Descriptive Summary
	Creator:	Brownstone, Cecily.
	Title:	Cecily Brownstone Papers
	Dates:	ca. 1940-2002
	Abstract:	Cecily Brownstone was the Associated Press food editor for nearly forty years, as well as the author of Cecily Brownstone's Associated Press Cookbook (Associated Press, 1972). Brownstone amassed a comprehensive collection of materials relating to American cookery, including cookbooks, pamphlets, postcards, menus, recipe boxes, and more.
	Quantity:	55 linear feet in 35 boxes.
	Call Phrase:	MSS 134

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Biographical Note

Cecily Brownstone was born in Plum Coulee, Manitoba, Canada, in 1909, and grew up in Winnipeg, the fourth of five sisters. She attended the University of Manitoba and came to New York City to pursue her studies and to work. She lived in Greenwich Village, appropriately enough in a brownstone house, in a duplex apartment that included a spectacular test kitchen, and that housed her large cookbook collection.

Cecily Brownstone was The Associated Press Food Editor from 1947 to 1986 -- for thirty-nine years. During that time she was the most widely published of syndicated food writers. The five recipe columns and two food features she wrote for the A.P. each week appeared in papers all over the United States, in addition to a number of other countries.

Earlier in her career as a journalist, Brownstone was the Food Editor of Parent's Magazine, and the Child Care Editor of Family Circle magazine. She also wrote a book for children, All Kinds of Mothers, illustrated by her niece, the artist Miriam Brofsky Kley.

Brownstone was also a consultant to Carl Sontheimer, president of Cuisinart, a physicist, entrepreneur, and founder of the food processor industry in America. With Sontheimer, Brownstone edited the highly regarded magazine, Pleasures of Cooking, and wrote Classic Cakes and Other Great Cuisinart Desserts (Hearst Books, 1994). She earlier wrote Cecily Brownstone's Associated Press Cookbook (A.P., 1972).

Cecily Brownstone was a close friend and confident of James Beard and The Joy of Cooking authors, Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, and other noted cookbook and food writers. She and Beard telephoned each other almost daily, at 8 a.m., and their friendship is mentioned in two recent biographies of Beard. Brownstone's collection includes 93 letters and postcards from Irma Rombauer, and about 45 of Marion Becker's letters. During the last five years of Becker's life she phoned Brownstone for an hour every weekend; they were close friends, and Brownstone is mentioned often in Anne Mendelson's recent biography of Irma Rombauer and her daughter. Brownstone's collection includes signed, inscribed copies of almost every edition of The Joy of Cooking, sent to her first by Irma Rombauer, and later by Marion Becker.

Brownstone's personal papers and cookbook collection is the unique expression of her personal interest in and encyclopedic knowledge of American culinary history and cookbooks, and her career in the food field.

The Joy of Cooking author Irma Rombauer called Cecily Brownstone "wonder child (and wonder woman)."

New York Times food columnist Molly O'Neil called Brownstone one of the "cornerstones of authentic cooking in New York."

On Brownstone's retirement, former New York Times Food Editor Jane Nickerson wrote: "Of syndicated food writers, she's been the most widely read." Nickerson added: Brownstone's recipes were always "unusual, appetizing, and accurate down to the last one-eighth of a teaspoon of salt." Brownstone's "success derived, in my view, from her sensitivity to readers' tastes and her insistence that recipes give high, appealing results."

Cecily Brownstone died on August 30, 2005 at the age of 96.

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Scope and Content Note

The Cecily Brownstone Papers are a diverse collection of materials, including: correspondence, press releases, photographs, publicity, articles and recipes authored by Brownstone, general food-related articles and recipes authored by others, calendars, notes, manuscript recipe books, photocopied cookbooks, bibliographical inventories, a menu collection, a postcard collection, a recipe box collection, a pamphlet collection, and videotapes relating to the food industry.

Series Description

Series I: Author Files

Series II: Articles and Recipes

Series III: Personal Files

Series IV: Brownstone's Notes

Series V: Manuscript Recipe Books

Series VI: Photocopied Cookbooks

Series VII: Bibliographical Inventories

Subseries A: Index Card File

Series VIII: Menu Collection

Series IX: Postcard Collection

Series X: Ephemera

Series XI: Video recordings

Series XII: Recipe Box Collection

Series XIII: Pamphlet Collection

Subseries A: Miscellaneous Printed Material

Oversize

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Arrangement
	The Cecily Brownstone Papers are organized into thirteen series. Within these series, files are arranged both alphabetically by subject/author heading and chronologically depending on the nature of the series. Descriptions are at the folder level.

