OP: A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband
A. L. Burt Company, 1917. Hardcover. Very Good.
This 1917 classic—cooking, entertaining, and housekeeping for the newlywed—is an account of a fictional young couple’s first year of their marriage. Bob and Bettina begin their life together in June—of course—and, with her mother’s help, Bettina proves herself to be the perfect cook and housekeeper: clever, skilled, economical, and always prepared for any emergency call on her talents.
A continuing story, seasonally ordered—complete with relatives, friends, neighbors, and even bosses showing up for dinner unannounced—A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband recounts one or another “situation,” Bettina always rising gracefully and adroitly to the occasion: Bettina Gives a Porch Party, Motoring with the Dixons, The Firelight Social, Mildred’s Spring vacation, Bob Makes Popcorn, Helping with a Company Dinner, etc.
A Thousand Ways has been reissued a number of times, but what we offer here is an original copy published by the A.L. Burt Company in New York. There appears to have been another 1917 printing, perhaps earlier, issued by the Britton Publishing Company of Chicago.
Ours is in Very Good condition—clean, unmarked, with totally sound binding. The cloth has its original brown color, although the gold stamping on the front and spine has darkened; some fraying about the corners. Whether or not there was ever a dust jacket is ambiguous; there was one on a special edition done especially for the Wohlfarth & Koos furniture store of Newark, NJ; it is safe to say, however, we have never seen one with a jacket otherwise. Handsomely illustrated by Elizabeth Colbourne (1885–1948).
