… That Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” would not have been published were it not for Lincoln resident, Avis DeVoto?
Avis and her husband, Bernard, lived in the historic 1818 Hoar house on Weston Road, across from the Pierce House. Bernard DeVoto was the author of a series of popular histories of the American West (including the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Across the Wide Missouri), as well as books on Mark Twain, and a regular column, “The Easy Chair,” in Harper's Magazine.
It was one of Bernard’s “Easy Chair” articles, an essay on the poor quality of American knives, that sparked the DeVoto’s life-long friendship with Julia and Paul Child, and ultimately the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
After reading the article on knives, Julia Child sent a fan letter, from Paris, to Bernard. Avis, who read all of Bernard’s mail, responded. That was the beginning of a pen-pal relationship that led to Avis’s interest in Julia’s culinary work in France and their enduring friendship.
Avis soon learned that Julia was struggling to find a publisher for her newly-completed cookbook. Avis and Bernard had many friends in the publishing business. Avis first approached her friend and Lincoln neighbor, Paul Brooks, who was an editor at Houghton Mifflin.
But Houghton Mifflin had failed in its earlier attempt at cookbook publishing, so Avis moved her campaign to another friend and frequent dinner guest, Alfred Knopf.
Avis would wow Alfred with dishes that she then revealed to be Julia’s recipes.
Knopf took a gamble on the yet-unknown Julia Child, based on Avis’s urgings and her fabulous dinners.
In all, a savory bit of Lincoln’s history.
A lecture on Avis and Bernard DeVoto and their history as eco-warriors was presented at Bemis Hall on October 5, 2023, with Nate Schweber, author of This America of Ours, and sponsored by the Bemis Free Lecture Series, the Friends of Minute Man National Park, the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust, the Lincoln Historical Society, and the Walden Woods Project.
Sara Mattes
Bemis Free Lecture Series
Lincoln Historical Society
September 2023
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