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Related Material at Fales Library and Special Collections

Fales Food and Cookery Collection

The Les Dames d'Escoffier New York Archive, 1976-2002

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Separated Material

The Cecily Brownstone Papers were largely culled from within Brownstone's larger library of American cookery. Brownstone's library has been catalogued separately from the personal papers. A related name search in Bobcat under "Cecily Brownstone" will retrieve records for the entire library, consisting of over 8400 titles.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Open to researchers without restrictions. Appointments are necessary for the use of manuscript and archival materials.

Use Restrictions

Collection use is subject to all copyright laws. Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the Director of Fales Library and Special Collections. For more information, contact
Fales Library and Special Collections
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012Phone: (212) 998-2596
Fax: (212) 995-3835
Email: fales.library@nyu.edu

URL:http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/fales/cdfa.htm

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Access Points
	Subject Names:
		Beard, James
		Becker, Marion
		Child, Julia
		Rombauer, Irma
		Sontheimer, Carl
	Subject Organizations:
		Family Circle
		Les Dames d'Escoffier
		Parent's Magazine
		The Associated Press
	Subject Topics:
		Cookery, American--History--20th century
		Culinary Industry
		Dinners and Dining--New York
		Dinners and Dining--United States--History
		Gastronomy
		Menus
	Subject Places:
		New York, New York
	Document Types:
		Books
		Buttons
		Calendars
		Clippings
		Correspondence
		Flyers
		Index card boxes
		Menus
		Pamphlets
		Personal Notes
		Photographs
		Postcards
		Recipe index cards
		Videotapes
	Other Names:
		Cuisinart
		The Joy of Cooking

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Administrative Information

Provenance

The Cecily Brownstone Papers were purchased by Fales Library in 2002 from Cecily Brownstone.

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date (if known); The Cecily Brownstone Papers; MSS 134; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.

