1826 Poems

Description

First Edition, Very Scarce

Bound in the original publisher's boards, skilfully re-backed to suit. With the original half title. First Edition. Very scarce. Only appears once in auction records for the last 30 years (1995). Eliza Acton, 1799 - 1859, was an English poet and cook. Acton is probably most famous as the author who produced one of the country's first cookbooks aimed at the domestic reader rather than the professional cook or chef. In the book was included the first recipe for Brussel Sprouts. At the age of seventeen she opened a school for girls, which remained open for four years. Her health was precarious and she apparently spent some time in France where she is rumoured to have had an unhappy love affair. She published her Poems after returning home and they enjoyed some small success. She subsequently published some single, longer poems, but it was her Modern Cookery (1845) that garnered her the widest acclaim; it was an immensely influential book which established the format for modern writing about cookery. Shortly after its publication she relocated to London but sadly died in 1859. Isabella Beeton's famous Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management is closely modelled on Acton's publications.