M. F. K. Fisher
Encyclopedia
Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (July 3, 1908 – June 22, 1992) was a preeminent American food writer. She was also a founder of the Napa Valley Wine Library. She wrote some 27 books, including a translation of The Physiology of Taste by Brillat-Savarin. Two volumes of her journals and correspondence came out shortly before her death in 1992. Her first book, Serve it Forth, was published in 1937. Her books are an amalgam of food literature, travel and memoir. Fisher believed that eating well was just one of the "arts of life" and explored this in her writing. W H Auden once remarked: "I do not know of anyone in the United States who writes better prose."
. She told Albion City Historian, Frank Passic:Rex was a co-owner (with his brother Walter) and editor of the Albion Evening Recorder newspaper.
In 1911, Rex sold his interest in the paper to his brother, and moved the family to the West Coast, where he hoped to buy a fruit or citrus orchard. The family spent some time in Washington with relatives, and then traveled down the coast to Ventura, California, where Rex nearly purchased an orange grove, but backed out after discovering soil problems. He next purchased and briefly owned the Oxnard Courier in Oxnard, California. From there he traveled to San Diego, California, and worked for a local newspaper. In 1912 he purchased a controlling interest in the Whittier News and moved the family to Whittier, California. Rex initially purchased a house at 115 Painter Avenue. In 1919, he purchased a large white house outside the city limits on South Painter Avenue. The house sat on thirteen acres, with an orange grove; it was referred to by the family as "The Ranch."
Although Whittier was primarily a Quaker community at that time, Mary Frances was brought up within the Episcopal Church.
Mary received a formal education; however, she was an indifferent student who often skipped classes throughout her academic career.At the age of sixteen, her parents enrolled her in a private school: The Bishop's School located in La Jolla, California. After one year there, she transferred to Harker's School For Girls in Palo Alto, California, adjacent to Stanford University; she graduated from Harker's in 1927. Upon graduation, she attended Illinois College
, but left after only one semester, In 1928, she enrolled in summer school at UCLA in order to obtain enough credits to transfer to Occidental College
. While there, she met and fell in love with her future first husband: Alfred Fisher ("Al"). She attended Occidental College for one year; however, she married Al on September 5, 1929, and moved with him to Dijon, France.
Mary's informal education undoubtedly had a far greater impact on her writing career than her formal education. She loved reading as a child, and began writing poetry at the age of five. The Kennedys had a vast home library, and her mother provided her access to many other books. Later, her father used her as stringer on his paper, and she would draft as many as fifteen stories a day.
Food became an early passion in her life. Her earliest memory of taste was "the grayish-pink fuzz my grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam. Her maternal grandmother Holbrook lived with them until her death in 1920. During that period, Holbrook was a source of tension in the household. She was a stern, rather joyless person, and a Campbellite
who who firmly believed in overcooked, bland food. She was also a follower of Dr. Will Keith Kellogg
's dietary strictions at the Battle Creek Sanitarium
. Fisher would later write that during her grandmother's absences at religious conventions:
An early food influence was "Aunt" Gwen. Aunt Gwen was not family, but the daughter of friends - the Nettleship family - "a strange family of English medical missionaries who preferred tents to houses." The Nettleships had an encampment on Laguna Beach and Mary would camp out there with Gwen. Rex would later buy the campsite and a cabin that had been built on it. Mary recalled cooking outdoors with Gwen: steaming mussels on fresh seaweed over hot coals; catching and frying rock bass; skinning and cooking eel; and, making fried egg sandwiches to carry on hikes. Mary wrote of her meals with Gwen and Gwen's brothers: "I decided at the age of nine that one of the best ways to grow up is to eat and talk quietly with good people." Mary liked to cook meals in the kitchen at home, and "easily fell into the role of the cook's helper."
), France. They traveled to Paris for a brief stay, before continuing south to Dijon
. They initially found a rental at 14 Rue de Petit Potet in a home owned by the Ollangier family. The lodgings consisted of two rooms, with no kitchen, and no separate bathroom. Al attended the Faculte de Lettres at the University of Burgundy
where he was working on his doctorate; when not in class, he worked on what he believed to be his epic poem; The Ghosts in the Underblows. The poem was based on the Bible and was analogous to James Joyce
's Ulysses
. By 1931, Fisher would have finished the first twelve books of the poem, which he ultimately expected to contain sixty books. Mary attended night classes at the Ecole des Beaux Artes where she would spend three years studying painting and sculpture. The Ollangiers served good food at home, although Madame Ollangier was "extremely penurious and stingy." Mary remembered big salads made at the table, deep-fried Jerusalem artichokes, and "reject cheese" that was always good. To celebrate their three-month anniversary, Al and Mary went to the Au Tres Faisons restaurant - their first of many visits. There, Mary received her education in fine wine from a sommelier named Charles. The Fishers visited all the restaurants in town, where in Mary's words:
In 1930, Lawrence Clark Powell
came to Dijon to obtain his doctorate at the University of Burgundy. He came at Mary's suggestion. Powell had become acquainted with Mary when Mary's sister was attending Occidental College, and roomed with Powells girlfriend. Powell moved into the attic above the Fishers and became lifelong friends with Mary. He described the food at the Fishers' pensione: In Mary and Al moved to their own apartment, above a pastry shop at 26 Rue Monge. It was Mary's first kitchen. It was only five feet by three feet and contained a two-burner hotplate. Despite the kitchen's limitations, Mary began developing her own personal cuisine, with the goal of: "cooking meals that would 'shake [her guests] from their routines, not only of meat-potatoes-gravy, but of thought, of behavior.'" In The Gastronomical Me she describes one such meal:
After Al was awarded his doctorate, they moved briefly to Strasbourg
, France, where Al continued to study and write. Mary became depressed from lonlieness and being cooped up in a cold, sordid apartment. Unable to afford better accommodations, the Fishers next moved to a tiny French fishing village: Cros-des-Cagnes. Powell briefly visited with them there for six weeks. He observed that Al was growing more introspective. He had stopped work on his poem, and was trying to write novels. Al did not want to return to the States where he knew job prospects were poor. He could not, however, see a way to stay in France. After running out of funds, the Fishers returned to California, sailing on the Feltre out of Marseilles.
