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COLLECTION Identifier: MC 449

Papers of the Rombauer-Becker family, 1795-1992

Overview

Papers of Irma von Starkloff Rombauer, Marion and John Becker, and their German ancestors, including drafts, correspondence with the publisher Bobbs-Merrill, royalty statements, fan mail, and publicity documenting the evolution of the Joy of Cooking through eight editions (1931-1975).

Dates

  • Creation: 1795-1992

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

TERMS OF USE

Access. Unrestricted.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright. Copyright is held by Ethan Becker until his death and then by his son, John Alexander Becker.

Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.

Extent

18.76 linear feet ((41+1/2 file boxes, 1 folio box, 1 card file box) plus 4 folio+ folders, 4 oversize folders, 11 photograph folders, 1 motion picture, 1 audiotape, and 28 color slides)

Series I, Irma von Starkloff Rombauer: Personal and family (#1-47v), includes the history of Irma von Starkloff Rombauer's German ancestors (von Starkloff and Kuhlmann families) who settled in St. Louis. This series contains clippings, photographs (including an early TV cooking demonstration in #5), estate papers, biographical material, her unfinished autobiography, "My Little World" (1955), and other writings. Her correspondence with family and friends includes letters from Booth Tarkington, an early beau, and Helmut Rippinger, co-author of What's Cooking in France. There is also the history of Edgar Rombauer's German ancestors in St. Louis, ER's European journal, 1925-1926, stories he wrote for his children, and other biographical material.

Series II, Marion Rombauer Becker: Personal and family (#48-155, Box 43), includes clippings, photographs, Vassar College course notes and correspondence, and appointment books. "Links" is a draft autobiography and family history with assembled raw material. Programs, journals, and printed material document Marion Rombauer Becker's sojourn in Germany to study dance and movement (1925-26). There is additional biographical information about Marion Rombauer Becker's husband, the architect John William Becker, as well as a few of his speeches, clippings about his architectural designs, photographs, and Becker family correspondence and documents.

Series III, Marion Rombauer and John Becker personal correspondence (#156-277), includes courtship letters, and letters from Marion Rombauer Becker and John William Becker to family and friends. Letters from the children, other family, and friends to Marion Rombauer Becker and John William Becker have been arranged as they were found, in an alphabetical sequence. There is also a chronological sequence, including letters of sympathy to the Beckers when they were both stricken with cancer early in 1974, and letters to Marion Rombauer Becker on the death of her husband in October 1974. Photocopies of correspondence annotated by Anne Mendelson are interfiled.

Series IV, Marion Rombauer Becker: Career and interests (#278vf-380), consists of material documenting her early career as fashion writer and art teacher, her work with the Cincinnati Modern Art Society (later the Contemporary Arts Center), her life-long interest in gardening and horticulture, and her involvement in a broad range of volunteer civic clubs. Her employment at Women's Wear Daily (1927-1929) is shown by a scrapbook of clippings of her columns on fashion. Syllabi and teaching notes document her career as teacher of art at John Burroughs School (1929-1932) and at Hillsdale School (1932-1936). Correspondence with artists, critics, and dealers, exhibition catalogs (many of which Marion Rombauer Becker wrote and produced), and notes for talks relate to her career at the Cincinnati Modern Art Society. Her reminiscences of the early years of Cincinnati Modern Art Society (#65, #329) are especially valuable. Membership lists, correspondence, lectures, and other records of the Garden Club of America, the Garden Club of America's Rare Plant Group, the Town and Country Garden Club of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Nature Center, and the Society of Herbs attest to Marion Rombauer Becker's abiding interest in horticulture. There is correspondence with gardening friends (see also #539 in Series V). Drafts, reviews, correspondence, and an audio tape relate to the publication of Wild Wealth. Membership lists, talks, and fliers relate to her volunteer activity in the Cincinnati League of Women Voters, Better Housing League, Noonday Club, and the Citizens Development Committee.

