Last week, hurrying about my errands and to-do lists, in between work and answering emails, I clicked on a link on Twitter that led me to this article, this epic piece really, a 5-part series about a homeless family in New York City. The article focused on one of the family's daughters, a little girl named Dasani. Dasani, born into a different kind of life, would have the regular bright things ahead of her that we all, most of us at least, take for granted. Home-cooked dinners, new clothing and the ability to go to the bathroom alone and without fear to start, followed by regular school attendance, a high school diploma probably, college and a life – stable, regular, quotidian – thereafter. Instead, Dasani lives a life that would crush most of us. If you haven't already read about Dasani and her family, I urge you to. It will take some time, but it is worth it.
I haven't been able to stop thinking about the family – and the thousands like it – since. When I take a shower alone and unmolested, when I watch Hugo eating his dinner that I have no trouble putting on the table, when I lie back in my clean, quiet bed at night to read, I think about all these silly little things that make up my everyday life and how completely out of reach they are for a girl, and a family, that has simply had the bad luck to be born into different circumstances than I have.
I've also been thinking about how to help, which is where you come in. I've decided to auction off a good portion (about half!) of my cookbook collection and will be donating all proceeds to the Invisible Child Fund at the Legal Aid Society of New York. There are a lot of great books in the collection, like the much-coveted and out-of-print The Last Course by Claudia Fleming, a signed copy of Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home, M.F.K. Fisher's The Cooking of Provincial France set that she did for Time-Life, and Alice Medrich's cult favorite, also out-of-print, Chocolate and the Art of Lowfat Desserts (one of the first books I scored on eBay way back when because of a food blog).
After much thought, I decided not to use eBay for the auction – I don't want anyone to hesitate to bid because they don't have an account. Instead, I'm going to auction the books off right here. I think it should go relatively smoothly. Here's how it'll work: I'm going to list the books up for auction below, with author name, title, condition of the book, and a bidding price. If you want to bid on a book, just leave a comment or send me an email or a tweet with the amount and I'll update the bidding price. The auction will end on Friday.
Please help by spreading the word far and wide. While I can't guarantee that the books will arrive in time for Christmas, depending on where you live, I do promise to ship them into the postal system the weekend before Christmas. The books are all in new or almost-new condition, with the exception of the few vintage ones among them. Bonus: Ruth Reichl and Deb Perelman, the authors of Mmmmm: A Feastiary and The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, respectively, will be matching the winning bid for their books, no matter how high they go. And the winning bidder for Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy will received an accompanying limited edition letterpress poster from the publisher.
And: If you spend over $50 on any book, you'll also receive a copy of My Berlin Kitchen as a gift.
Thank you, sweet readers, for reading and for participating.
1. Susan Herrmann Loomis's French Farmhouse Cookbook – paperback, like new. $50 (ruth fecych via email)
2. Barbara Kafka's Roasting: A Simple Art – hardcover, gently used. $60 (Elizabeth Van Pelt)
3. Deborah Krasner's Good Meat – hardcover, new. $65 (Eleanor)
4. Alice Medrich's Chocolate and The Art of Low-Fat Desserts – hardcover, gently used. $115 (Thomas Marzahl via email)
5. Suvir Saran's Indian Home Cooking – hardcover, like new. $150 (Tanya)
6. Claudia Fleming's The Last Course – hardcover, new. $250 (Theresa Vaskovic. via email)
7. Sara Forte's The Sprouted Kitchen – hardcover, new. $100 (amanda)
8. Gourmet's Cookie Cookbook – hardcover, like new. $50 (Deb)
9. Jamie's 15-Minute Meals – hardcover, new. $50 (Chlo-star.)
10. Jamie's Great Britain – hardcover, new. $55 (Jennifer)
11. Lisa Fain's Homesick Texan Cookbook – hardcover, like new. $120 (Sara)
12. The Nepenthe Cookbook – hardcover, new. $20 (Luann Wierdsma via email)
13. Alton Brown's Good Eats 1 & 2 – hardcover, new. $100 (Dana)
14. Food52 Cookbook, Volume II – hardcover, like new. $60 (Mary Nodine via email)
15. Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarborough's Ham – hardcover, new. $30 (Edgardo via Twitter)
16. Clotilde Dusoulier's French Market Cookbook – paperback, like new. $50 (Karey)
17. Liana Krissoff's Grains for a New Generation – paperback, like new. $80 (Sara)
18. MFK Fisher's Cooking from Provincial France – hardcover with spiral bound recipe booklet in slipcase, vintage. Good, clean, unused condition. $260 (Brettne Bloom)
19. Deb Perelman's The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook – hardcover, new. Winning bid will be matched by Deb. $130 (Em)
20. Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home, dedicated and signed – hardcover, new. $160 (Bec via email)
***UPDATE***
Russ Parsons, Ruth Reichl, Ten Speed Press and Sarah Copeland caught wind of the auction and generously asked to donate the following incredible items. Thank you to them!!
