Catherine Owen’s Lessons in Candy Making.
Springfield, Mass: Good Housekeeping Press, [1887]. First edition. In the preface, Helen Alice Matthews Nitsch (1843 - 1889), who wrote under the pseudonym Catherine Owen, explains that she wrote the present work to guide women in establishing a candy-making business. She writes: “The chief advantage I think to be found in candy making for profit is the fact that many who cannot possibly leave home, and are not able to make money in any other way, may make it in this; even those whose health will allow of no regular employment may make candy.” Nitsch herself suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which became particularly severe in the last five years of her life (Good Housekeeping, p. 45). Small document tape repair to spine and some light soiling to wrappers. Small stain at fore-edge on pages 21 to 25. A very good, clean copy of a scarce item. Publisher’s brown paper wrappers titled in black and printed with ads (on back cover and inside wrappers). 5 in. by 6 in. [4, ads], 82 pp. Item #17338
Nitsch was an English-born cookbook author, novelist, and one of the earliest contributors to Good Housekeeping. Her book Ten Dollars Enough, a cookbook and advice manual written as a novel, was published serially in Good Housekeeping during the first two years of the magazine’s run. When Ten Dollars Enough was published separately in 1886, it was met with immediate popularity and went through eleven editions by 1893 (Gamber, p. 120). Nitsch was also an advocate for women’s employment and often used her publications, like the present work, to encourage women to establish their own small businesses and become financially independent (Cohen, p. 108).
OCLC records no copies. Cohen, Kim. “True and Faithful in Everything.” Culinary Aesthetics (2007), pp. 108-122. Gamber, Wendy. The Boardinghouse in Nineteenth-Century America (2007), p. 120. Good Housekeeping, vol. 10, no. 1 (November 1889), pp. 45-46.
Price: $400.00