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Container List

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Series I: Author Files
Scope and Content: Author files arranged alphabetically.
Box	Folder	Title	Date
1	1	Acton, Eliza	undated
1	2	Adams, Charlotte	undated
1	3	Adams, Harriet	undated
1	4	Adolph, Phila	undated
1	5	Aileen, Paul	undated
1	6	Albright, Nancy	undated
1	7	Alda, Robert and Flora	undated
1	8	Allen, Ida Baily	undated
1	9	Allen, Jana and Margaret Gin	undated
1	10	Allison, Sonia	undated
1	11	Anderson, Jess	undated
1	12	Angier, Bradford	undated
1	13	Aresty, Ester	undated
1	14	Arkin, Frieda	undated
1	15	Armitage, Merle	undated
1	16	Arsdale, May	undated
1	17	Arum, Nancy	undated
1	18	Asquith, Pamella	undated
1	19	Atiyeh, Wadeeha	undated
1	20	Atkins, Robert	undated
1	21	Atlanta Music Club	undated
1	22	Atlas, Nava	undated
1	23	Attali, Michel	undated
1	24	Aurell, Walter	undated
1	25	Axler, Bruce	undated
1	26	Ayto, John	undated
1	27	Bacon, Josephine	undated
1	28	Bailey, Lee	undated
1	29	Bailey, Pearl	undated
1	30	Baner, Helen and Roberta Logerman	undated
1	31	Barber, Edith	undated
1	32	Barbour, Beverly	undated
1	33	Barkas, Janet	undated
1	34	Barron's	undated
1	35	Bateman, Ruth	undated
1	36	Batist, Bessie	undated
1	37	Baum, Ruth and Hilary	undated
1	38	Bear, John and Marina	undated
1	39	Beard, James	undated
1	40	Beard, James (photographs)	undated
1	41	James Beard Foundation	undated
1	42	Beatrice Foods Co.	undated
1	43	Becker, Gail	undated
1	44	Becker, Marion [Becker family]	undated
1	45	Beecher, Catherine	undated
1	46	Beecher, Henry Ward	undated
1	47	Beer, Gretel	undated
1	48	Beeton, Isabella	undated
1	49	Beinert, Frederica	undated
1	50	Bell, Judith	undated
1	51	Bell, Mille	undated
1	52	Bellin, Mildred	undated
1	53	Benet, Jane	undated
1	54	Bennett, Iva and Martha Simon	undated
1	55	Bennett, Victor	undated
1	56	Benoit, Jehane	undated
1	57	Beranbaum, Rose	undated
1	58	Berg, Gertrude	undated
1	59	Bergerson, Victor [Trader Vic]	undated
1	60	Berglund, Berndt and Clare Bolsby	undated
1	61	Berkoff, Nancy	undated
1	62	Bernachon, Jean-Jacques	undated
1	63	Bernal, Arthur	undated
1	64	Better Homes and Gardens	undated
1	65	Bingham, Joan	undated
1	66	Bishop, Jack	undated
1	67	Blackwood, Frances	undated
1	68	Blakely, Linda	undated
1	69	Blanch, Lesley	undated
1	70	Blank, Ruth	undated
1	71	Blohm, Hannelore and H.D. Cremer	undated
1	72	Blount, Allison	undated
1	73	Bon Appétit	undated
1	74	Bond, Carolyn	undated
1	75	Booker, Emma	undated
1	76	Boorman, Sylvia	undated
1	77	Booth, George	undated
1	78	Bothwell, Jean	undated
1	79	Bouterin, Antoine	undated
1	80	Bowser, Pearl and Joan Eckstein	undated
1	81	Bracken, Peg	undated
1	82	Bradshaw, George	undated
1	83	Braider, Carol	undated
1	84	Brassel, Helen	undated
1	85	Braué, John	undated
1	86	Brennan, Dick and Ella	undated
1	87	Brenner, Eleanor	undated
1	88	Brenner, Leslie	undated
1	89	Bride's Magazine	undated
1	90	Briggs, Richard	undated
1	91	Brown, Ed	undated
1	92	Brown, Gene et al.	undated
1	93	Brown, Helen Evans	undated
1	94	Brown, Philip	undated
1	95	Brown, Stephen	undated
1	96	Brunner, Edward	undated
1	97	Bruyere, Toni and Sidney Robey	undated
1	98	Bryan, Lettice	undated
1	99	Buckley, Peter	undated
1	100	Bullock, Helen	undated
1	101	Bullwinkel, Madeleine	undated
1	102	Bunnelle, Hasse	undated
1	103	Burgess, Claudia	undated
1	104	Burrows, Fredrika	undated
1	105	Burrows, Lois and Laura Myers	undated
1	106	Burt, Elinor	undated
1	107	Burum, Linda	undated
1	108	Burwash, Peter	undated
1	109	Butler, Cleora	undated
1	110	Cagle, William	undated
1	111	Calingaert, Efrem and Jacquelyn Serwer	undated
1	112	Callen, Anna	undated
1	113	Callvert, Isabel	undated
1	114	Campbell Soup Co.	undated
1	115	Campbell, Thora	undated
1	116	Candler, Teresa	undated
1	117	Cannon, Poppy	undated
1	118	Cannon, Trudy	undated
1	119	Cantwell, Mary	undated
1	120	Capsouto, Jacques	undated
1	121	Carlisle, Helen	undated
1	122	Carmack, Robert and Gino Cofacci	undated
1	123	Carper, Jean	undated
1	124	Carrier, Robert	undated
1	125	Carson, Gerald	undated
1	126	Carter, Susannah	undated
1	127	Caruba, Rebecca	undated
1	128	Cary, Elisabeth and Annie Jones	undated
1	129	Cavin, Ruth	undated
1	130	Celli, Elisa	undated
1	131	Chalmers, Irena	undated
1	132	Chamberlain, Samuel	undated
1	133	Chambers, Mary	undated
1	134	Chappellet, Molly	undated
1	135	Charpentier, Henri	undated
1	136	Chase, Alvin	undated
1	137	Chase, Emily	undated
1	138	Chase, Ilka	undated
1	139	Chen, Helen	undated
1	140	Chen, Yung-chi Chao	undated
1	141	Chesman, Andrea	undated
1	142	Child, Julia and Paul	undated
