Peg Bracken

Ruth Eleanor "Peg" Bracken (February 25 1918 [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/arts/23bracken.html?ref=obituaries Margalit Fox, "Peg Bracken, ‘I Hate to Cook’ Author, Dies at 89", New York Times, Oct. 23, 2007] ] – October 20 2007) was an American author.

Biography

Born in Filer, Idaho, Bracken grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated from Antioch College in 1940. She married and moved to Portland, Oregon, where she worked as an advertising copywriter along with Homer Groening, father of Matt Groening.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Bracken's writing reassured women that they did not have to be perfect to have a happy, well-managed home. Her best-known book is "The I Hate to Cook Book", written in 1960. It was followed by "The I Hate to Housekeep Book" and "The Appendix to the I Hate to Cook Book". The two cookbooks were later published together as The Compleat I Hate to Cook Book. All are illustrated with amusing line drawings by Hilary Knight (best known for illustrating "Eloise" by Kay Thompson). The recipes are distinguished by unusual names. For example, one recipe is for "Wolfe Eggs," which are for eggs the way the fictional Nero Wolfe would cook them. She has also written humorous pieces for women's magazines.

Bracken continued writing into her 70s, publishing her last book, "On Getting Old for the First Time", in 1997.

Partial bibliography

* "The 9-Months' Wonder" (with Helen Berry Moore)
* "The I Hate to Cook Book" (1960)
* "I Try to Behave Myself" (1960), an etiquette guide
* "The I Hate to Housekeep Book" (1962), a book of household hints
* "Appendix to the I Hate to Cook Book" (1966)
* "I Still Hate to Cook Book" (1967) UK edition
* "I Didn't Come Here to Argue" (1969)
* "Instant Etiquette" (1969) UK edition
* "But I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World" (1973) described as "the pleasures and perils of an unseasoned traveller"
* "The I Hate to Cook Book of the Year: A Book of Days" (1977) UK edition
* "The I Hate to Cook Almanack" (1980)
* "A Window Over the Sink" (1986) "a mainly affectionate memoir"
* "The Compleat I Hate to Cook Book" (1988)
* "On Getting Old for the First Time" (1997)
* (collected in) "American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes", ed. Molly O'Neill (Library of America, 2007) ISBN 1598530054

External links

* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2795660.ece Obituary in "The Times", 3 November 2007]
*National Public Radio|15567271
* [http://www.portlandtribune.com/features/story.php?story_id=16062 Jill Spitznass, "Bracken's banter is still cooking"] , Portland Tribune, May 13, 2003
* [http://www.ajc.com/search/content/living/food/stories/kessler/2007/09/25/kessler_0927.html "A little midcentury classic we'd hate to be without" (Review of "The I Hate to Cook Book")] , Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 27, 2007

References