JOY HISTORY

1943 edition
The 1943 edition is known as the wartime edition of the Joy of Cooking. Irma's preface in this book holds the cooking spoon up as our mighty weapon to defend America's tradition of plenty. In 1943, during World War II, Irma combined the 1936 edition with Streamlined Cooking, a collection of timesaving recipes that she published in 1939, to create the first bestselling JOY.  Pressure cookers, herb cultivation, culinary reference material and nutritional information were added to this revision.  A section of recipes was also added that used substitutes for ingredients subject to wartime rationing, such as soybeans for meat. According to Mendelson in Stand Facing the Stove,   Irma's voice in this edition, sounding like that of a knowledgable friend to those in the kitchen, solidified her relationship with her readers. This relationship has been described as a close kinship with many thousands of persons.

Due to World War II paper quotas, some printings the 1943 and 1946 revisions were done by the Blakiston Company of Philadelphia (a subsidiary of Doubleday). It would appear that printings done by Blakiston in 1946 would have the 1943 copyright and wartime introduction. Note that 1943 editions with the Blakiston imprint do not say Bobbs-Merrill" on the spine.

The 1943 edition of the Joy of Cooking was Julia Child's first cookbook ,a wedding gift from her mother-in-law. It was this JOY that taught her to cook.

COLLECTOR'S VALUES: $350 to $2000
Please read about cookbook collecting in the Kitchen Table Forums to learn more.

1946 edition
The 1946 JOY is a virtual reprint of 1943 editionprinted from the same plateswith the World War II rationing information deleted and replaced with more information from Streamlined Cooking in a forty page stretch at the end of the book with subsequent changes made in the index. We count this as the same edition and revision as the 1943.

COLLECTOR'S VALUES: $60 to $200
Please read about cookbook collecting to learn more.