OP: Serious Pig

North Point Press, 1996. Hardcover. Near Fine. First printing.

John Thorne, long based in New England, is a determined individualist who stays mainly out of the public eye. He is most widely known for his newsletter, Simple Cooking, which was published from 1983 into the late-2010s. 

Serious Pig (1996) is a collection of essays in which Thorne, with the help of his wife, Matt Lewis Thorne, ruminates on his culinary roots from the coast of Maine where he spent summers as a child to Louisiana where he fell in love with Cajun and Creole cuisine as an adult—and everywhere in between.

With his particularly introspective, quirky, and near-obsessive focus, Thorne has a way of capturing the simple pleasures of food and eating in ways that elude even the most seasoned writers. He is a delight to read, and his research is thorough, but there is no doubt that he writes primarily for himself, following his own curiosity, which never seems fully sated. 

Our copy is a Near Fine first printing. Also available in paperback.