21. Russ Parsons's How to Pick a Peach, signed – hardcover, new. $70 (Suzy)
22. Ruth Reichl's Mmmmm: A Feastiary (her very last personal copy!). Winning bid will be matched by Ruth. $525 (John Atchue)
23. Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy, signed – hardcover, new. Winning bid will receive an accompanying limited edition letterpress poster. $250 (Sarah Chamberlain via email)
24. Sarah Copeland's Feast, signed – hardcover, new. $55 (Katherine)
25. Sarah Copeland's The Newlywed Cookbook, signed – hardcover, new. $55 (Cayleigh)
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142 responses to “A Cookbook Auction for The Invisible Child”
Great idea! $5 for the Alice Medrich book!
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Yay! I’ll start with $10 for Suvir Saran’s Indian Home Cooking. And $10 for Sara Forte’s Sprouted Kitchen.
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I’ll start with $20 for The Last Course.
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$10 for Ad Hoc
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$20 for ad hoc, $10 for food 52 and $10 for smitten kitchen 🙂
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$50 for the last course, please.
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And $15 for sprouted kitchen 🙂
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What a lovely idea! I’ll start with $5 for the French Market Cookbook and $5 for Jamie’s 15-Minute-Meals and $15 for Ad hoc.
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Then $ 25 for Ad hoc… This is going to be fun!
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10 for Deborah Krasner’s Good Meat!
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Amazing idea but how do we pay you?
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$18 for Smitten Kitchen!
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Paypal! And then I’ll send a check to the fund, which accepts only checks.
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60 USD for The last course
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As someone who works at The Legal Aid Society in NYC and a regular follower of your blog, thank you for this!!
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I’ll start with $15 for the Grains for a New Generation
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$15 for The Homesick Texan Cookbook
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MFK Fisher Cooking from Provincial France $10
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love that you’re doing this – a great way to (ahem) raise dough! you’ve inspired me to clear out my shelves to see if i can participate!
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$75 for the last course
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$ 20 for MFK Fisher
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Hi! I’ll bid $30 for ad hoc by Thomas Keller and $5 for Jamie’s Great Britain
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Hi Luisa, I’d like to bid $50 for MFK Fisher.
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Also $5 for Barbara Kafka’s Roasting!
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$15 for homesick Texan!
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Just saw it above. $20
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$25 for The Smitten Kitchen please! 🙂
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5 for French Farmhouse Cooking
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9 months pregnant with my first child, whose parents have 4 higher edu degrees between them, who will likely never see the inside of a shelter, who will likely never wonder where his never meal is coming from, or if he has coat, or if he’s safe- I couldn’t even get through the epic piece on Dasani. $20 for Sprouted Kitchen.
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Luisa — I am so very, very glad you are doing this. Like you, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Dasani — and the thousands like her — since reading that piece, which is, truly, a masterpiece of journalist. Andrea Elliott deserves a second Pulitzer for it. I’m also looking for things I can do, and in the meantime will bid $75 for the MFK Fisher.
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a masterpiece of journalisM, I meant to say.
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$30 for The Sprouted Kitchen, please. Thank you!
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$20 for Barbara Kafka’s Roasting.
Luisa, so good of you to bring the series — and the issues — to people who may have missed it. Thank you.
Susan
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Clotilde Dusoulier’s French Market Cookbook – $10
Deb Perelman’s The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook – $30
Wonderful idea!
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Great idea – and also I can’t believe this is only half of your collection. The fact that I already have many of these shows how out of control my cookbook buying is, but I remember reading a quote from Nigella to the effect that, once you start a collection, there is no reason to stop. So, $20 for the Food 52 book please!
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Lovely you. $50 for Alice Medrich’s Chocolate and The Art of Low-Fat Desserts please
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$35 for smitten kitchen and
$35 for sprouted kitchen
Great auction – good cause!
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Thank you, so, for helping us to help. $100 for MFK Fisher and $100 for The Sprouted Kitchen. I wish that I could add ten more zeroes to the end of both of those amounts.
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Judy’s bid ~
$25 for Suvir Saran’s Indian Home Cooking
$15 for Clotilde Dusoulier’s French Market Cookbook
Thank you! Hope you raise a ton!
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$40 for Smitten Kitchen, $20 for Jamie’s Great Britain
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Luisa – I’ll go in with $35 for Jamie’s Great Britain and $35 for Good Meat.
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Luisa, this is a wonderful idea and I echo the commenter above – Thank you for helping us to help. I’ll bid $10 for Alton Browns Good Eats and $25 for Food 52.
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I’ll do $5 on Nepenthes
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$35 for Suvir Saran’s Indian Home Cooking. Thanks for doing this!
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Hi Luisa, Thank you for bringing light to this article. $10 for the gourmet cookie cookbook from me. best, ellie
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Whoa. I am on Part 3 of that article series and just…WHOA. It really puts things in perspective, huh? I bid $60 for Ad Hoc and $30 for Food52. Thank you!
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Alton Brown — good eats: $20
Jamie’s 15-minute meals: $20
thanks!
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I’ll bid $20 for Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals and $20 for Alton Brown. Great idea!
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oops $30 for Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals
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I read the article. Remnants of the story echo a childhood of near poverty. Not there, a much different time and place, but sharps shards of touch and go with a buckets of disfunction. Sloshing and churning ever into the present. I bid $50.00 for
Gourmet’s Cookie Cookbook. I hope I am over bid! Let’s keep this going!
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