The Suffrage Cook Book

Pittsburgh: The Equal Franchise Federation of Western Pennsylvania, 1915. Hardcover. Very Good. First edition. Octavo. 244pp., 36 plates of portraits. Blue cloth illustrated in black and titled in gilt with an image of Uncle Sam holding scales, weighing men and women as equals (we have also handled a variant with the cover image stamped in yellow, with no known priority). Lacking the rear fly, endpapers darkened, and the binding has several stains and rubbing on the boards, somewhat worn, but a good or better copy. Boldly Inscribed by the editor to one of the contributors: "To Mrs. Raymond Robins from Elizabeth Kleber, August Twenty Third." Mrs. Robins has contributed a recipe for Lemon Cream on page 160 and a full-page portrait of her appears on the unnumbered facing page.

A cookbook assembled by a Pittsburgh equal rights organization with a five-page introduction by Pittsburgh journalist Erasmus Wilson. Features recipes, endorsements, and statements regarding woman's suffrage from prominent political, social, and literary figures, including letters from several state governors (California, Kansas, Wyoming, and Washington), Jane Addams, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Fanny Garrison Villard, film actress Nazimova, Judge Ben Lindsay, an original poem by John Whitcomb Riley (not listed in *BAL*), and recipes from Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Irwin Cobb, and Jack and Charmain London. London contributes two prose recipes for preparing roast duck, contributions not listed in the standard London bibliography. The impassioned introduction, written by Erasmus Wilson, further explains that Kleber's cookbook is a fine example of the many cookbooks and culinary tracts written during the Suffrage movement that encouraged a radical shift from traditional delicate victuals to wholesome, pragmatic, and often medicinal meals. A very uncommon title, with a nice association.