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Eating in Two or Three Languages
Wartime culinary memoirs from the American author, humourist, and columnist who lived in New York and wrote over 60 books and 300 short stories.
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First published January 1, 1918
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About the author
Irvin S. Cobb
310 books18 followers(Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb)
American author, humorist, editor and columnist from Paducah, Kentucky who relocated to New York during 1904, living there for the remainder of his life.
He wrote for the New York World, Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper, as the highest paid staff reporter in the United States.
Cobb also wrote more than 60 books and 300 short stories. Some of his works were adapted for silent movies. Several of his Judge Priest short stories were adapted for two feature films during the 1930s directed by John Ford.
American author, humorist, editor and columnist from Paducah, Kentucky who relocated to New York during 1904, living there for the remainder of his life.
He wrote for the New York World, Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper, as the highest paid staff reporter in the United States.
Cobb also wrote more than 60 books and 300 short stories. Some of his works were adapted for silent movies. Several of his Judge Priest short stories were adapted for two feature films during the 1930s directed by John Ford.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 24, 2013
"From the vegetable marrow you derive no nourishment, and certainly you derive no exercise; for, being a soft, weak, spiritless thing, it offers no resistance whatever, and it looks a good deal like a streak of solidified fog and tastes like the place where an indisposed carrot spent the night."
September 17, 2020
This brief book is commentary about eating in a rationing environment in the UK and France while serving as a war correspondent during World War 1. This book will be of interest to historians considering this particular aspect of The Great War, and is a fascinating perspective of supply chain issues during trying times. This is likely a fixup of several articles that originally appeared in his columns.
If you want more of the WW1 correspondence, you should consider “The Glory of the Coming: What Mine Eyes Have Seen of Americans in Action in This Year of Grace and Allied Endeavor.” Sometimes humorous, often poignant, the essays in that book thrum with patriotic fervor and bolster the will and support of the readers of his column back across the ocean.
I love Cobb’s lush prose and wry humor. It’s not snappy and pithy for a modern audience, but I appreciate the time spent to build up this dunk on salad.
“I ordered two eggs, soft-boiled. They were served upended, English-fashion, in little individual cups, the theory being that in turn I should neatly scalp the top off of each egg with my spoon and then scoop out the contents from Nature's own container.
“Now Englishmen are born with the faculty to perform this difficult achievement; they inherit it. But I have known only one American who could perform the feat with neatness and despatch; and, as he had devoted practically all his energies to mastering this difficult alien art, he couldn't do much of anything else, and, except when eggs were being served in the original packages, he was practically a total loss in society. He was a variation of the breed who devote their lives to producing a perfect salad dressing; and you must know what sad affairs those persons are when not engaged in following their lone talent. Take them off of salad dressings and they are just naturally null and void.”
Eating in Two or Three Languages by Irvin S. Cobb is in the public domain and available for free here on Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18526
If you want more of the WW1 correspondence, you should consider “The Glory of the Coming: What Mine Eyes Have Seen of Americans in Action in This Year of Grace and Allied Endeavor.” Sometimes humorous, often poignant, the essays in that book thrum with patriotic fervor and bolster the will and support of the readers of his column back across the ocean.
I love Cobb’s lush prose and wry humor. It’s not snappy and pithy for a modern audience, but I appreciate the time spent to build up this dunk on salad.
“I ordered two eggs, soft-boiled. They were served upended, English-fashion, in little individual cups, the theory being that in turn I should neatly scalp the top off of each egg with my spoon and then scoop out the contents from Nature's own container.
“Now Englishmen are born with the faculty to perform this difficult achievement; they inherit it. But I have known only one American who could perform the feat with neatness and despatch; and, as he had devoted practically all his energies to mastering this difficult alien art, he couldn't do much of anything else, and, except when eggs were being served in the original packages, he was practically a total loss in society. He was a variation of the breed who devote their lives to producing a perfect salad dressing; and you must know what sad affairs those persons are when not engaged in following their lone talent. Take them off of salad dressings and they are just naturally null and void.”
