Noel Riley Fitch - Appetite for Life

J ULIA CHILDS 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.

Ones friends, they say, are a reflection of ones 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 mothers diary, and a vast clipping file of Julias career; her brother, John McWilliams, gave me photographs and a copy of their grandfathers 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 Hymans 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 mentors, for insightful recipe and cookbook analysis; Kathleen ONeill 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 (Chteauneuf de Grasse, France, where I spent two visits in Simcas 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, Hlne 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 Nalche), 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, Andr 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 Delcluse, 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 Coudic, 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 ONeil, Dana Gans Parker, Suzanne Patterson, Jacques Ppin, Kathleen Perry, Corinne M. Poole, Jean MacKenzie deSola Pool, Herbert and Patricia R. Pratt, Erica Child Prudhomme, 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-Franois 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