Tag: William A. Alcott

Authors chart

The most prolific authors in the collection are the famous names of 19th century cooking:  Catharine Beecher, Lydia Maria Child, Julia Corson, Fannie Farmer, Marion Harland, Eliza Leslie, Mary J. Lincoln,  Marion Harris Neil,  Maria Parloa, Sarah Tyson Rorer, and Maria Eliza Rundell. These women’s books went through multiple editions and printings and reached millions of American households.

Other notable authors include Ella Eaton Kellogg, health food advocate and wife of John Harvey Kellogg, William A. Alcott, first president of the American Vegetarian Association, Rufus Estes, African-American railway chef,  and Jessup Whitehead, chef and restauranteur. 

eac-author-chart

Vegetarian cookbooks

Illustration from Six hundred recipes for meatless dishes by M. R. L. Sharpe (1908).

The American Vegetarian Society was founded in New York in 1850 with William A. Alcott, M.D. as its first president. Alcott was the author of  The Vegetable Diet, as Sanctioned by Medical Men, and By Experience in All Ages (1849). Vegetarianism grew in popularity in the United States over the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many new vegetarian cookbooks were published including The vegetarian cook book by Edward E. Howe (1887),  Science in the kitchen by E.E. Kellogg (1892), Vegetarian Cook Cook: Substitutes for Flesh Food by E.G. Fulton (1904) and Six Hundred Recipes for Meatless Dishes by M. R. L. Sharpe (1908).

Did vegetarian cookbooks differ markedly from other cookbooks? A text analysis comparison shows some interesting results. 

When did the word “vegetarian” first appear in American cookbooks? Check out the timeline chart of when the word appears in the Early American Cookbooks collection