Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher Parrish Friede (July 3, 1908 – June 22, 1992), writing as M.F.K. Fisher, was an American food writer. She was a founder of the Napa Valley Wine Library. Over her lifetime she wrote 27 books, among them Consider the Oyster (1941), How to Cook a Wolf (1942), The Gastronomical Me (1943) and a translation of Brillat-Savarin's The Physiology of Taste. Fisher believed that eating well was just one of the "arts of life" and explored this in her writing. W. H. Auden once remarked, "I do not know of anyone in the United States who writes better prose."Lazar, David Conversations with M. F. K. Fisher at 22 (University of Mississippi Press 1992) In 1991 the New York Times editorial board went so far as to say, "Calling M.F.K. Fisher, who has just been elected to the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters, a food writer is a lot like calling Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart a tunesmith. At the same time that she is celebrating, say, oysters (which lead, she says, 'a dreadful but exciting life') or the scent of orange segments drying on a radiator, she is also celebrating life and loneliness, sense and sensibility."
Early life Fisher was born Mary Frances Kennedy on July 3, 1908, at 202 Irwin Avenue, Albion, Michigan. She told Albion City Historian Frank Passic:
Rex was a co-owner (with his brother Walter) and editor of the Albion Evening Recorder newspaper..
In 1911, Rex sold his interest in the paper to his brother, and moved the family to the West Coast, where he hoped to buy a fruit or citrus orchard. The family spent some time in Washington with relatives, and then traveled down the coast to Ventura, California, where Rex nearly purchased an orange grove, but backed out after discovering soil problems. He next purchased and briefly owned the Oxnard Courier in Oxnard, California.Poet, supra at 8. From there he traveled to San Diego and worked for a local newspaper. In 1912 he purchased a controlling interest in the Whittier News and moved the family to Whittier, California. Rex initially purchased a house at 115 Painter Avenue.Poet, supra, 15. In 1919, he purchased a large white house outside the city limits on South Painter Avenue.Poet, supra at 20. The house sat on thirteen acres, with an orange grove; it was referred to by the family as "The Ranch."Poet, supra at 20. The home has since been torn down and a municipal park named "Kennedy Park" now occupies the site. Although Whittier was primarily a Quaker community at that time, Mary Frances was brought up within the Episcopal Church.
Mary Frances enjoyed reading as a child, and began writing poetry at the age of five.Passionate Years, supra at 30. The Kennedys had a vast home library,Passionate Years, supra at 16. and her mother provided her access to many other books.Passionate Years, supra at 31. Later, her father used her as stringer on his paper, and she would draft as many as fifteen stories a day.
Mary Frances received a formal education; however, she was an indifferent student who often skipped classes throughout her academic career.Zimmerman, Anne, An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M. F. K. Fisher (hereafter Passionate Years) at 31–42 (Counterpoint 2011). At the age of sixteen, her parents enrolled her in a private school: The Bishop's School in La Jolla, California.Passionate Years, supra at 32. After one year there, she transferred to the Harker School for Girls in Palo Alto, California, adjacent to Stanford University; she graduated from Harker in 1927.Passionate Years, supra at 35. Upon graduation, she attended Illinois College, but left after only one semester,Passionate Years, supra at 36–39. In 1928, she enrolled in summer school at UCLA in order to obtain enough credits to transfer to Occidental College.Passionate Years, supra at 39. While there, she met her future first husband: Alfred Fisher ("Al"). She attended Occidental College for one year; however, she married Al on September 5, 1929, and moved with him to Dijon, France.Passionate Years, supra at 41–42.
Career Food became an early passion in her life. Her earliest memory of taste was "the grayish-pink fuzz my grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam".Passionate Years, supra at 9. Her maternal grandmother Holbrook lived with them until her death in 1920. During that period, Holbrook was a source of tension in the household. She was a stern, rather joyless person, and a Campbellite who firmly believed in overcooked, bland food. She was also a follower of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg's dietary restrictions at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Fisher would later write that during her grandmother's absences at religious conventions:
An early food influence was "Aunt" Gwen. Aunt Gwen was not family, but the daughter of friends — the Nettleship family — "a strange family of English medical missionaries who preferred tents to houses."Begin Again, supra at 24. The Nettleships had an encampment on Laguna Beach, and Mary Frances would camp out there with Gwen. Rex would later buy the campsite and a cabin that had been built on it.Begin Again, 25. Mary Frances recalled cooking outdoors with Gwen: steaming mussels on fresh seaweed over hot coals; catching and frying rock bass; skinning and cooking eel; and, making fried egg sandwiches to carry on hikes.Begin Again, 26–29. Mary Frances wrote of her meals with Gwen and Gwen's brothers: "I decided at the age of nine that one of the best ways to grow up is to eat and talk quietly with good people."Reardon, Joan 2008 M. F. K. Fisher among the Pots and Pans, 15, University of California Press, . Mary Frances liked to cook meals in the kitchen at home, and "easily fell into the role of the cook's helper."Begin Again, 29.
