apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have a 50 year old copy of the Joy of Cooking that's quite a bit different than the current one. I've never been offended by it, though.

One of my favorite cookbook finds was the San Francisco Cookbook, first published in 1958. Tucked within the pages were dozens of recipes and cooking tips clipped out of the San Francisco Chronicle from the same era. It was an interesting hodge-podge of "space age" convenience foods and what would eventually become known as California cuisine.

I don't usually buy cookbooks unless I think I'll use 75% of the recipes, but I couldn't pass this one up!

Any idea if there's a market for vintage cookbooks? My grandmother collected them, and now we don't know what to do with them. I'd like to put them on Craigslist (after we've gone through everything), but I have this need to ensure they go to someone who will appreciate them.

Hi Kimberly,
Depending on what titles your grandmother had you donate them to a Library. The New York Public Library has a large culinary collection and often takes donations. http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/grd/resguides/culinary/

If you were interested in going that route, you could contact the NYPL culinary librarian through her blog http://cookedbooks.blogspot.com/

Or you could try to sell them to a cookbook store. In San Francisco, you could try Green Apple Books http://www.greenapplebooks.com (I've never been here, just found it online.) Or in New York, there's Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks http://www.bonnieslotnickcookbooks.com/

Or just send them out in the world and give them to Goodwill...

Good luck.