The Edgewater Beach Hotel Salad Book

Shircliffe, Arnold. The Edgewater Beach Hotel Salad Book (5th Imp). Hotel Monthly Press: Chicago, IL USA 1934. 4to (260x170mm) HC dec bds xxi,[1],306pp, (31 colour illustrations) VG-/- light edgewear & spotting to prelims & illustrations [SIGNED]

SHIRCLIFFE, Arnold  (1880-1952)

The Edgewater Beach Hotel Salad Book: contains recipes that have taken years of research to collect; also many new recipes... is a ready reminder for the experienced salad maker and furnishes invaluable working knowledge to those who have natural talent for this work.

Chicago : The Hotel Monthly Press, January 1934.  Fifth impression. 

Octavo (260x170mm)  green leaf motif decorative satin boards, inlaid title in gilt and green,  xxi,[1],306pp. Colour frontispiece, 30 colour illustrations. Preface by John Willy.

Boards lightly soiled, some corners lightly bruised, very light foxing to prelims and illustrations, edges toned, some marginal pencil markings; ownership stamp and notations.  An owner stamp of "Maura Laverty Castle House, Raheny Dublin" is on the title-page; the name "Maura Laverty" is inscribed on the fore-edge.

A signed presentation copy - dedicated to Maura Laverty by the author:

"Maura Laverty here's a book
and if you'll within it look
you'll find salads, red, green, yellow
that should please most any fellow

Arnold Shircliffe March Twenty fourth Thirty Nine"

Arnold Shircliffe worked in hospitality his entire life.  His career began in railroad dining cars and by the 1920s he was the catering manager of the Edgewater Beach Hotel, a resort hotel complex on Lake Michigan in Northern Chicago. The author of several books, Shircliffe was also an avid and renowned collector of cookery books and menus. After his death, his significant collection, including over 14,000 menus was auctioned by his family.  Whether all sold is not clear but his son later donated 10,000 menus to the New York Historical Society.

Maura Laverty (1907-1966) was a contentious Irish author, journalist and broadcaster perhaps best known for her work on the Irish television drama serial, Tolka Row; Ireland's first TV soap. She published several novels, short stories and critical pieces throughout her career.  She also published four well received and popular cookbooks between 1941 and 1960; most notably Maura Laverty's Cookery Book and Full & Plenty; both of which are considered classics of Irish cooking.  Today she is credited with ensuring an Irish national food identity by preserving and celebrating traditional Irish dishes in her cookbooks.

"The work is a fine exposition of the art of salad-making and its picturization." Bitting p.432

§ Bitting p.432; Not in Cagle  & Stafford;