RECORD
Betty Fussell, Interview 3: May 20, 2009
- Permalink:
- https://hdl.handle.net/2333.1/05qftv0m
- Interview Title:
- Betty Fussell, Interview 3: May 20, 2009
- Description:
- Fussell discusses her life and work since publishing her 1999 memoir, "My Kitchen Wars" including the reaction of her children and her presence in the growing food blogosphere.
- Narrator Name:
- Betty Fussell
- Narrator Biography:
- The distinguished historian Betty Fussell was one of the first American writers to focus on food as a legitimate subject of scientific, social, and anthropological inquiry. In her 1999, The Story of Corn: the Myths and History, the Culture and Agriculture, the Art and Science of America's Quintessential Crop, Fussel used the history of corn to tell a distinctly American story. She also created a genre, now much imitated by other writers, focused on a single foodstuff. Born in 1927 in California and reared there, she has made her home in New York's Greenwich Village for decades. She lives around the corner from James Beard's cooking school run out of his home. Her only contact was a week's worth of classes there, but they share an abiding passion for American food. Her essays in literary journals, major newspapers, national magazines and encyclopedias are written with a grace few food writers can match. She also lectures at museums, universities, state fairs, corn festivals, historical societies and culinary groups. In 1999, her food memoir, My Kitchen Wars, traced her life from her childhoood through her marriage to a college sweetheart, her travails as an academic wife, her own academic career, the women's movement, and her wider success when she found her essential subject: food.
- Interviewer Name:
- Judith Weinraub
- Interview Number:
- 3
- Date:
- 2009-05-20
- Total Length of Interview:
- 37 minutes
- Segment 1 Duration:
- 0:36:45
- Segment 1 Transcript:
- https://sites.dlib.nyu.edu/media/api/v0/service/fileserver/av/fales/beard/Fussell_Betty-interview_3/Fussell_Betty-2009_05_20-interview.precision.en.txt
- Topics:
- Cooking Cooking history Culinary publications Entertainment Food writing Gender Political, social, and cultural movements
- People:
- Hodgson, Moira Normand, Mabel, 1894-1930 Fussell, Paul, 1924- Jones, Judith, 1924 - David, Elizabeth, 1913-1992 Claiborne, Craig Fussell, Betty Harper Fisher, M. F. K. (Mary Frances Kennedy), 1908-1992 Beard, James, 1903-1985 Child, Julia Bocuse, Paul, 1926-
- Organizations:
- Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. American Institute of Wine & Food Ticknor and Fields Times Books (New York, N.Y.) International Association of Culinary Professionals Ordre international des disciples d'Auguste Escoffier Viking Press Doubleday and Company, Inc.
- Previous Interview:
- https://info663-fa23.github.io/team3/items/bf_03_24_2009.html
- File Type:
- sound
- Resource Type:
- oral histories (literary works)
- NYU Call Number:
- MSS_309.ref43.1
- Object Identifier:
- bf_05_20_2009
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Betty Fussell, Interview 3: May 20, 2009", Voices from the Food Revolution- People Who Changed The Way Americans Eat, NYU Fales Library
- Reference Link:
- https://info663-fa23.github.io/team3/items/bf_05_20_2009.html