Susannah Carter

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Susannah Carter (fl.1765?) was the author of an early cookery book, The Frugal Housewife, or, Complete woman cook. The title page of the first edition indicated that Carter came from Clerkenwell in London. Otherwise, little is known about her life.

Her book was first published in around 1765 in London by Francis Newbery, who was based in the printing enclave around St Paul's Cathedral. He was the nephew of John Newbery, after whom the Newbery Medal for children's books was named. The book was also published in 1765 in Dublin, and was first reprinted in North America in 1772 by Benjamin Edes and John Gil in Boston, illustrated with prints made by Paul Revere.

The book strongly influenced the first cookery book by an American author, Amelia Simmons's American Cookery (1796), with parts copied almost word for word. An appendix was added to an 1803 American edition, adding "receipts" [recipes] "adapted to the American mode of cooking" - such as Indian puddings, buckwheat cakes, pumpkin pie, maple molasses, and maple beer. The appendix may have been translated from a Swedish book, Rural Oeconomy: the same appendix appears in an 1805 edition of Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery (originally published in 1747).

After passing through several American editions, the book was republished by Lydia Child in 1832 as The American Frugal Housewife. This edition was reprinted many times in the next 20 years.

[edit] Further reading

Botein, Stephen. "The Anglo-American Book Trade before 1776: Personnel and Strategies". Printing and Society in Early America. Edited by William L. Joyce et al. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1983.
Lowenstein, Eleanor. Bibliography of American Cookery Books 1742-1860. Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 1972.
Maclean, Virginia. A Short-title Catalogue of Household and Cookery Books Published in the English Tongue 1701-1800. London: Prospect Books, 1981.
Townsend, John Rowe. John Newbery and His Books. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, 1994.