Series V, The Joy of Cooking (#381-box 43), contains materials documenting the history and development of the book. The earliest drafts for The Joy of Cooking are for the 1951 edition and consist of typed pages or pasted up sections of pages from the 1946 edition with manuscript deletions and addenda. There is correspondence about the book jackets and about the illustrations by Ginnie Hofmann. Annotations by John Becker and Marion Rombauer Becker in volumes of the 1951 edition document the development of the 1963 edition, and there are pages of the 1962 unauthorized edition that were used to make paste-ups for the emended 1963 edition. Annotated volumes (1971 and 1973 printings) and corrected page proofs document Marion Rombauer Becker's last revision (1975.) This series also includes Irma von Starkloff Rombauer's undated "Unusual and Unpublished Recipes" for the Women's Alliance of the Unitarian Church (#382), undated recipes in Irma von Starkloff Rombauer's hand (#383), undated notes by Marion Rombauer Becker, and recipe books (manuscript and printed) by others. Correspondence and contracts with the publishing company Bobbs-Merrill and law firm Greenbaum, Wolff, and Ernst (#444-476) document Joy's tempestuous publishing history. Additionally there are papers relating to the suit brought by Mary Whyte Hartrich against Marion Rombauer Becker in 1974, the settlement of her claim, information about the Joy Trust, and royalty statements through 1992. Letters from fans, including culinary experts M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Cecily Brownstone, et al., and newspaper clippings attest to The Joy of Cooking's continuous popularity. Drafts, clippings, and correspondence relating to Marion Rombauer Becker's Little Acorn (1966) describe the noncontroversial aspects of the history of The Joy of Cooking and the women who wrote it.

BIOGRAPHY

Irma von Starkloff Rombauer, cookbook author, was born in St. Louis Missouri., on October 30, 1877, the daughter of Emma (Kuhlmann) von Starkloff and Max von Starkloff. She was raised on the German south side of St. Louis and spent the years from 1889 until 1894 in Bremen, Germany, where her father was American consul. She studied at Washington University's School of Fine Arts (1897) and married Edgar Rombauer , a lawyer, on October 14, 1899. They had two children, Marion, born on January 2, 1903, and Edgar Jr. ("Put"), born on August 15, 1907.

Irma von Starkloff Rombauer had deep roots among the German families of St. Louis and remained proud of her German heritage, but moved outside these circles to join the cultural Wednesday Club, and the Unitarian Women's Alliance. In 1925 the whole family traveled and lived in Europe; Put attended school in Lausanne and Marion studied movement and dance in Munich. Edgar Rombauer Sr., who was subject to depression all his life, recovered his equilibrium for a time, but committed suicide in 1930.

Irma von Starkloff Rombauer was left emotionally shattered and financially impoverished. Although only a culinary amateur, she decided to use her legacy of $6000 to self-publish a cookbook: The Joy of Cooking: A Compilation of Reliable Recipes, with a Casual Culinary Chat (1931). It consisted of recipes collected from her German family and from friends, enlivened by a sprightly wit and convivial style. It sold well enough for her to interest a commercial publishing house, Bobbs-Merrill Company, in 1935, beginning what would prove a stormy relationship. She was to spend the rest of her life working on successive editions of Joy. In all there have been nine: the privately printed Joy of Cooking (1931), the first Bobbs-Merrill edition (1936), the best-selling wartime edition (1943), the first post-war edition (1946), the first Rombauer-Becker edition (1951), an unauthorized edition (1962), the first Marion Rombauer Becker edition (1963), Marion Rombauer Becker's last revision (1975), and Ethan Becker's edition (1997) .

The 1936 edition pioneered a revolutionary layout, with instructions in regular type and ingredients indented and in boldface. This became known as the "action method" of cookbook instruction. In 1939 Irma von Starkloff Rombauer published Streamlined Cooking featuring shortcuts for the career woman (many of which were incorporated into the next edition of Joy) and in 1946, The Cookbook for Girls and Boys. By the 1940s she had become a national celebrity and Joy of Cooking was outselling other favorite cookbooks such as Fannie Farmer and The Settlement Cook Book. Irma von Starkloff Rombauer, unlike her daughter, both sought and flourished in the limelight, and she welcomed letters from a growing fan club. Estranged from her son, she took her daughter into partnership and from 1951 Joy of Cooking was their joint production. The success of the cookbook brought Irma von Starkloff Rombauer sufficient affluence so that she could travel to Europe in 1936, to Mexico in the 1950s, and to Europe in 1952 with her grandson, Mark Becker. She began an autobiography, "My Little World," which was unfinished when she suffered a stroke in 1955. She recovered sufficiently to accept an alumni award from Washington University (1956). A series of strokes gradually incapacitated her, and she died on October 14, 1962.

