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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A"rollicking biography" (People Magazine) andextraordinarily entertaining account of how Julia Child transformed herself into the cult figure who touched off a food revolution that has gripped the country for decades.
Spanning Pasadena to Paris, acclaimed author Bob Spitz reveals the history behind the woman who taught America how to cook. A genuine rebel who took the pretensions that embellished French cuisine and fricasseed them to a fare-thee-well, paving the way for a new era of American food—not to mention blazing a new trail in television—Child redefined herself in middle age, fought for women’s rights, and forever altered how we think about what we eat. Chronicling Julia's struggles, her heartwarming romance with Paul, and, of course, the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her triumphant TV career, Dearie is a stunning story of a truly remarkable life.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A"rollicking biography" (People Magazine) andextraordinarily entertaining account of how Julia Child transformed herself into the cult figure who touched off a food revolution that has gripped the country for decades.
Spanning Pasadena to Paris, acclaimed author Bob Spitz reveals the history behind the woman who taught America how to cook. A genuine rebel who took the pretensions that embellished French cuisine and fricasseed them to a fare-thee-well, paving the way for a new era of American food—not to mention blazing a new trail in television—Child redefined herself in middle age, fought for women’s rights, and forever altered how we think about what we eat. Chronicling Julia's struggles, her heartwarming romance with Paul, and, of course, the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her triumphant TV career, Dearie is a stunning story of a truly remarkable life.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Excerpts-
From the bookPrologue
"Now, dearie, I will require a hot plate for my appearance on Professor Duhamel’s program.”
Russ Morash, who had answered the telephone in a makeshift office he shared with the volunteers at WGBH- TV, was momentarily startled, not so much by the odd request as by the odder voice. It had a quality he’d never heard before— tortured and asthmatic, with an undulating lyrical register that spanned two octaves. A woman’s voice? Yes, he thought, like a cross between Tallulah Bankhead and a slide whistle.
With brusque Yankee economy, Morash tried to decode the caller’s m.o. “You want— what?”
“A hot plate, dearie, so I can make an omelet.”
Doesn’t that beat all, he thought. A hot plate! An omelet! What kind of a stunt was this gal trying to pull? Morash had worked at the station for a little under four years, and in that time he had heard his share of doozies, but they were workaday doozies, what you’d expect to hear at “Boston’s Educational Television Station.” The principal clarinetist for the symphony orchestra needed an emergency reed replacement, a beaker broke during a Science Reporter rehearsal, those were the tribulations that befell such an operation. But— a hot plate . . . and an omelet . . .
“Well, from my experience that’s a first,” Morash told the caller, “but I’ll be happy to pass it on to Miffy Goodhart, when she gets in.”
The twenty-seven-year- old Morash knew that commercial television was in remarkable ascendance; since the end of World War II, it had catered to an enormous, entertainment- starved audience that was hungry for distraction, and creative minds were struggling to feed the greedy beast. But educational TV— and WGBH, in particular— was a different creature altogether. Educational TV was an anomaly, a broadcasting stepchild in its infancy, still in the crawling phase, with no real road map for meaningful development. “We were kind of making it up as we went along,” Morash says of an experiment that was barely six years old. “There was tremendous freedom in what we could put on the air.” Still, there was nothing exciting about the programs on WGBH. Audiences were as scarce as scintillating programming. A scattering of viewers tuned in to watch Eleanor Roosevelt spar with a panel of wonks; fewer tuned in Friday evenings when a local character, jazz priest Father Norman J. O’Connor, introduced musical figures from the Boston area. Otherwise there were no hits to speak of, nothing to attract people to the smorgasbord of brainy fare. The station was licensed through the Lowell Institute to the cultural institutions of Boston: the museum, the libraries, and eleven universities, including Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Boston College, Boston University, and Brandeis. The educational backdrop was a fantastic resource. Each member of the Institute provided support, financial and otherwise. If one of them said, “Hey, we’ve got a great professor. Let’s broadcast his lecture,” that was enough to launch a new show.
Such was the case with Albert Duhamel— make that P. Albert Duhamel— one of Boston College’s most lionized teachers. Duhamel was a man who loved books and their authors. A suave, strapping academic with a penchant for Harris tweed, he was addicted to the intellectual interplay that came from talking to writers about their work. Al was an author himself— his steamy Rhetoric: Principles and Usage...
About the Author-
Bob Spitz is the award-winning author of The Beatles, a New York Times best seller, Reagan, as well as seven other nonfictionbooks and a screenplay. He has representedBruce Springsteen and Elton John in several capacities.His articles appear regularly in magazines and newspapers,including The New York Times Magazine; The Washington Post; Rolling Stone; and O, The Oprah Magazine, among others. He can be reached atdearie@bobspitz.com.
