Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child (77 page)

T
ELEVISION
S
ERIES

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
AND
S
OURCES

J
ULIA CHILD’S
friendly generosity and cheerful responsiveness to my many queries have not only made my five years of research a personal pleasure, they have immeasurably enriched this biography. Never has she asked to read or approve my work, a calculated wisdom that reveals trust and respect for the biographical process, bemused resignation based on decades of being misquoted, self-confidence, and an honest openness to life and to others. I could not have written her biography without the total access to her collected and uncollected papers she accorded me. She opened every file and datebook, offered the names of those (very few) who might give me negative opinions (“good quotes,” she promised), and prepared meals for me when I visited. She has left me with the burden of responsibility for interpretations and (mis)judgments.

One’s friends, they say, are a reflection of one’s self, and in the case of Julia Child the cast is joyful, multitudinous, and multinational. They reflect her generosity and support and made my work a delight. Her sister, Dorothy Cousins, offered me family letters, photographs, her mother’s diary, and a vast clipping file of Julia’s career; her brother, John McWilliams, gave me photographs and a copy of their grandfather’s memoirs; her nieces, nephews, and cousins shared letters and hours of their memories and insights.

Special thanks to culinary historians Phil and Mary Hyman, who, during one of their delicious dinners in Paris, first suggested to me they had the perfect subject for my next biography. They were most convincing that I should emphasize the French-American connection. Bert Sonnenfeld gave a hearty second to the Hyman’s motion and has offered support, expertise, and, as always, the final read-through. I am particularly grateful to Stephanie Hersh, assistant to Julia Child, for her delightful wit and professional assistance; Kristine Dahl, my agent at International Creative Management, for her belief in the importance of this biography; and Elizabeth Lerner, my editor at Doubleday, for her perceptive editing and encouragement.

For research assistance, I wish to thank Michael Hargraves of the Getty Museum, who offered his M. F. K. Fisher archive, his www expertise, and unfailing research skills; Betty Rosbottom, whose energy is matched only by her mentor’s, for insightful recipe and cookbook analysis; Kathleen O’Neill for hours of computerized genealogy assistance; Roberta Klugman, executive director of the American Institute of Wine and Food (AIWF), for answering all my questions; Peter Petraitis for rare books; Karen Walker for additional Paris research; and George Gruenwald, Barbara Hull, and Gwyn Erwin for research assistance. My gratitude to the family and friends of Julia Child who read portions of this manuscript that pertained to their experience.

Several people offered both hospitality and research sources, for which I remain in their debt: E. S. (Peggy) Yntema (Cambridge), Elisabeth Hill and Martha Starr (Washington, DC), Jeanine and Roland Plottel (NYC), Ronald and Betty Rosbottom (Amherst, MA), Anne Willan & Mark Cherniavsky (Burgundy, France); France Thibault (Châteauneuf de Grasse, France, where I spent two visits in Simca’s room).