and work was hard to find. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College. Mary began writing and in 1934, she published her first piece - Pacific Village - in the magazine Touring Topics (later Westways Magazine). The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach. In 1934, Lawrence Powell moved to Laguna with his wife Fay. In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife Gigi
moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends.
When Al began teaching at Occidental, the Fishers initially moved to Eagle Rock
where the Parrishes helped them paint and fix up an older house they had rented. Unfortunately the home was sold shortly thereafter, and the Fishers had to move to another rented house in Highland Park
. Mary worked part-time in a card shop and researched old cookery books at the Los Angeles Public Library. She began writing short pieces on gastronomy. Fisher's sister Anne showed them to her publisher at Harpers who expressed an interest in them. The pieces were later to become her first book: Serve It Forth. Mary next began work on a novel she never finished; it was based on the founding of Whittier.
During this period, Mary's marriage with Al was beginning to fail. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary found herself falling in love with him. In Mary's words, she one day sat next to Parrish at the piano and told him she loved him. Mary's biographer Joan Reardon, however, interviewed Gigi who told a different story. She stated that Parrish told her that one night after he had dined alone with Mary, she later let herself into his house and slipped into bed with him. In 1935, with Al's permission, Mary traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother. The Parrishes had money and they sailed on the luxury liner Hansa. While in Europe,they spent four days in Paris, and traveled through Provence, Languedoc, and the French Riviera. Mary also revisited Dijon and ate with Parrish at Aux Trois Faisons where she was recognized and served by her old friend, the waiter Charles.. She later wrote a piece on their visit - The Standing and the Waiting - which was to become the centerpiece of Serve It Forth. Upon her return from Europe, Mary informed Al of her developing relationship with Parrish. In 1936, Dillwyn invited the Fishers to join him in creating an artists' colony at Le Paquis - a two-story stone house that Parrish had bought with his sister north of Vevey
, Switzerland. Notwithstanding the clear threat to his marriage, Al agreed.
. In a February 2, 1937 letter to Powell, Mary explained her side of the marital breakup. She stated that Al was afraid of physical love; he was sexually impotent in their marriage. Moreover he was an intellectual loner who was emotionally estranged from Mary. Mary stated that contrary to Al's belief, she had not left him for another man; she had left him because he could not satisfy her emotional and physical needs. In 1938, Mary returned home briefly to inform her parents in person of her separation and pending divorce from Al.
Meanwhile, her first book Serve It Forth had opened to largely glowing reviews, including reviews in Harper's Monthly, the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune
. Mary, however, was disappointed in the book's meager sales because she needed the money. During this same period, Mary and Parrish also co-wrote (alternating chapters) a light romance entitled Touch and Go under the pseudonym Victoria Berne. The book was published by Harper and Brothers in 1939.
In September 1938, Mary and Parrish could no longer afford to live at Les Paquis and they moved to Bern. After only two days inj Bern, however, Parrish suffered severe cramping in his left leg. Hospitalized, he underwent two surgeries to remove clots. Gangrene then set in and his left leg had to be amputated. Parrish was in considerable pain and could not get a good diagnosis from his doctors. With the onset of WWII, and Parrish' need for medical care, Mary and Parrish returned to the States, where he saw a number of doctors. He ultimately was diagnosed as having Buerger's disease (Thromboangiitis obliterans) - a circulatory system malady that causes extreme thrombosis of the arteries and veins, causing severe pain, and often necessitating multiple amputations. The disease is progressive and there is no known treatment. They returned briefly to Switzerland to close out their apartment and returned to California. They also needed to accumulate a stock of the painkiller Analgeticum. It was the only painkiller that Parrish found efficacious; however, it was unavailable in the States.
. Lord Bareacres was land-poor; his only asset was his estate. Mary wrote Powell: "God help us... We've put our last penny into 90 acres of rocks and rattlesnakes." Although Parrish' life at Bareacres had its ups and downs, its course was a downward spiral. He continued to paint, and Powell staged an exposition of his works. Mary was always trying to find ways to obtain Analgeticum; she even wrote President Roosevelt at one point to urge him to lift the import restriction on the drug.Ultimately, Parrish could no longer tolerate the pain and the probable need for additional amputations. On the morning of August 6, 1941, Mary was awakened by a gunshot. Venturing outside, she discovered that Parrish had committed suicide. Mary later would write: "I have never understood some (a lot of) taboos and it seems silly to me to make suicide one of them in our social life."