Reviews-
Starred review from July 9, 2012 On November 3, 1948, a lunch in a Paris restaurant of sole meunière, the sole so very fresh with its delicate texture and cooked like an omelet in nothing but a bath of clarified butter, changed Julia Child’s life. In that moment, Child (1912–2004) recognized and embraced food as her calling, setting out initially to learn the finer points of cooking, and French cooking in particular. In this affectionate and entertaining tribute to the witty, down-to-earth, bumptious, and passionate host of The French Chef, Spitz (The Beatles) exhaustively chronicles Child’s life and career from her childhood in California through her social butterfly flitting at Smith and her work for a Pasadena department store to her stint in government service, her marriage to Paul Child, and her rise to become America’s food darling with the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her many television shows. In spite of her miserable failures in her early attempts to prepare food for her husband, a determined Child enrolled in courses at the renowned French cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu, where she mastered everything from sauces to soufflés. Spitz reminds us that Child had always possessed a tremendous amount of excess energy with no outlet for expressing it. With the publication of her cookbook and the subsequent television shows, she discovered the place where she could use her cooking skills, her force of personality, and her abundant charm. Released to coincide with Child’s centenary, Spitz’s delightful biography succeeds in being as big as its subject. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM.
Starred review from July 1, 2012 Published to coincide with what would have been her 100th birthday, this biography of the iconic Julia Child (1912-2004) does full justice to its complex subject. Spitz (The Saucier's Apprentice: One Long Strange Trip through the Great Cooking Schools of Europe, 2008, etc.) describes the "irrepressible reality" of Child, who became a TV superstar, effectively launching "public television into the spotlight, big-time." In his view, the 1961 publication of her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, came at just the right time. Americans were tired of the preceding "era of dreary button-down conformity," and they were ready for a gastronomic revolution. Frustrated housewives reading Betty Friedan's groundbreaking The Feminine Mystique welcomed the larger-than-life personality and showmanship of this tall, outspoken woman as she demonstrated the intricacies of French recipes with what appeared to be blithe disregard when things went wrong. Child reveled in her celebrity status, but this was only one aspect of her complex personality. Like most women of her generation born in traditional upper-middle-class homes, she was not expected to have an independent career. A wartime stint in the OSS was liberating. Not only did she hold a highly responsible job, but she met and married career diplomat Paul Child, moving with him to France. Popular accounts of her life, including the book and film Julie and Julia, describe her enchantment with French haute cuisine and her determination to master the skills of a top chef. Spitz captures another side of her complex personality: her fierce diligence in mastering the science as well as the art of cooking through detailed experimentation and her concern to translate the preparation of complex French recipes for readers in America--an attention to detail that carried over to her TV programs. An engrossing biography of a woman worthy of iconic status.
COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
March 1, 2012
Journalist/biographer Spitz does celebrities well; he's responsible for the hugely best-selling The Beatles: The Biography. This book, publishing on August 15, the 100th anniversary of Julia Child's birth, has the support of Child's estate and promises to be the definitive account. The 100,000-copy first printing says it all.
Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2012 The latest biography of Julia Child commemorates the centennial of the birth of America's undisputed queen of cuisine. Drawing on diaries and correspondence, it fleshes out details of her already much-examined life. Spitz reviews Child's upbringing in Pasadena, her education, her wartime career in America's intelligence services, and her move to Paris, her life's undisputed turning point. Spitz awards her husband, Paul, full credit for providing a solid marriage and encouraging his wife to realize her ambitions as cook, writer, television performer, and teacher. Spitz's research pays off in revealing accounts of Child's sometimes-prickly collaborations with coauthors and her generous friendships and occasional rivalries with professional colleagues. Spitz adeptly details her conflicts with publishers and television producers, who did not always live up to her exacting standards. Boundlessly talented and energetic, Child worked well into her eighties, despite her beloved's devastating illness and the deaths of so many fellow cooks and friends.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)
Starred review from November 26, 2012 Spitz delivers a deep, thoroughly researched, fun, and amusing biography of legendary chef Julia Child. Interweaving anecdotes, family history, and historical events, he tells the tale of Child’s remarkable life, covering highlights from her espionage work during WWII to her rise to prominence as a television personality and everything in between. Narrator Kimberly Farr executes this audio edition expertly. Her reading is lively and engaging and infuses Spitz’s work with energy and emotion. Perhaps most delightful is the voice Farr creates for Child. While not truly mimicking the famous cook, she deftly reproduces Child’s style of speaking, prolonging words, shifting emphasis—all with that famous light, bubbly delivery. Fans of Child, cooking, and history will find this audiobook a very enjoyable listen. A Knopf hardcover.
The Wall Street Journal
"By far the most substantial new book on Child. . . . A lively, affectionately detailed portrait."
San Francisco Chronicle
"An unabashed celebration of the mistress of haute cuisine."
People Magazine
"A rollicking biography that captures the vision, pluck and contagious exuberance that were the essence of Julia Child."
The Huffington Post
"A much-appreciated, well timed gift to us all. . . . Julia has never been more alive in the hearts and minds of those who grew up with her and ate and drank her dreams."
The Washington Post
"Those with a hunger for all things Julia have a substantial new biography by Bob Spitz to sink their teeth into. . . . Author and subject almost become one, as Spitz channels the spirit of Child in his own words."
Newsday
"[Spitz] reveals how [Child] helped redefine domesticity in the media age, transforming the way we cook, eat and think about food. . . . The book makes a strong case for Child as a 'cultural guerrilla' on par with Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan and Helen Gurley Brown."
The Economist
"[An] enthusiastic, heroically researched biography. . . . Spitz goes beyond mere history and provides a full, human portrait of Julia."
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