this Cook Book life

Hollywood veteran leading man, auto racing enthusiast, food conglomerate philanthropist Paul Newman died yesterday at his Westport, Ct. home. He had returned home from the hospital following chemotherapy in August. He was 83.

Newman and writer, A.E. Hotchner, founded Newman’s Own in 1982. Their first product was all-natural Newman’s Own Salad Dressing. Other all-natural products like spaghetti sauce, popcorn, lemonade, salsa, steak sauce followed.

Early on, the boys established the Newman’s Own policy that all proceeds from the sale of Newman’s Own products, after taxes, be donated to charity. The Hole In The Wall Gang summer camps for for seriously ill children are the among the most well-known recipients.

Newman and Hotchner authored several recipe books:

• Newman’s Own Cookbook (1985) [Newman's Own's first cookbook by this name]
• Hole In The Wall Gang Cookbook: Kid-friendly Recipes For Families To Make Together (1998)
• Newman’s Own Cookbook (1998) [published under the same title as the 1985 cookbook, but with different text and recipes]
• Shameless Exploitation In Pursuit Of The Common Good (2003) [A business biography/memoir than contains Newman's Own's Good Housekeeping Magazine Winning Recipes, company chronology, etc.]

Bookbinders Jack and John Papuchyan restored Soyer’s Culinary Campaign for me.

After resewing the page block and inserting it into a new binding, replacing the endpapers with “new” endpapers that are actually old endpapers (contemporary to the book), and covering the new binding with the original cloth, cleaned and restored, the book reads comfortably and looks exceptional.

I launched my business in 1989 while working at Bond Street Books (Book Castle, Inc.) in Burbank, Calif. After four years of growing the business, I made the pivotal purchase of Helen Brown’s cook books.

Although I began to catalogue and sell the collection immediately in order to make the monthly payments I’d agreed upon with her husband, Philip S. Brown, I put a number of books away; earmarking them for archival restoration at some later date.

Most of the books from Helen’s library have found new homes by now, but Soyer’s Culinary Campaign stays with me.

I’m starting to work on the listing for a rare book that I purchased; as part of a group of food-related books, from the cookery book collection of the late Helen Evans Brown.