During the period leading up to Tim's death, Mary completed three books. The first was a novel entitled: The Theoretical Foot. The novel was a fictional account of expatriates enjoying a summer romp when the protagonist, suffering great pain, ends up losing a leg. Transparently based on Tim, the novel was rejected by publishers. The second book was an unsuccessful attempt by her to revise a novel written by Tim: Daniel Among The Women. Third, she completed and published: Consider the Oyster, which she dedicated to Tim. The book was humorous and informative. It contained numerous recipes incorporating oysters, mixed with musings on: the history of the oyster, oyster cuisine, and the love life of the oyster,
In 1942, Mary published: How to Cook a Wolf. The book was published at the height of WWII food shortages. "Pages offered housewives advice on how to achieve a balanced diet, stretch ingredients, eat during blackouts, deal with sleeplessness and sorrow, and care for pets during wartime. The book received good reviews and attained literary success, leading to a feature article on Mary in Look magazine
in July 1942.
In May 1942 Mary began working in Hollywood for Paramount Studios. While there she wrote gags for Bob Hope
, Bing Crosby
, and Dorothy Lamour
. Mary became pregnant in 1943, and secluded herself in a boarding house in Altadena. While there she worked on the book that would become: The Gastronomical Me. On August 15, 1943, she gave birth to Anne Kennedy Parrish (later known as Anna). Mary listed a fictional father on the birth certificate - Michael Parrish. Mary initially claimed she had adopted the baby; she never would reveal the father's identity.
In 1944, Mary broke her contract with Paramount. On a trip to New York, she met and fell in love with publisher Donald Friede. In a letter to Powell she wrote: "I accidentally got married to Donald Friede." She spent the summer in Greenwich Village with Friede, working on a the book that would become Let Us Feast. Her relationship with Friede gave her entree to additional publishing markets, and she wrote articles for Atlantic Monthly, Vogue
, Town and Country
, Today's Woman and Gourmet. In fall 1945, Friede's publishing entity failed, and Mary and Donald returned to Bareacres - both to write. On March 12, 1946, Mary gave birth to her second daughter - Kennedy Mary Friede. Mary began work on With Bold Knife and Fork.
Mary's mother died in 1948. In 1949, she moved to the Ranch to take care of her father Rex. On Christmas Eve 1949, the limited edition release of her translation of Savarin's The Physiology of Taste received rave reviews. "Craig Claiborne
of the New York Times said Fisher's prose perfectly captured the wit and gaeity of the book and lauded the hundreds of marginal glosses that [she] added to elucidate the text." During this period, Mary also was working on a biography of Recamier for which she had received an advance. Her marriage with Donald was starting to unravel. He became ill with intestinal pains and after considerable medical treatment, it became apparent that the pain was psychosomatic, and Don began receiving psychiatric care. Mary in turn had been under considerable stress. She had been caretaker for Tim, had weathered his suicide, suffered her brother's suicide a year later, followed by the death of her mom, only to thrust into the role of becoming caretaker for Rex. Despite her successful writing income, Don lived a lifestyle that exceeded their income, leaving her $27,000 in debt, She sought psychiatric counseling for what essentially was a nervous breakdown. By 1949, Donald had become frustrated by his isolation in a small Southern California town, and separated from Mary, Don sought further treatment at the Harkness Pavilion in New York.Mary and Don divorced on August 8, 1950.
Her father died June 2, 1953. Mary subsequently sold the Ranch and the newspaper. She rented out Bareacres and moved to Napa Valley, renting "Red Cottage" south of St. Helena, California
. Dissatisfied with the educational opportunities available to her children, Mary sailed to France in 1954. She ended up in Aix en Provence, France. She planned to live in Aix using the proceeds from the sale of her father's paper.
Once in Aix, Mary lodged with Mme Lanes at 17 Rue Cardinale.She employed a French tutor, and enrolled Anna and Kennedy, then aged 11 and 8, in the Ecole St Catherine. She described Mme Lanes as 'incredibly fusty and 'correcte,'" part of the "poor but proud aristocracy." In Aix, her life developed a pattern. Each day she would take a couple of walks across town to pick the girls up from school at noon and in late afternoon. They ate snacks or ices at the Deux Garcons or Glaciere.She never felt completely at home. She felt patronized because she was an American: "I was forever in their eyes the product of a naive, undeveloped, and indeed infantile civilization..." At one point, an important local woman, introduced to her through mutual friends in Dijon, invited her to lunch. During the meal, the woman sneered at May:
In fall 1959 she moved the family to Lugano, Switzerland, where she hoped to introduce her daughters to a new language and culture,
.She enrolled the girls in the Istituto Sant'Anna Convent boarding school. She revisited Dijon and Aix. Falling back in love with Aix, she rented the L'Harmas farmhouse outside of Aix. In July 1961, she returned to San Francisco.
In 1963, Mary decided to try her hand at teaching at the African-American Piney Woods Country Life School
in Mississippi. It was not a good experience for her. She received mixed reviews and was not invited back for another term.
She next contracted to write a series of cookbook reviews for The New Yorker
magazine. Because her St. Helena home was rented, she moved to her sister's home in Genoa, Nevada
to work on the assignment.
In 1966, Time-Life
hired Mary to write The Cooking of Provincial France. She traveled to Paris to research material for the book. While there, she met Paul and Julia Child
, and through them James Beard
. Child was hired to be a consultant on the book; Michael Field
was the consulting editor. Field rented out the Childs' country home--La Pitchoune--to work on the book. When Fisher later moved into the home immediately after Field, she found the refrigerator empty. She remarked: "How could a person who loves food be in the south of France and not at least have a piece of cheese in the refrigerator."Fisher was disappointed in the book's final form; it contained restaurant recipes, without regard to regional cuisine, and much of her signature prose had been cut.
, offered to build Mary a house on his ranch. Mary designed the home, calling it "Last House." The presence of ranch staff made it easy for to use the home as a base for frequent travels. She would return to France in 1970, 1973, 1976 and 1978, visiting, inter alia: La Roquette, Marseilles and Aix..
and arthritis. She spent the last twenty years of her life in "Last House," a house built for her in a vineyard.