Eating in Two or Three Languages by Irvin S. Cobb is in the public domain and available for free here on Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18526
January 18, 2025
Pass the Escargot – S’il Vous Plait!
🖊 The narrator – a war correspondent who worked in Europe during The Great War – talks about having his first American meal in years. This was a fun and imaginative short story.
📕Published in 1919.
🎨Illustrated.
જ⁀🟢 The e-book version is on Project Gutenberg.
જ⁀🟣 Kindle.
✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎
🖊 The narrator – a war correspondent who worked in Europe during The Great War – talks about having his first American meal in years. This was a fun and imaginative short story.
📕Published in 1919.
🎨Illustrated.
જ⁀🟢 The e-book version is on Project Gutenberg.
જ⁀🟣 Kindle.
✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎
January 11, 2019
Irvin S. Cobb was working for the Saturday Evening Post in 1911 and went overseas as a war correspondent for that publication. This little book has two copyright dates, 1918 and 1919, so I imagine it might have first appeared in the pages of the magazine.
Cobb starts off here by writing about how happy he is to finally have a real, honest-to-goodness American meal again, then he goes back over memories of meals he had in Europe.
He had obviously traveled before the war, and he confesses at one point that his frustration with rationing in London was more because he could remember the huge amounts of food he had been able to devour on other visits. He found much better food (and plenty of it) in France. He has a long section about dining out in wartime Paris, dealing with the same stuffy head waiter-types that he knew from other days. They would argue about what meal would actually be served: the one Cobb wanted or the one the head waiter wanted him to have. Cobb always won, by the way.
In one cafe Cobb and some fellow correspondents were offered a live lobster that was on display on a table by the entrance. This was when I fully understood the title of his book: When we had singly and together declined to consider the proposition of eating him in each of the three languages we knew—namely, English, bad French, and profane—the master sorrowfully returned him to his bed.
I could see this as a magazine article, or perhaps in a collection of other short pieces, but it is a little bewildering to me to think it was a stand alone book as well. Certainly it would have been more relevant back in the day, but it was still funny and gave a quick glimpse at one small aspect of one man's days spent reporting on the War. It also made me wonder about his other wartime columns and his fiction. I will have to go through his author page at Gutenberg and see what else appeals to me. More additions to The Someday List coming up, most likely. Surprise surprise.
Cobb starts off here by writing about how happy he is to finally have a real, honest-to-goodness American meal again, then he goes back over memories of meals he had in Europe.
He had obviously traveled before the war, and he confesses at one point that his frustration with rationing in London was more because he could remember the huge amounts of food he had been able to devour on other visits. He found much better food (and plenty of it) in France. He has a long section about dining out in wartime Paris, dealing with the same stuffy head waiter-types that he knew from other days. They would argue about what meal would actually be served: the one Cobb wanted or the one the head waiter wanted him to have. Cobb always won, by the way.
In one cafe Cobb and some fellow correspondents were offered a live lobster that was on display on a table by the entrance. This was when I fully understood the title of his book: When we had singly and together declined to consider the proposition of eating him in each of the three languages we knew—namely, English, bad French, and profane—the master sorrowfully returned him to his bed.
I could see this as a magazine article, or perhaps in a collection of other short pieces, but it is a little bewildering to me to think it was a stand alone book as well. Certainly it would have been more relevant back in the day, but it was still funny and gave a quick glimpse at one small aspect of one man's days spent reporting on the War. It also made me wonder about his other wartime columns and his fiction. I will have to go through his author page at Gutenberg and see what else appeals to me. More additions to The Someday List coming up, most likely. Surprise surprise.
October 10, 2015
An American war correspondent's memoir of the privations and triumphs of dining amid rationing in Britain and France during World War I. Told lightly and with humor, this short piece is of interest to food historians and other seeking information about life during those difficult times, but it doesn't reach the heights of gourmet porn foodies will be looking for.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews