First Ladies Cookbook: Favorite Recipes of all the Presidents of the United States

by Margaret Brown Klapthor (Editor), Robert H. Doherty, Dione Lucas

Hardcover: 228 pages
Publisher: Galison Books; First Edition edition (September 1982)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0939456036
ISBN-13: 978-0939456031
Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,043,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Great cookbook, easy to follow. With background stories.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

228 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[Jared Pechacek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am inordinately fond of this book.
Working off the dubious premise that the public cares about presidential food after about the first three administrations, Klapthor offers page after page of severe discretion, passive-aggression, and extremely disgusting Seventies-era food photography. Each section focuses on a different first lady (or, in the case of unmarried presidents, whichever female relative filled that role), and offers an overview of the administration's social life, food, manners, etc. If you like history and food, it's actually quite interesting, but there's something else going on that is even better—to me, anyway.
Like a Nabokovian narrator, Klapthor is extremely unreliable. Not in facts, necessarily, though I'm sure some of what she reports is out of date. Rather, she plays up the abilities of each first lady in their given section—e.g. such a charming hostess, or so morally upright, or such a good dresser—only to contradict herself in the next, when it's time to praise the next first lady at the expense of her predecessor. The teetotaler Hayes administration's alcohol ban is presented as a praiseworthy act, but when the next first lady lifted it, this is presented as a return to good old fun times. It goes beyond journalistic integrity, until you almost sense Klapthor straining for the approval of these long-dead women, and it reaches its peak when she gets to the then-present LBJ administration, where the book instantly devolves into shameless flattery of Lady Bird.
I'm glad something like this book exists, though, since lord knows the first ladies too often get treated as accessories, and Klapthor is diligent in digging into their correspondence, diaries, and other documents to unearth something of their personalities. Though, of course, she edits heavily so each administration sounds as sunny as it can be—only to turn around and reveal, in the next chapter, that nobody liked Mary Todd Lincoln, or so-and-so spent too much on lace. As a source of historical fact, this is not very useful, but as a weird, almost Pale Fire-like text, it's endlessly entertaining. (Three stars because I love this book so much but I'm pretty sure it's objectively bad or mediocre.)

[Muzzlehatch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating piece of Americana, basically a profusely illustrated history of exective entertaining, from Washington through...?? (don't know when the last edition was published; my copy dates to the Nixon White House) as well as a treasure trove of obscure -- and sometimes quite difficult-seeming -- recipes. Those interested in the more personal history of our chief executives and the changing tastes in Euro-American cuisine should hunt this up -- should be quite easy to find an old but serviceable copy for $5 at a used book store like I did, if one can't find it for even less at a thrift store. Worth having just for the rather garish mid-century technicolor photography alone.

[Donna]

I have the version that ends with Pat Nixon. This was a gift from Kristi Nelson.

[Shelly Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it a bit boring and covered a lot of information on the presidents. I wanted to read more about the First Ladies.