A full list of her works can be found at The MFK Fisher Foundation Webpage.
Early Life
Fisher was born Mary Frances Kennedy on July 3, 1908 at 202 Irwin Avenue, Albion, MichiganAlbion, Michigan
Albion is a city in Calhoun County in the south central region of the Lower Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. The population was 9,144 at the 2000 census and is part of the Battle Creek Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. She told Albion City Historian, Frank Passic:Rex was a co-owner (with his brother Walter) and editor of the Albion Evening Recorder newspaper.
In 1911, Rex sold his interest in the paper to his brother, and moved the family to the West Coast, where he hoped to buy a fruit or citrus orchard. The family spent some time in Washington with relatives, and then traveled down the coast to Ventura, California, where Rex nearly purchased an orange grove, but backed out after discovering soil problems. He next purchased and briefly owned the Oxnard Courier in Oxnard, California. From there he traveled to San Diego, California, and worked for a local newspaper. In 1912 he purchased a controlling interest in the Whittier News and moved the family to Whittier, California. Rex initially purchased a house at 115 Painter Avenue. In 1919, he purchased a large white house outside the city limits on South Painter Avenue. The house sat on thirteen acres, with an orange grove; it was referred to by the family as "The Ranch."
Although Whittier was primarily a Quaker community at that time, Mary Frances was brought up within the Episcopal Church.
Mary received a formal education; however, she was an indifferent student who often skipped classes throughout her academic career.At the age of sixteen, her parents enrolled her in a private school: The Bishop's School located in La Jolla, California. After one year there, she transferred to Harker's School For Girls in Palo Alto, California, adjacent to Stanford University; she graduated from Harker's in 1927. Upon graduation, she attended Illinois College
Illinois College
Illinois College is a private, liberal arts college, affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church , and located in Jacksonville, Illinois. It was the second college founded in Illinois, but the first to grant a degree . It was founded in 1829 by the Illinois Band,...
, but left after only one semester, In 1928, she enrolled in summer school at UCLA in order to obtain enough credits to transfer to Occidental College
Occidental College
Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
. While there, she met and fell in love with her future first husband: Alfred Fisher ("Al"). She attended Occidental College for one year; however, she married Al on September 5, 1929, and moved with him to Dijon, France.
Mary's informal education undoubtedly had a far greater impact on her writing career than her formal education. She loved reading as a child, and began writing poetry at the age of five. The Kennedys had a vast home library, and her mother provided her access to many other books. Later, her father used her as stringer on his paper, and she would draft as many as fifteen stories a day.
Food became an early passion in her life. Her earliest memory of taste was "the grayish-pink fuzz my grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam. Her maternal grandmother Holbrook lived with them until her death in 1920. During that period, Holbrook was a source of tension in the household. She was a stern, rather joyless person, and a Campbellite
Campbellite
Campbellite refers to any of the religious groups historically descended from the Restoration Movement, a religious reform movement in the early 19th century in the United States...
who who firmly believed in overcooked, bland food. She was also a follower of Dr. Will Keith Kellogg
Will Keith Kellogg
Will Keith Kellogg, generally referred to as W.K. Kellogg was an American industrialist in food manufacturing, best known as the founder of the Kellogg Company, which to this day produces a wide variety of popular breakfast cereals...
's dietary strictions at the Battle Creek Sanitarium
Battle Creek Sanitarium
The Battle Creek Sanitarium, in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States, first opened on September 5, 1866, as the Western Health Reform Institute, based on the health principles advocated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In 1876, John Harvey Kellogg became the superintendent, and his brother, W....
. Fisher would later write that during her grandmother's absences at religious conventions:
An early food influence was "Aunt" Gwen. Aunt Gwen was not family, but the daughter of friends - the Nettleship family - "a strange family of English medical missionaries who preferred tents to houses." The Nettleships had an encampment on Laguna Beach and Mary would camp out there with Gwen. Rex would later buy the campsite and a cabin that had been built on it. Mary recalled cooking outdoors with Gwen: steaming mussels on fresh seaweed over hot coals; catching and frying rock bass; skinning and cooking eel; and, making fried egg sandwiches to carry on hikes. Mary wrote of her meals with Gwen and Gwen's brothers: "I decided at the age of nine that one of the best ways to grow up is to eat and talk quietly with good people." Mary liked to cook meals in the kitchen at home, and "easily fell into the role of the cook's helper."
Dijon: 1928 - 1932
In September 1929, newlyweds Mary and Al sailed on the RMS Berengaria to Cherbourg (now Cherbourg-OctevilleCherbourg-Octeville
-Main sights:* La Glacerie has a race track.* The Cité de la Mer is a large museum devoted to scientific and historical aspects of maritime subjects.* Cherbourg Basilica* Jardin botanique de la Roche Fauconnière, a private botanical garden.* Le Trident theatre...
), France. They traveled to Paris for a brief stay, before continuing south to Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
. They initially found a rental at 14 Rue de Petit Potet in a home owned by the Ollangier family. The lodgings consisted of two rooms, with no kitchen, and no separate bathroom. Al attended the Faculte de Lettres at the University of Burgundy
University of Burgundy
The University of Burgundy is a university located in Dijon, France.The University of Burgundy is situated on a large campus called Campus Montmuzard, 15 minutes by bus from the City Centre...
where he was working on his doctorate; when not in class, he worked on what he believed to be his epic poem; The Ghosts in the Underblows. The poem was based on the Bible and was analogous to James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's Ulysses
Ulysses
Ulysses is derived from Ulixes, the Latin name for Odysseus, a character in ancient Greek literature. For more on the name Ulysses, see Ulysses .Ulysses may also refer to:- Literature and film :...