1	143	Child, Lydia Maria	undated
1	144	Chilton Book Company	undated
1	145	Chioffi, Nancy and Gretchen Mead	undated
1	146	Choate, Judith	undated
1	147	Chocolatier	undated
1	148	Chu, Grace	undated
1	149	Church, Ruth Ellen	undated
1	150	Churchill, Arabella	undated
1	151	Claiborne, Craig	undated
1	152	Clarke, Oz	undated
1	153	Clayton, Bernard	undated
1	154	Clements Library, University of Michigan	undated
1	155	Clifford, William	undated
1	156	Clifton, Claire	undated
1	157	Coco Palms	undated
1	158	Cole, Sally	undated
1	159	Coleman, Arthur	undated
1	160	Collier, Carole	undated
1	161	Colwin, Laurie	undated
1	162	Conason, Emil and Ella Person	undated
1	163	Conway, Madeleine and Nancy Kirk	undated
1	164	Conwell, Barbara	undated
1	165	Cook, Joan	undated
1	166	Cook, Margaret	undated
1	167	Coon, Nelson	undated
1	168	Cooperative Extension Service, Washington State University	undated
1	169	Corbitt, Helen	undated
1	170	Corlin, Judith	undated
1	171	Corson, Juliet	undated
1	172	Cosman, Madeleine	undated
1	173	Craig, Elizabeth	undated
1	174	Crawford, Frances	undated
1	175	Crawford, Patricia	undated
1	176	Creel, Henry	undated
1	177	Crenshaw, Mary Ann	undated
1	178	Crocker, Betty	undated
1	179	Croly, Jane	undated
1	180	Crosse, Victor	undated
1	181	Cuisinarts [Southeimer, Carl]	undated
1	182	Cutler, Carol	undated
1	183	Czarnecki, Joseph	undated
1	184	D'Ermo, Dominique	undated
1	185	Dallas, E.S.	undated
1	186	Dalsass, Diana	undated
1	187	Damerell, Edna	undated
1	188	Darack, Arthur et al	undated
1	189	David, Elizabeth	undated
1	190	Davids, Kenneth	undated
1	191	Davidson, Alan and Jane	undated
1	192	Davidson, Diane	undated
1	193	Davis, Helen Ayers	undated
1	194	Dawson, Tony	undated
1	195	De Groot, Katherine	undated
1	196	De Groot, Roy	undated
1	197	De Gros, J.H.	undated
1	198	De Guoy, Louis	undated
1	199	De Knight, Freda	undated
1	200	De Plantina, Bartholomaius	undated
1	201	De Wolfe, Elsie	undated
1	202	Deacon, Richard	undated
1	203	Deane, Martha	undated
1	204	DeBolt, Margaret	undated
1	205	Cy DeCosse Incorporated	undated
1	206	Deighton, Len	undated
1	207	Delmonico, John and Peter	undated
Box	Folder	Title	Date
2	208	Deutsch, Ronald	undated
2	209	Dick, Erma	undated
2	210	DiLauro, Nelda	undated
2	211	Dillin, John	undated
2	212	Dollaghan, Helen	undated
2	213	Dorn, Frank	undated
2	214	Downes, Muriel	undated
2	215	Doxat, John	undated
2	216	Dragonwagon, Cresent	undated
2	217	Drew, Edwin	undated
2	218	Dreyfus, Michel	undated
2	219	Dribin, Lois and Susan Ivankovich	undated
2	220	Duijker, Hubrecht	undated
2	221	Dull, Henrietta	undated
2	222	Dumas, Alexandre	undated
2	223	[Duncan], Rea	undated
2	224	Duperret, Jean-Yves	undated
2	225	Dupree, Nathalie	undated
2	226	Duquette, Susan	undated
2	227	Durkee, Jean	undated
2	228	Duson, Will	undated
2	229	Dyer, Ceil	undated
2	230	Eastman, Margaret	undated
2	231	Echols, Barbara	undated
2	232	Egerton, March	undated
2	233	Elisofon, Eliot	undated
2	234	Elkon, Juliette	undated
2	235	Elliot, Sharon	undated
2	236	Emerling, Carol and Eugene Jonckers	undated
2	237	Emery, Carla	undated
2	238	Ensrud, Barbara	undated
2	239	Ephron, Nora	undated
2	240	Eschelman, Ruthe and Mary Winston	undated
2	241	Escoffier, Auguste	undated
2	242	Estragon, Vladimir	undated
2	243	Evans, Michele	undated
2	244	Fadiman, Clifton	undated
2	245	Farmer, Fannie	undated
2	246	Farmington	undated
2	247	Feezor, Betty	undated
2	248	Feig, Barbara	undated
2	249	Ferber, Edna	undated
2	250	Fern, Fanny	undated
2	251	Fernald, Merritt and Alfred Kinsey	undated
2	252	Fielding, Daphne	undated
2	253	Fields, Alonzo	undated
2	254	Fillin, Lucille	undated
2	255	Finsand, Mary	undated
2	256	Firnstahl, Timothy	undated
2	257	Fisher, Abby	undated
2	258	Fisher, M.K.F.	undated
2	259	Fitzgerald, Mollie	undated
2	260	Fleming, Diana	undated
2	261	Fletcher, Mattie Bell	undated
2	262	Flores, Ana Gloria	undated
2	263	Fougner, G. Selmer	undated
2	264	Fowler, Halstead	undated
2	265	Fox, Helen	undated
2	266	Frampton, Mary	undated
2	267	Francatelli, Charles	undated
2	268	Francescani, Maureen	undated
2	269	Franey, Pierre	undated
2	270	Frank, Dorothy	undated
2	271	Frazier, Claude	undated
2	272	Frederick, J. George	undated
2	273	Frucht, Phyllis et al	undated
2	274	Furman, Bess	undated
2	275	Fussell, Betty	undated
2	276	Gaskins, Ruth	undated
2	277	Gault, Henri	undated
2	278	Gelink, Barbara	undated
2	279	George, Jean	undated
2	280	George, Phyllis and Bill Adler	undated
2	281	Gerras, Charles	undated
2	282	Gerson, Sylvia and Mildred Covert	undated
2	283	Gewanter, Vera and Dorothy Parker	undated
2	284	Gibbons, Barbara	undated
2	285	Gibbons, Euell	undated
2	286	Gieh