INSCRIBED BY FAMED HOTELIER FRANK CASE, FEEDING THE LIONS, AN ALGONQUIN COOK BOOK
CASE, Frank. Feeding the Lions. An Algonquin Cookbook. New York: Greystone, (1942). Octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket. $1500.
First edition of the first cookbook by the renowned Algonquin owner and manager, who prompted the formation of the legendary Algonquin Round Table with members including Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman and Robert Benchley, this copy inscribed by him, "For Helen Worth with all good wishes, Frank Case."
Frank Case was employee of the Algonquin when it opened in 1902 and "even named the establishment, arguing the owner Albert Foster out of the name The Puritan. Twenty-five years later, after he had managed the hotel as if it were his own, he purchased the building and land," having already acquired the hotel's business. Case, "a man of Edwardian poise and the soul of a poet… built much of the Algonquin's reputation on its kitchen… [and] was responsible for the formation of the Algonquin Round Table" (New York Times). Its members included Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman, Robert Benchley and Edna Ferber who, as Case notes, gave him the title for this, his first cookbook. In addition to the hundreds of Algonquin recipes in Feeding the Lions, Case includes notes from celebrities, actors, journalists and authors—such as John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Robert Nathan, George S. Kaufman, Lillian Gish, Edna Ferber, Hedda Harper, Gary Cooper, Orson Welles and many more—each writing about a favorite Algonquin dish, which is accompanied in the book by the recipe. Case's genial humor is especially evident in his introductory essays, "Boniface Bows from the Waist" and "Antipasto to This Book," and a helpful list of culinary "Don'ts." With 15 full-page illustrations after drawings by Otto Soglow. A few recipes with annotations; one page with pencilled recipe for macaroni and ham casserole.
Book with edge wear and slight toning to spine; short closed edge tears to supplied, lightly worn dust jacket. A very good signed copy.