. By 1931, Fisher would have finished the first twelve books of the poem, which he ultimately expected to contain sixty books. Mary attended night classes at the Ecole des Beaux Artes where she would spend three years studying painting and sculpture. The Ollangiers served good food at home, although Madame Ollangier was "extremely penurious and stingy." Mary remembered big salads made at the table, deep-fried Jerusalem artichokes, and "reject cheese" that was always good. To celebrate their three-month anniversary, Al and Mary went to the Au Tres Faisons restaurant - their first of many visits. There, Mary received her education in fine wine from a sommelier named Charles. The Fishers visited all the restaurants in town, where in Mary's words:
In 1930, Lawrence Clark Powell
Lawrence Clark Powell
Lawrence Clark Powell was a librarian, literary critic, bibliographer and author of more than 100 books....
came to Dijon to obtain his doctorate at the University of Burgundy. He came at Mary's suggestion. Powell had become acquainted with Mary when Mary's sister was attending Occidental College, and roomed with Powells girlfriend. Powell moved into the attic above the Fishers and became lifelong friends with Mary. He described the food at the Fishers' pensione: In Mary and Al moved to their own apartment, above a pastry shop at 26 Rue Monge. It was Mary's first kitchen. It was only five feet by three feet and contained a two-burner hotplate. Despite the kitchen's limitations, Mary began developing her own personal cuisine, with the goal of: "cooking meals that would 'shake [her guests] from their routines, not only of meat-potatoes-gravy, but of thought, of behavior.'" In The Gastronomical Me she describes one such meal:
After Al was awarded his doctorate, they moved briefly to Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, France, where Al continued to study and write. Mary became depressed from lonlieness and being cooped up in a cold, sordid apartment. Unable to afford better accommodations, the Fishers next moved to a tiny French fishing village: Cros-des-Cagnes. Powell briefly visited with them there for six weeks. He observed that Al was growing more introspective. He had stopped work on his poem, and was trying to write novels. Al did not want to return to the States where he knew job prospects were poor. He could not, however, see a way to stay in France. After running out of funds, the Fishers returned to California, sailing on the Feltre out of Marseilles.
California: 1932 - 1938
Back in California, Al and Mary initially moved in with Mary's family at "The Ranch." They later moved into the Laguna cabin. This was during the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
and work was hard to find. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College. Mary began writing and in 1934, she published her first piece - Pacific Village - in the magazine Touring Topics (later Westways Magazine). The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach. In 1934, Lawrence Powell moved to Laguna with his wife Fay. In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife Gigi
Gigi
Gigi is a 1944 novella by French writer Colette. The plot focuses on a young Parisian girl being groomed for a career as a courtesan and her relationship with the wealthy cultured man named Gaston who falls in love with her and eventually marries her....
moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends.
When Al began teaching at Occidental, the Fishers initially moved to Eagle Rock
Eagle Rock
Eagle Rock can refer to one of the following:Places in the United States*Eagle Rock, North Carolina, an unincorporated community in Wake County, North Carolina, west of Zebulon*Eagle Rock , a town in northern Botetourt County...
where the Parrishes helped them paint and fix up an older house they had rented. Unfortunately the home was sold shortly thereafter, and the Fishers had to move to another rented house in Highland Park
Highland Park, Los Angeles, California
Highland Park is a neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles.-Geography:Highland Park is located along the Arroyo Seco. It is situated within what was once Rancho San Rafael of the Spanish / Mexican era...
. Mary worked part-time in a card shop and researched old cookery books at the Los Angeles Public Library. She began writing short pieces on gastronomy. Fisher's sister Anne showed them to her publisher at Harpers who expressed an interest in them. The pieces were later to become her first book: Serve It Forth. Mary next began work on a novel she never finished; it was based on the founding of Whittier.
During this period, Mary's marriage with Al was beginning to fail. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary found herself falling in love with him. In Mary's words, she one day sat next to Parrish at the piano and told him she loved him. Mary's biographer Joan Reardon, however, interviewed Gigi who told a different story. She stated that Parrish told her that one night after he had dined alone with Mary, she later let herself into his house and slipped into bed with him. In 1935, with Al's permission, Mary traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother. The Parrishes had money and they sailed on the luxury liner Hansa. While in Europe,they spent four days in Paris, and traveled through Provence, Languedoc, and the French Riviera. Mary also revisited Dijon and ate with Parrish at Aux Trois Faisons where she was recognized and served by her old friend, the waiter Charles.. She later wrote a piece on their visit - The Standing and the Waiting - which was to become the centerpiece of Serve It Forth. Upon her return from Europe, Mary informed Al of her developing relationship with Parrish. In 1936, Dillwyn invited the Fishers to join him in creating an artists' colony at Le Paquis - a two-story stone house that Parrish had bought with his sister north of Vevey
Vevey
Vevey is a town in Switzerland in the canton Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne.It was the seat of the district of the same name until 2006, and is now part of the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District...
, Switzerland. Notwithstanding the clear threat to his marriage, Al agreed.
Vevey: 1936 - 1939
The Fishers sailed to Holland on a small Dutch passenger freighter, and from there took a train to Vevey. "Le Paquis" means the grazing ground. The house sat on a sloping meadow on the north shore of Lake Geneva, looking across to the snowcapped alps. They had a large garden in which: In mid-1937 Al and Mary separated. He traveled to Austria and then returned to the States where he began a distinguished career as a teacher and poet at Smith CollegeSmith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
. In a February 2, 1937 letter to Powell, Mary explained her side of the marital breakup. She stated that Al was afraid of physical love; he was sexually impotent in their marriage. Moreover he was an intellectual loner who was emotionally estranged from Mary. Mary stated that contrary to Al's belief, she had not left him for another man; she had left him because he could not satisfy her emotional and physical needs. In 1938, Mary returned home briefly to inform her parents in person of her separation and pending divorce from Al.
Meanwhile, her first book Serve It Forth had opened to largely glowing reviews, including reviews in Harper's Monthly, the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
. Mary, however, was disappointed in the book's meager sales because she needed the money. During this same period, Mary and Parrish also co-wrote (alternating chapters) a light romance entitled Touch and Go under the pseudonym Victoria Berne. The book was published by Harper and Brothers in 1939.
In September 1938, Mary and Parrish could no longer afford to live at Les Paquis and they moved to Bern. After only two days inj Bern, however, Parrish suffered severe cramping in his left leg. Hospitalized, he underwent two surgeries to remove clots. Gangrene then set in and his left leg had to be amputated. Parrish was in considerable pain and could not get a good diagnosis from his doctors. With the onset of WWII, and Parrish' need for medical care, Mary and Parrish returned to the States, where he saw a number of doctors. He ultimately was diagnosed as having Buerger's disease (Thromboangiitis obliterans) - a circulatory system malady that causes extreme thrombosis of the arteries and veins, causing severe pain, and often necessitating multiple amputations. The disease is progressive and there is no known treatment. They returned briefly to Switzerland to close out their apartment and returned to California. They also needed to accumulate a stock of the painkiller Analgeticum. It was the only painkiller that Parrish found efficacious; however, it was unavailable in the States.
California and Provence: 1939 - 1955
Once in California, Mary searched for a warm dry climate that would be beneficial for Parrish' health. She found a small cabin on ninety acres of land south of Hemet, California. They bought the property and named it "Bareacres" after the character Lord Bareacres in Vanity Fair (novel) by ThackerayThackeray
Thackeray is the name of:*William Makepeace Thackeray, a novelist*Bal Thackeray, an Indian politician*Edward Talbot Thackeray, a recipient of the Victoria Cross*A David Thackeray, a South African astronomer...
. Lord Bareacres was land-poor; his only asset was his estate. Mary wrote Powell: "God help us... We've put our last penny into 90 acres of rocks and rattlesnakes." Although Parrish' life at Bareacres had its ups and downs, its course was a downward spiral. He continued to paint, and Powell staged an exposition of his works. Mary was always trying to find ways to obtain Analgeticum; she even wrote President Roosevelt at one point to urge him to lift the import restriction on the drug.Ultimately, Parrish could no longer tolerate the pain and the probable need for additional amputations. On the morning of August 6, 1941, Mary was awakened by a gunshot. Venturing outside, she discovered that Parrish had committed suicide. Mary later would write: "I have never understood some (a lot of) taboos and it seems silly to me to make suicide one of them in our social life."
During the period leading up to Tim's death, Mary completed three books. The first was a novel entitled: The Theoretical Foot. The novel was a fictional account of expatriates enjoying a summer romp when the protagonist, suffering great pain, ends up losing a leg. Transparently based on Tim, the novel was rejected by publishers. The second book was an unsuccessful attempt by her to revise a novel written by Tim: Daniel Among The Women. Third, she completed and published: Consider the Oyster, which she dedicated to Tim. The book was humorous and informative. It contained numerous recipes incorporating oysters, mixed with musings on: the history of the oyster, oyster cuisine, and the love life of the oyster,
In 1942, Mary published: How to Cook a Wolf. The book was published at the height of WWII food shortages. "Pages offered housewives advice on how to achieve a balanced diet, stretch ingredients, eat during blackouts, deal with sleeplessness and sorrow, and care for pets during wartime. The book received good reviews and attained literary success, leading to a feature article on Mary in Look magazine
Look magazine
Look magazine can refer to:* Look , 1937 to 1971* LOOK Magazine, for African-American college students* Look Magazine * Look Magazine...
in July 1942.
In May 1942 Mary began working in Hollywood for Paramount Studios. While there she wrote gags for Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
, Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, and Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour was an American film actress. She is best remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope .-Early life:Lamour was born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Carmen Louise Dorothy...
. Mary became pregnant in 1943, and secluded herself in a boarding house in Altadena. While there she worked on the book that would become: The Gastronomical Me. On August 15, 1943, she gave birth to Anne Kennedy Parrish (later known as Anna). Mary listed a fictional father on the birth certificate - Michael Parrish. Mary initially claimed she had adopted the baby; she never would reveal the father's identity.
In 1944, Mary broke her contract with Paramount. On a trip to New York, she met and fell in love with publisher Donald Friede. In a letter to Powell she wrote: "I accidentally got married to Donald Friede." She spent the summer in Greenwich Village with Friede, working on a the book that would become Let Us Feast. Her relationship with Friede gave her entree to additional publishing markets, and she wrote articles for Atlantic Monthly, Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, Town and Country
Town and Country
- Locations in the United States :*Town 'n' Country, Florida*Town and Country, Missouri*Town and Country, Washington*Town & Country Village , California- Other uses :...
, Today's Woman and Gourmet. In fall 1945, Friede's publishing entity failed, and Mary and Donald returned to Bareacres - both to write. On March 12, 1946, Mary gave birth to her second daughter - Kennedy Mary Friede. Mary began work on With Bold Knife and Fork.
Mary's mother died in 1948. In 1949, she moved to the Ranch to take care of her father Rex. On Christmas Eve 1949, the limited edition release of her translation of Savarin's The Physiology of Taste received rave reviews. "Craig Claiborne
Craig Claiborne
Craig Claiborne was an American restaurant critic, food writer and former food editor of the New York Times. He was the author of numerous cookbooks and an autobiography...
of the New York Times said Fisher's prose perfectly captured the wit and gaeity of the book and lauded the hundreds of marginal glosses that [she] added to elucidate the text." During this period, Mary also was working on a biography of Recamier for which she had received an advance. Her marriage with Donald was starting to unravel. He became ill with intestinal pains and after considerable medical treatment, it became apparent that the pain was psychosomatic, and Don began receiving psychiatric care. Mary in turn had been under considerable stress. She had been caretaker for Tim, had weathered his suicide, suffered her brother's suicide a year later, followed by the death of her mom, only to thrust into the role of becoming caretaker for Rex. Despite her successful writing income, Don lived a lifestyle that exceeded their income, leaving her $27,000 in debt, She sought psychiatric counseling for what essentially was a nervous breakdown. By 1949, Donald had become frustrated by his isolation in a small Southern California town, and separated from Mary, Don sought further treatment at the Harkness Pavilion in New York.Mary and Don divorced on August 8, 1950.
Her father died June 2, 1953. Mary subsequently sold the Ranch and the newspaper. She rented out Bareacres and moved to Napa Valley, renting "Red Cottage" south of St. Helena, California
St. Helena, California
St. Helena is a city in Napa County, California, United States. It is part of the northern San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 5,814 at the 2010 census....
. Dissatisfied with the educational opportunities available to her children, Mary sailed to France in 1954. She ended up in Aix en Provence, France. She planned to live in Aix using the proceeds from the sale of her father's paper.
Once in Aix, Mary lodged with Mme Lanes at 17 Rue Cardinale.She employed a French tutor, and enrolled Anna and Kennedy, then aged 11 and 8, in the Ecole St Catherine. She described Mme Lanes as 'incredibly fusty and 'correcte,'" part of the "poor but proud aristocracy." In Aix, her life developed a pattern. Each day she would take a couple of walks across town to pick the girls up from school at noon and in late afternoon. They ate snacks or ices at the Deux Garcons or Glaciere.She never felt completely at home. She felt patronized because she was an American: "I was forever in their eyes the product of a naive, undeveloped, and indeed infantile civilization..." At one point, an important local woman, introduced to her through mutual friends in Dijon, invited her to lunch. During the meal, the woman sneered at May:
St Helena, CA: 1955 - 1970
Mary left Provence in July 1955, and sailed for San Francisco on the freighter Vesuvio, After living in the city for a short period, she decided that the intense urban environment did not provide the children enough freedom.S he sold Bareacres, and used the proceeds to buy an old Victorian house on Oak Street in St. Helena. She would own the house until 1970, using it as a base for frequent travels. During extended absences she would rent it out.In fall 1959 she moved the family to Lugano, Switzerland, where she hoped to introduce her daughters to a new language and culture,
.She enrolled the girls in the Istituto Sant'Anna Convent boarding school. She revisited Dijon and Aix. Falling back in love with Aix, she rented the L'Harmas farmhouse outside of Aix. In July 1961, she returned to San Francisco.
In 1963, Mary decided to try her hand at teaching at the African-American Piney Woods Country Life School
Piney Woods Country Life School
The Piney Woods Country Life School is a co-educational independent historically African-American boarding school for grades 9-12 in Piney Woods, Mississippi. It is one of four remaining historically African-American boarding schools in the United States...
in Mississippi. It was not a good experience for her. She received mixed reviews and was not invited back for another term.
She next contracted to write a series of cookbook reviews for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine. Because her St. Helena home was rented, she moved to her sister's home in Genoa, Nevada
Genoa, Nevada
Genoa is an unincorporated town in Douglas County, Nevada, United States. Founded in 1850, it was the first settlement in what became the Nevada Territory. It is situated within Carson River Valley and is about south of Reno....
to work on the assignment.
In 1966, Time-Life
Time-Life
Time–Life is a creator and direct marketer of books, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products. Its products are sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct sales....
hired Mary to write The Cooking of Provincial France. She traveled to Paris to research material for the book. While there, she met Paul and Julia Child
Julia Child
Julia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which...
, and through them James Beard
James Beard
James Andrew Beard was an American chef and food writer. The central figure in the story of the establishment of a gourmet American food identity, Beard was an eccentric personality who brought French cooking to the American middle and upper classes in the 1950s...
. Child was hired to be a consultant on the book; Michael Field
Michael Field
Michael Field may refer to:* Michael Field , Premier of Tasmania* Michael Field , pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith CooperSee also*Michael Fields...
was the consulting editor. Field rented out the Childs' country home--La Pitchoune--to work on the book. When Fisher later moved into the home immediately after Field, she found the refrigerator empty. She remarked: "How could a person who loves food be in the south of France and not at least have a piece of cheese in the refrigerator."Fisher was disappointed in the book's final form; it contained restaurant recipes, without regard to regional cuisine, and much of her signature prose had been cut.
Last House, Glen Ellen, CA: 1970 - 1992
In 1971, Mary's friend, David Bouverie, who owned a ranch in Glen Ellen, CaliforniaGlen Ellen, California
Glen Ellen is a census-designated place in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA. The population was 784 at the 2010 census, down from 992 at the 2000 census. Glen Ellen is the location of Jack London State Historic Park , Sonoma Valley Regional Park, and a former home of Hunter S....
