OP: Poet of the Appetites

North Point Press, New York, 2004. Hardcover. Fine. First printing.

MFK Fisher (1908–1992) essentially invented the genre of food memoir. She published a heap of books in which she was the main character, and yet, as it turns out, she might have been exactly that—a character, which she invented to entertain herself as much as her readers.

In the introduction to her biography of Fisher, Poet of the Appetites (2004), Joan Reardon says, “although I loved reading her words and learning what she wanted me to know about her lives and loves, I never had a true sense of the woman who wrote what appeared on the page. I discovered she was not who I thought she was.” Reardon, having already interviewed and written about Fisher while she was still alive, here takes more liberties reconstructing her fascinating and complicated life.

Our copy is a Fine first printing and a revelation of a life many of us thought we already knew. Black and white photo insert.