F
OR SHARING
their memories and meals, for giving me access to letters and photographs, insights and support, I wish to thank the following: Marshall Ackerman, Kathie Alex, Rebecca Alssid, R. W. Apple, Jr., David Haward Bain, Hélène Baltrusaitis, Elisabeth Brassart, Nancy Verde Barr, Michael and Ariane Batterberry, Mary Zook Beales, Emily M. (Wendy) Beck, Henry Becton, Jr., Mary Cootes Belin, Karen Berk, Fern Berman, Ailene (Martin) and Jean Berrard, Louisette Bertholle (Madame la Comtesse de Nalèche), Peter and Mari Bicknell, Margrit Biever (Mondavi), James Bishop, Tom and Frances Bissell, Corinne M. Black, Paul Bohannan, Jane Bollinger, Alison Boteler, Francis Myer Brennan, Joan Brewster, Benjamin H. Brown, Philip S. Brown, Barbara Ord Bryant, Marian Burros, Mary Ford Cairns, Lou and Mary Cannon, Thomas P. Carhartt, Page Carter, Narcisse Chamberlain, Brien and Rudolph Chelminski, Jonathan Child, Rachel Child, Robert Clark, Pat Brown Clopper, André J. Cointreau, Eleanor Roberts Colt, Joseph R. Coolidge, Constance Thayer Cory, Dorothy Cousins, Philadelphia Cousins and Bob Moran, Samuel Cousins, Howard B. Crotinger, Martha Culbertson, Carol and B. J. Cutler, Marion Cunningham, Susy Davidson, Peter Davison, Elton Davies, Sylvie and Jacques Delécluse, Martha G. Dennis, Carl DeSantis, Mark DeVoto, Froydis and Jan W. Dietrichson, Mary Tonetti Dorra, Harriet Doerr, John P. Downing, Geoffrey Drummond, Robert W. Duemling, Madame F. du Couëdic, William Echikson, Bjorn and Eline Egge, Colin Eisler, E. Lee Fairley, George Faison, Barbara Pool Fenzl, Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson, John Ferrone, Lyne S. Few, Carol Field, Lisbeth Fisher, Janet Fletcher, Ted and Linda Fondulas, Terry Ford, Pierre Franey, Ken Frank, Jane Friedman, Jean Friendly, James Fullerton, Betty Fussell, Catherine Atwater Galbraith, John Kenneth Galbraith, Katy and Freeman Gates, Catherine Gewertz, Charles Gibson, K. Dun Gifford, Janice Goldklang, Richard Graff, Agnes Green, Dorie Greenspan, Paul Grimes, George Gruenwald, Barbara Haber, Charles Hall, Orian Hall Hallor, Dorothy Cann Hamilton, Viola Tuckerman Hansen, Nancy Kirby Harris, Anne Hastings, Robert P. Hastings, Nancy Gregg Hatch, Harriet P. Healy, Patrick Healy, Louis J. Hector, Nancy White Hector, Susan Heller, Jack Hemingway, Pamela Henstell, Harriet Thacher Herrick, Stephanie Hersh, Karen Hess, Jens P. and Mosse Heyerdahl, Fritz Hier, Jim Hill, Alice C. Hiscock, Anita Hinckley Hovey, Fisher and Debby Howe, Sue Barton Huffman, Robert A. Huttenback, Philip and Mary Hyman, David O. Ives, J. Roland Jacobs, Susan Jacobson, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, Pamela Sheldon Johns, Anne Winton Johnston, Jeffrey Jones, Judith Jones, Barbara Kafka, Elizabeth Parker Kase, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, Edmond Kennedy, Graham Kerr, Mannie and Willette Klausner, Roberta Klugman, Susan Donnell Konkel, William A. Koshland, Harriet Kostic, Elizabeth and George A. Kubler, Christopher Kump, Peter Kump, Alexandre Lazaroff, Paul Levy, Lorance W. Lisle, Ruth Lockwood, James Londe, Jan Longone, James M. McDonald, Elizabeth McIntosh, John McJennett, J. Alexander McWilliams, Jr., David McWilliams, Josephine and John McWilliams III, Patricia G. McWilliams, Saba McWilliams, Maggie Mah, Rosemary Manell, Carolyn Margolis, Byron S. Martin, Dudley Martin, Edward A. Martin, I. Guy Martin, Michael McCarty, Marc Meneau, Sally Bicknell Miall, Barry Michlin, Juliana Middleton, Helen Kirkpatrick Milbank, Amy Bess Miller, Jane C. Owen Molard, Robert Mondavi, John L. Moore, Russell and Marian Morash, Sara Moulton, Richard S. Mowrer, Carrita Nelson, Kyle Nelson, Lizabeth Nicol, Eleanor (Ollie) Noall, Clara Rideout Noyses, Richard Olney, Deborah Olson, Carolyn O’Neil, Dana Gans Parker, Suzanne Patterson, Jacques Pépin, Kathleen Perry, Corinne M. Poole, Jean MacKenzie deSola Pool, Herbert and Patricia R. Pratt, Erica Child Prud’homme, Wolfgang Puck, Edwin J. Putzell, Steven and Barbara Raichlen, Joan Reardon, Kenneth O. Rhodes, Mary Livingston Ripley, Mary S. Risley, Stuart W. and Rosalind Rockwell, Susan M. Rogers, Betty Rosbottom, Natale Rusconi, Mary Francis Snow Russell, Thibaut de Saint Phalle, Henny and Berge Santo, Marian C. Schlesinger, Margie Schodt, Laura Shapiro, Paul C. and Sandra Sheeline, Virginia Durand Shelden, Mimi Sheraton, James Sherer, Nancy Silverton, Roxane Ruhl Simmons, Barbara Sims-Bell, Joseph C. Sloane, Catharine Carton Smith, Charmaine Solomon, Carl G. Sontheimer, Darthea Speyer, Zanne Early Stewart, Perry and Moune Stieglitz, David Strada, Steven Sullivan, Eleanor Thiry Summers, Jeffrey Steingarten, Madame France Thibault, Jean-François Thibault, Grant P. and Sharon Thompson, Lionel Tiger, Elizabeth Cathcart Tisdal, George Trescher, Clay Triplette, William A. Truslow, Charlotte Snyder Turgeon, Gregory Usher, Margaret Clark VanderVeer, Louise Vincent, Freifrau Dorothea von Stetten, Janou Walcutt, Susan Walter, Mary Case Warner, Marjory Ellen Lacy Warren, Alice Waters, Nach Waxman, Jan Weimer, Patricia Wells, Andrea B. Werbel, Donald M. Weston, Jr., Mary Weston, Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, Aileen Johnson Whitaker, Jasper White, Frances Proctor Wilkinson, Anne Willan and Mark Cherniavsky, Charles E. Williams, Faith Heller Willinger, Craig Alan Wilson, Clark Wolf, Paula Wolfert, Jim Wood, Gay Bradley Wright, Douwe Yntema, E. S. (Peggy) Yntema. And thanks to more than 150 others who answered my
New York Times
query, including numerous journalists who had interviewed Julia Child, and others who answered brief telephone queries.