Marion Rombauer Becker (1903-1976), art director, horticultural expert, and cookbook writer, was educated at Mary Institute, St. Louis, and studied Fine Arts at Vassar College (A.B. 1925). She studied movement and dance in Munich, Germany (1925-1926), learned about abstract expressionism, and traveled with her brother in France. On returning to St. Louis, she worked for a year in a department store, then was a columnist for Women's Wear Daily (1927-1929). She taught art, wrote pageants, and directed plays at the progressive John Burroughs School in St. Louis (1929-1932). She married her childhood sweetheart, the architect John William Becker, son of Adele Dittman and Philip Becker, on June 18, 1932, and they settled in Cincinnati. There she joined the Hillsdale School as head of the Art Department (1932-1936).

Planning to start a family, Marion Rombauer Becker turned from teaching to intensive civic involvement. She was president of the Regional Planning Council of Cincinnati and Vicinity (1934-1936), and of the Noonday Club, a women's cultural club (1935-1936), and joined the Better Housing League (1935-1963), the Cincinnati League of Women Voters, and the Citizens Development Committee. The Beckers' eldest son Mark was born on January 16, 1937, Ethan on August 6, 1945.

In 1942, some former pupils from Hillsdale School urged Marion Rombauer Becker to take over direction of the Cincinnati Modern Art Society. She served as director, 1942-1947, and as board secretary and program chair, 1947-1954, organizing two major and several minor shows each year. She contributed to the education of Cincinnati in modern art by exhibiting the works of Rousseau, Picasso, Klee, Calder, Giacometti, Lipchitz, Chagall, Magritte and others.

Gardening was another avocation. Marion Rombauer Becker was a member of the Town and Country Garden Club of Cincinnati and the Garden Club of America, and director of the Garden Club of America's Rare Plant Committee. She edited the Bulletin of the Cincinnati Garden Center, chaired the board of the Cincinnati Nature Center, and helped plan a medicinal herb garden at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, which was named for her after her death. At Cockaigne, the house outside Cincinnati designed by John Becker, the Beckers developed eight acres of woodland garden. Her enthusiasm for wild flowers and ecology are evident in Wild Wealth (1971), a collaboration among ecologist Paul Sears, flower arranger Frances Jones Poetker, artist Janice Rebert Fosberg, and Marion Rombauer Becker. Wild Wealth was named "Top Honor Book" at the Chicago Book Clinic exhibition in 1972.

Between 1932 and 1948, Marion Rombauer Becker was only sporadically involved in production of the Joy of Cooking. Her silhouettes had illustrated chapter headings of the early editions and she served as recipe tester and adviser. She became a full partner with the 1951 edition. Illustrated by Ginnie Hofmann's line drawings, this edition showed Marion Rombauer Becker's interest in nutrition, more pronounced than her mother's. (See #63 for Marion Rombauer Becker's assessment of her contribution to Joy of Cooking.) With Irma von Starkloff Rombauer increasingly incapacitated by strokes, Marion Rombauer Becker worked with her husband John Becker, secretary Jane Brueggermann, and testers Odessa Whitehead and Isabell Coleman over the succeeding years. An unauthorized edition published in 1962 was, after a sharp struggle with Bobbs-Merrill, recalled, reset, and republished in 1963. (For detailed publishing history and other legal cases involving Joy of Cooking see Anne Mendelson's Stand Facing the Stove [1996].) Marion Rombauer Becker had put her own stamp on this edition: 80% of the material was new and Joy of Cooking had evolved into a virtual encyclopedia of American cookery. Each new edition brought not only new fans but also some outrage from older users who could no longer find their favorite recipes. Little Acorn, a brief history of the cookbook, was published in 1966 to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the first Bobbs-Merrill edition.

Marion Rombauer Becker was first stricken with cancer in 1955. A radical mastectomy was followed by lymphedema and then a second radical mastectomy in 1966. In March 1974, John William Becker suddenly developed a brain tumor, of which he died in October. All through this, Marion Rombauer Becker continued to work on the next edition of Joy of Cooking. Her co-workers included her son Ethan, his wife Joan, illustrator Ikki Matsumoto, typist Nancy Swats, and an old friend, Judy Israel. The revised edition was published in March 1975.

Sale of the paperback rights in 1973 and 1982 to New American Library raised sales to new heights: by 1996, 9.1 million in hard cover, 5 million in paperback. The latest edition, edited by Maria Guarneschelli in cooperation with Ethan Becker published by Scribners (1997), has continued the family connection with this "wonder book."

Marion Rombauer Becker was engaged in other writing projects, including "Links: The Life of a Family," a flower-arranging book, a translation of Ernst Kropp's "Wandlung der Form," and a second Junior Joy, none of which were completed. In February 1976 she received "the greatest living Cincinnatian award" from the Chamber of Commerce. She died on December 28, 1976.

ARRANGEMENT

The collection is arranged in five series:

  1. I. Irma von Starkloff Rombauer: Personal and family
  2. II. Marion Rombauer Becker: Personal and family
  3. III. Marion Rombauer and John Becker correspondence
  4. IV. Marion Rombauer Becker: Career and interests
  5. V. The Joy of Cooking

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Accession numbers: 97-M91, 97-M131

These papers were given to the Schlesinger Library in July 1997 by Ethan Becker and in October 1997 by Anne Mendelson.

Container list

  1. Box 1: 1, 4, 6-18
  2. Box 2: 19-33, 35-37
  3. Box 3: 38-40, 43v-47v, 51-57
  4. Box 4: 58, 60-65, 67-70
  5. Box 5: 71-86
  6. Box 6: 87, 89-100
  7. Box 7: 102v-126v
  8. Box 8: 127-145v
  9. Box 9: 146-151, 153-159
  10. Box 10: 160-168
  11. Box 11: 169-179, 181-189
  12. Box 12: 190-191, 193-195, 197-210
  13. Box 13: 211-240
  14. Box 14: 241-258
  15. Box 15: 259-268
  16. Box 16: 269-277, 279-283
  17. Box 17: 284-290, 292-299
  18. Box 18: 300-314
  19. Box 19: 315-320, 322-330
  20. Box 20: 331-334, 336-345
  21. Box 21: 346-356
  22. Box 22: 357-363v, 365
  23. Box 23: 366-369, 371, 373-380
  24. Box 24: 381-391
  25. Box 25: 392-398
  26. Box 26: 399-408
  27. Box 27: 409-414v
  28. Box 28: 415v-426
  29. Box 29: 427-434
  30. Box 30: 435-440
  31. Box 31: 441-458
  32. Box 32: 459-474
  33. Box 33: 475-486
  34. Box 34: 487-496
  35. Box 35: 497-518
  36. Box 36: 519-531
  37. Box 37: 532-542
  38. Box 38: 543-558
  39. Box 39: 560-562, 564-588
  40. Box 40: 589-602
  41. Box 41: 603-615
  42. Box 42: 616v-622
  43. Card Box 43: 101

INDEX OF SELECTED CORRESPONDENTS

This index includes the names of selected writers and recipients. Information about persons and subjects is not indexed.

Key: No symbol = Writer; * = Writer and recipient; # = Recipient

  1. Allen, Woody 506
  2. Anderson, Edgar 216
  3. Beard, James 506
  4. Becker, Adele 146-150, 184#, 187#
  5. Becker, Ethan 190#, 209, 468-476, 598v
  6. Becker, Jennifer 201-207
  7. Becker, John William 12#, 58#, 67#, 69, 150#, 165-175, 184-192f+,198#-207#, 211#-260#
  8. Becker, Marion Rombauer 14#-16#, 18#-19#, 31*, 67*, 69, 74#, 89#,150#, 156-164, 165#-175#, 178-183, 193*-194#, 198#-207#, 209#, 211#-219#, 220*,221#-276#, 280*, 292*, 305*-319*, 327, 329, 331, 338, 346*-348*, 350, 352, 387-388*,451-467, 507*-508*, 515#-558#, 603*, 607*, 620#-622#
  9. Becker, Mark 179#-180f+#, 188#-189, 198-207, 208#
  10. Becker, Philip Sr. 146-149, 184#
  11. Becker, Philip Jr. 67, 211-212
  12. Berman, Mary Tyler 20
  13. Brownstone, Cecily 507*
  14. Brueggermann, Jane 220
  15. Calder, Alexander 305
  16. Child, Julia 508*
  17. Claflin, Agnes Rindge 223, 506
  18. Dahl, Patricia Neal 506
  19. Ernst, Morris 506
  20. Fisher, Dorothy Canfield 28
  21. Fisher, M.F.K. 509
  22. Fitzpatrick, D.R. 327
  23. Fuller, Anne Hewett 506
  24. Fuller, Buckminster 306
  25. Furness, Virginia (Becker) 67, 214
  26. Furth, Helene Marie 227
  27. Frankfurter, Felix 217
  28. Garriott, Hubert 228
  29. Giedion, Sigfried 307
  30. Gindler, Elsa 229
  31. Granger, Louise 230
  32. Günther, Hartmut 67, 231
  33. Hartley, Marsden 305
  34. Hendrie, Marion 106
  35. Hofmann, Ginnie 388*
  36. Israel, Marian Judell [Judy] 21, 67, 235
  37. Itin, Tom and Shirley 58, 67, 236-237
  38. Koerner, Gustav 32-33
  39. Krippendorf, Karl 67, 238
  40. Kropp, Ernst 308-310
  41. Leech, Helen 510
  42. Lipchitz, Jacques 305
  43. Martin, Mary 506
  44. Osborn, Robert 512
  45. Parks, Sterling 513
  46. Perelman, S.J. 506
  47. Pilpel, Harriet 65#, 453-471, 506
  48. Pitman, Melrose 181#-182#, 240
  49. Read, Herbert 312, 506
  50. Ripperger, Helmut 22-23, 477
  51. Rivera, Diego 305
  52. Rombauer, Edgar, Sr. 13#, 45-46, 90
  53. Rombauer, Edgar, Jr. 193-194, 195#, 458-459
  54. Rombauer, Irma von Starkloff 12-19, 20#-30#, 67, 178#, 186#, 194*,200#-201#, 444-456, 515#-530#
  55. Rowntree, Diana 306
  56. Sears, Paul 350
  57. Sexton, Anne 305, 605
  58. Simpson, Alan 89, 506
  59. Sizer, Nancy 506
  60. Stamper, Maybelle 313-318
  61. Tarbell, Ida 28
  62. Tarkington, Booth 24
  63. Vincent, Geoffrey 25, 243
  64. Von Starkloff, Emma (Kuhlmann) 12*
  65. Wheaton, Barbara 506
  66. Willkie, Edith 26
  67. Willkie, L. Wendell 27v
  68. Woodburn, Elizabeth 245
  69. Bobbs Merrill Co. 346-348, 444-476, 598v, 603, 607
  70. Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center 319, 329
  71. Greenbaum, Wolff and Ernst 311, 453-471
  72. Linden and Deutsch 471-476
  73. Vassar College 89
  74. Becker family 142
  75. Bettman family 217-218
  76. Engelmann family 36
  77. Koerner family 32-33
  78. Rombauer family 40#
  79. Von Starkloff family 12

Processing Information

Processed: November 1997

By: Jane S. Knowles

Title
Rombauer family. Papers of the Rombauer-Becker family, 1795-1992: A Finding Aid
Author
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Language of description
eng
EAD ID
sch00013

Repository Details

Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository

The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.

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