinger.
24 “She is unfailingly gentle”: M.F. to Bouverie, December 6, 1971, Fisher papers.
25 “Fresh ravioli”: Menu described in letter, M.F. to Bouverie, December 1971, Fisher papers.
26 “We last saw him at a party”: Child to M.F., May 28, 1971, Schlesinger.
27 “enjoying life”: Ibid.
28 “I cannot even think of Plascassier”: M.F. to Childs, September 10, 1971, Schlesinger.
29 “This cannot be construed”: Childs to M.F., December 12, 1971, Schlesinger.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: NEW BEGINNINGS
1 they looked like eighteenth-century boots: Described in a letter, Beard to Childs, June 10, 1974, Schlesinger.
2 “We are engulfed in our TV”: Child to M.F., February 28, 1971, Schlesinger.
3 “could care less about the East Coast”: Child to Beard, May 11, 1972, Schlesinger.
4 “The lunch was prepared”: Beard to M.F., March 11, 1972, Schlesinger.
5 “one wants to be a little bit special”: Beck, Simca’s Cuisine, p. xv.
6 “pure in effect”: Olney, Simple French Food, p. 10.
7 “You, the cook”: Ibid., p. 11.
8 “Improvisation is at war with the printed word”: Ibid., p. 17.
9 “He won’t do anything”: Child to M.F., quoted in Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 366.
10 “a marvelous book”: Hazelton, “Cooking by the Book,” New York Times, December 3, 1972.
11 “The real problem with Mr. Beard’s approach”: Sokolov, “America in the Kitchen,” New York Times, May 25, 1972.
12 “What can he have against me?”: Beard to John Ferrone, quoted in Clark, James Beard, A Biography, p. 257.
13 “in the spirit of a zealous acolyte”: Ibid., p. 258.
14 “It was a very French book”: Child, My Life in France, p. 319.
15 “They don’t make them”: Hazelton, “Cooking by the Book,” New York Times, December 3, 1972.
16 “The great lesson”: Child, My Life in France, p. 328.
17 “It is a pleasure to read”: Sokolov, “Cooking by the Book,” New York Times, December 7, 1975.
18 “great liberation”: Child, My Life in France, p. 328.
19 “What a problem”: Child, From Julia Child’s Kitchen, p. x.
20 “Now tell me, Richard”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 196.
21 “A kitchen revolt is underway”: John Hess, “ ‘Plasticized, Tasteless Breads’ Give Rise to Kitchen Revolt,” New York Times, October 4, 1973.
22 “The dishes are not those found in posh restaurants”: Olney, Simple French Food, p. xi.
23 “sensuous-sensual-spiritual”: Ibid., p. 6.
24 “The book’s greatest virtue”: Hazelton, “Cooking and Eating and Reading about It,” New York Times, December 1, 1974.
25 “If things are done right”: Quoted in Olney, Reflexions, p. 177.
26 “Peruvian Adonis”: Ibid., p. 129.
27 “What’s the secret of your pastry?”: Ibid., p. 181.
28 “Nobody seemed to be much annoyed”: Fisher, A Considerable Town, p. 47.
29 “Often, in a window”: Ibid., p. 122.
30 “sitting in cafés”: Ibid., p. 43.
31 “Nobody who reads this book”: Jan Morris, “Marseille Ramble,” New York Times, June 4, 1978.
32 “Inevitably, Marseilles is now”: Anatole Broyard, “Books of the Times,” New York Times, May 10, 1978.
33 “In the Sonoma Valley”: From an interview with James Villas in 1978, in David Lazar, Conversations with M. F. K. Fisher, p. 32.
AFTERWORD: PROVENCE NOW
1 “Everywhere around us”: Paul Child to Charlie Child, June 12, 1971, and copy sent to M.F., Schlesinger.
2 “The Black Book”: Courtesy of Kathie Alex.
3 “From bouillabaisse in the Mediterranean”: Child, From Julia Child’s Kitchen, p. 28.
4 “Bouillabaisse is, to tell the truth”: Olney, The French Menu Cookbook, p. 398.
5 “the sheer joy”: Jones, interview with author.
6 “While I was finishing up this book”: Child, From Julia Child’s Kitchen, p. 507.
7 “picture of perfect order”: Olney, Reflexions, p. 395.
8 “And I came to a decision”: Child, My Life in France, p. 330.
9 “un plat canaille”: Olney, Simple French Food, p. 356.
10 “If you have taken care to observe”: Beard, American Cookery, p. 17.
11 “(I once listened in amazement”: Olney, Simple French Food, p. 389.
12 “One reason we are friends”: M.F. to Childs, August 27, 1970.
13 “Just before going to bed that night”: Child, My Life in France, p. 332.
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