Dijon
In September 1929, newlyweds Mary Frances and Al sailed on the RMS Berengaria to Cherbourg (now Cherbourg-Octeville), France.Passion, supra at 1. They traveled to Paris for a brief stay, before continuing south to Dijon.Dijon is a well-known culinary center and would greatly expand Mary Frances's food world. Her three years in Dijon are recounted in her 1991 book Long Ago in France. They initially found a rental at 14 Rue du Petit-Potet in a home owned by the Ollangnier family.Extravagant Hunger, supra at 54. The lodgings consisted of two rooms, with no kitchen, and no separate bathroom.Passionate Years, supra at 54. Al attended the Faculté des Lettres at the University of Dijon where he was working on his doctorate; when not in class, he worked on his epic poem, The Ghosts in the Underblows.Fisher, M F K, Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon (hereafter Long Ago) at (Prentiss Hall 1991). The poem was based on the Bible and was analogous to James Joyce's Ulysses.Starr, Kevin Material Dreams (hereafter Material Dreams) at 376 (Oxford University Press 1990) . By 1931, Fisher had finished the first twelve books of the poem, which he ultimately expected to contain sixty books.Material Dreams, supra at 376. A long fragment of the poem was finally published in 1940. Despite some critical accolades, the book was a failure. However, the book's innovative graphics by Lustig are still widely admired and the book is a collector's item for that reason. Id. at 379. Mary Frances attended night classes at the École des Beaux-Arts where she spent three years studying painting and sculpture.Long Ago, supra at 65. The Ollangniers served good food at home, although Madame Ollangnier was "extremely penurious and stingy."Long Ago, supra at 12. Mary Frances remembered big salads made at the table, deep-fried Jerusalem artichokes, and "reject cheese" that was always good.Long Ago, supra at 14. To celebrate their three-month anniversary, Al and Mary Frances went to the Aux Trois Faisans restaurant — their first of many visits.Long Ago, supra at 29–30. There, Mary Frances received her education in fine wine from a sommelier named Charles.Long Ago, supra at 33. The Fishers visited all the restaurants in town, where in Mary Frances's words:
In 1930, Lawrence Clark Powell came to Dijon to obtain his doctorate at the University of Burgundy.Material Dreams, supra at 377. He came at Mary Frances's suggestion. Powell had become acquainted with Mary Frances when her sister was attending Occidental College, and roomed with Powell's girlfriend. Powell moved into the attic above the Fishers and became lifelong friends with Mary Frances. He described the food at the Fishers' pensione: In 1931, Mary Frances and Al moved to their own apartment, above a pastry shop at 26 Rue Monge.Material Dreams, supra at 378. It was Mary Frances's first kitchen. It was only five feet by three feet and contained a two-burner hotplate.Pots and Pans, supra at 46. Despite the kitchen's limitations, or perhaps because of it, Mary Frances began developing her own personal cuisine, with the goal of "cooking meals that would 'shake [her guests] from their routines, not only of meat-potatoes-gravy, but of thought, of behavior.'"Pots and Pans, supra at 47–49. In The Gastronomical Me she describes one such meal:
After Al was awarded his doctorate, they moved briefly to Strasbourg, France, where Al continued to study and write.Poet, supra at 64. Mary Frances became depressed from loneliness and being cooped up in a cold, dank apartment.Poet, supra at 66. Unable to afford better accommodations, the Fishers next moved to a tiny French fishing village, Le Cros-de-Cagnes. Powell visited with them there for six weeks and observed that Al was growing more introspective. He had stopped work on his poem, was trying to write novels and did not want to return to the States where he knew job prospects were poor. He could not, however, see a way to stay in France.Looking Back, supra at 112. After running out of funds, the Fishers returned to California, sailing on the Feltre out of Marseille.Poet, supra at 68.
California
Back in California, Al and Mary Frances initially moved in with Mary Frances's family at "The Ranch".Poet, supra at 71. They later moved into the Laguna cabin. This was during the Great Depression and work was hard to find. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College.Fisher, M F K. Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me (hereafter Stay Me) at ix (Pantheon 1993). Mary Frances began writing and she published her first piece — "Pacific Village" — in the February 1935 issue of Westways magazine (previously known as Touring Topics). The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach.Material Dreams, supra 380 In 1934, Lawrence Powell moved to Laguna with his wife Fay.Stay Me, supra at ix. In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife Gigi moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends.Passionate Years, supra at 116; and Pots and Pans, supra at 52.
When Al began teaching at Occidental, the Fishers initially moved to Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, where the Parrishes helped them paint and fix up an older house they had rented.Pots and Pans, supra at 52. Unfortunately the home was sold shortly thereafter, and the Fishers had to move to another rented house in Highland Park.Poet, supra at 82–83. Mary Frances worked part-time in a card shop and researched old cookery books at the Los Angeles Public Library. She began writing short pieces on gastronomy. Parrish's sister Anne showed them to her publisher at Harpers who expressed an interest in them.Pots and Pans, supra at 53. The pieces were later to become her first book: Serve It Forth. Mary Frances next began work on a novel she never finished; it was based on the founding of Whittier.Poet, supra at 86.