, offered to build Mary a house on his ranch. Mary designed the home, calling it "Last House." The presence of ranch staff made it easy for to use the home as a base for frequent travels. She would return to France in 1970, 1973, 1976 and 1978, visiting, inter alia: La Roquette, Marseilles and Aix..
Death
After Timmy Parrish's death, Fisher considered herself a "ghost" of a person, but she continued to have a long and productive life, dying in Glen Ellen, California in 1992 at the age of 83. She had long suffered from Parkinson's diseaseParkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
and arthritis. She spent the last twenty years of her life in "Last House," a house built for her in a vineyard.
A full list of her works can be found at The MFK Fisher Foundation Webpage.
Books
- Serve It Forth (Harper 1937) ISBN 0865473692
- Touch and Go (Harper and Brothers 1939) (with Dillwyn Parrish under the psudonym Victoria Berne)
- Consider the OysterConsider the OysterConsider the Oyster is a book by M. F. K. Fisher that deals in the history, preparation and eating of oysters. The work was first published in the United States in 1941 and has been in print ever since. Thin, poetical, and whimsical, it is, perhaps, the most famous book about oysters ever written....
(Duell, Sloan and Pierce 1941) ISBN 0865473358 - How to Cook a Wolf (Duell, Sloan and Pierce 1942) ISBN 0865473366
- The Gastronomical Me (Duell, Sloan and Pierce 1943) ISBN 0865473928
- Here Let Us Feast, A Book of Banquets (Viking 1946) ISBN 0865472068
- Not Now but Now (Viking 1947) ISBN 0865470723
- An Alphabet for Gourmets (Viking 1949) ISBN 0865473919
- The Physiology of Taste [translator] (Limited Editions Club 1949) ISBN 9781582431031
- The Art of Eating (MacMillan 1954) ISBN 0394713990
- A Cordial Water: A Garland of Odd & Old Receipts to Assuage the Ills of Man or Beast (Little Brown 1961) ISBN 0865470637
- The Story of Wine in California (University of California Press 1962) ISBN 9110349340
- Map of Another Town: A Memoir of Provence (Little Brown 1964) ISBN 8014051591
- Recipes: The Cooking of Provincial France (Time-Life Books 1968) [reprinted in 1969 as The Cooking of Provincial France] ISBN
- With Bold Knife and Fork (Putnam 1969) ISBN 0399503978
- Among Friends (Knopf 1971) ISBN 1593760243
- A Considerable Town (Knopf 1978) ISBN 0394427114
- Not a Station but a Place (Synergistic Press 1979) ISBN 0912184027
- As They Were (Knopf 1982) ISBN 0394713486
- Sister Age (Vintage 1983) ISBN 0394723856.
- Spirits of the Valley (Targ Editions 1985)
- Fine Preserving: M.F.K. Fisher's Annotated Edition of Catherine Plagemann's Cookbook (Aris Books 1986) ISBN 0671630652
- Dubious Honors (North Point Press 1988) ISBN 0865473188
- The Boss Dog: A Story of Provence (Yolla Bolly Press 1990) ISBN 0865474656
- Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon (Prentice Hall 1991) ISBN 0139295488
- To Begin Again: Stories and Memoirs 1908-1929 (Pantheon 1992) ISBN 0679415769
- Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: Journals and Stories 1933-1941 (Pantheon 1993) ISBN 0679758259
- Last House: Reflections, Dreams and Observations 1943-1991 (Pantheon 1995) ISBN 0679774114
- Aphorisms of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin from His Work, The Physiology of Taste (1998)
- A Life in Letters (Counterpoint 1998) ISBN 1887178464
- From the Journals of M.F.K. Fisher (Pantheon 1999) ISBN 0375708073
- Two Kitchens in Provence (Yolla Bolly Press 1999)
- Home Cooking: An Excerpt from a Letter to Eleanor Friede, December, 1970 (Weatherford Press 2000)
Further reading
- Barr, Norah Kennedy (1993), Foreword to Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: journals and stories, 1933–1941, M. F. K. Fisher. New York: Pantheon Books
- The M.F.K. Fisher Foundation
- A biography of M. F. K. Fisher by Janice Albert
- Ferrarry, Jeannette (1998) M. F. K. Fisher and Me: a Memoir of Food and Friendship ISBN 0-312-19442-0
- Reardon, Joan (2004) Poet of the Appetites New York: North Point Press ISBN 0-86547-562-8 (also see bio of M. F. K. Fisher by Joan Reardon)
- Derwin, Susan (2003), "The poetics of M. F. K. Fisher", in: Style, Fall 2003
- Green, Michelle (2003) "M. F. K. Fisher’s Sonoma -- a House Built to Feed Body and Soul", Michelle Green, in: New York Times Aug. 31, 2008
- Zealand, Donald (2010) "M.F.K. Fisher: An Annotated Bibliography" ISBN 1456307932
- Zimmerman, Anne (Counterpoint 2011) "An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M.F.K. Fisher" ISBN 1582435464
External links
- M.F.K. Fisher Papers.Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
- Short radio segment (script and audio) A Thing Shared from The Gastronomical Me at California Legacy ProjectCalifornia Legacy ProjectThe California Legacy Project began in 2000 as a project at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA and later partnered with Heyday Books in Berkeley, CA. The project uses a research team of SCU interns to create radio scripts for the radio anthology "Your California Legacy" on KAZU 90.3 FM,...
.