T
HE JOHN MCWILLIAMS
family records were burned in a fire in 1901. What remains are the personal
Recollections
of grandfather John McWilliams, who dictated them to his secretary during the later years of his life, a genealogy of the Weston family (1065–1951), and the letters and photographs which are part of the private collection of the McWilliams and Child families (Julia McWilliams Child, Dorothy McWilliams Cousins, John and Josephine McWilliams III, Phila Cousins, Rachel Child, Erica Prud’homme, Jonathan Child, Saba McWilliams, J. Alexander McWilliams, Jr., and Dana Gans Parker).

In addition to the family papers above, I am deeply indebted to the following persons (or their heirs) who shared with me their private and unpublished personal diaries and memoirs: Eleanor Thiry Summers, Joseph R. Coolidge, Elizabeth Parker Kase, Julia McWilliams Child, Paul Cushing Child, Jeanne Taylor, and Avis DeVoto. For direct access to additional letters of Julia Child, I thank Barbara Pool Fenzl, Harriet Healy, Jens & Mosse Heyerdahl, Peter Kump, John L. Moore, Richard Mowrer, Kyle Nelson, Corinne Poole, Basil and Eleanor Summers, Anne Willan and Mark Cherniavsky, and others.

Many organizations provided access to special collections of documents, materials, and facilities. I wish to acknowledge the individuals who were especially helpful to me. In particular, I am indebted to the warm encouragement and sometimes special intervention of Barbara Haber, Curator of Printed Books, and Barbara Wheaton, honorary curator, of the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe, where the papers of Julia Child, Simone Beck, Avis DeVoto, and M. F. K. Fisher are housed. The following libraries and institutions offered vital resources for the research for this book:

American Heritage Center
. James Beard Collection, University of Wyoming. Laramie, WY. JB/JC Correspondence, 1953–73.

Avon Old Farms School
Elizabeth A. Coburn, Baxter Library, and Gordon Clark Ramsey, University of Hartford, Historian of Old Farms Schools.

Beard House
. New York. Diane Harris, Mitchell Davis, and Clay Triplette.

Beinecke Rare Book and MSS Library
. Yale University Library. Richard and Alice Lee Myers Papers and Robert Penn Warren and Eleanor Clark Papers.

Boston University
. Rebecca Alssid, Director of Special Programs, Metropolitan College.

Branson School
. Harriet Kostic, Alumni Director. Ross, CA.

British Library
. Reading Room, London.

Central Intelligence Agency
. Washington, DC. John H. Wright, Information and Privacy Coordinator.

Doheny Library
. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. Dace Taube, Regional History Center, Department of Special Collections.

Library of Congress
. Washington, DC. Reading Room.

Middlebury College
. Abernathy Collections, Starr Library, Vermont. Bread Loaf Archives and Correspondence of Julia and Paul Child, Avis DeVoto, and Paul Cubeta.

National Archives
and Records Administration, College Park, MD.

Pasadena Historical Museum
. Pasadena, CA. Tania Rizzo, Archivist.

Pasadena Polytechnic School
. Pasadena, CA. Alumni Office.

Pittsfield Public Library
. Pittsfield, MA.

The Arthur and Elizabeth
Schlesinger Library
on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Eva E. Moseley, Curator of Manuscripts; Janes Knowles, Archivist; Barbara Haber, Curator of Printed Books.

Smith College:
Library and Alumnae Archives. Northampton, MA. Margery N. Sly, Archivist.