The collection contains a total of 89 letters and 32 postcards written by Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (1908-1992), the accomplished food writer, to Marian L. Gore (1914-2009), an antiquarian bookseller who specialized in culinary titles, between 1956 and 1990. During this time Fisher was a resident of Sonoma and Napa Valley, and Gore lived in San Gabriel, in Southern California. Their correspondence began when Marian Gore wrote Fisher a fan letter, and the two women quickly became close friends. The letters and postcards in the collection were written by Fisher in response to letters, calls, and bookseller catalogs received from Gore. The correspondence was personal for the most part and refers to the travel plans, families and work life of both, as well as colleagues such as James Beard, and Paul and Julia Child. Professionally, they worked together on building the collection at the Napa Valley Wine Library Association, housed at the St. Helena Public Library. Gore also sold many of Fisher’s personal books, such as review copies and items from her home library. Materials date from 1956, when Fisher was 48, to 1990; Fisher died in 1992.

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher grew up in Southern California, in Whittier, in a household with two sisters, Norah and Anne, a brother, David, and her parents, Rex and Edith Kennedy. Her father published the local paper, the Whittier News. The region was a more rural place during her childhood, and she took trips to the desert and spent summers in Laguna Beach. As a young woman, she married Alfred Fisher in 1929 and they moved to France for three pivotal years while he studied for a doctorate degree. While living in France, Fisher was immersed in the regional food culture, and became close friends with Ward Ritchie and Lawrence Clark Powell. After returning to California, the couple resided in the Highland Park and Eagle Rock neighborhoods of Los Angeles for a time while Alfred taught at Occidental College. During this time, Fisher researched cookbooks at the Los Angeles Public Library and began to write essays on the culinary arts. After their marriage ended in divorce in 1939, Fisher married her second husband, artist Dillwyn (Timmy) Parrish. They lived together in Switzerland and Southern California, and after a period of illness he died in 1941. Fisher was married to publisher Donald Friede from 1945-51. Her legal name then was Mary F.K. Friede, and M.F.K. Fisher was her professional name. Her daughters are Anna Kennedy Parrish and Kennedy Mary Friede. M.F.K. Fisher’s first book, Serve It Forth, was published in 1937. Her fame grew during the 1940s, with the publications of Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wolf and The Gastronomical Me. Marian L. Gore (1914-2009) had a business as an antiquarian bookseller specializing in cookbooks and wine books that she operated out of her home in San Gabriel, California. She circulated a series of detailed catalogs, such as 200 Years of Cookery, from the 1960s-90s. Gore volunteered as a radio interviewer for KPFK between 1962-64 and conducted a series of interviews with Los Angeles-area artists, curators, collectors, and gallerists, which highlighted the growing importance of art and culture to the region. When she retired, Gore donated the remaining books in her catalog to the Los Angeles Public Library. Throughout Fisher’s correspondence with Marian Gore, which began in the mid-1950s, Fisher wrote about being engaged with a variety of work projects, such as the Napa Valley Wine Library Association, which was housed at the St. Helena Public Library, as well as teaching, and writing books, book reviews and articles. She describes the local landscape in Sonoma where she lived, the seasons and different kinds of produce available. She often preferred to entertain friends and family in her home, rather than go to Napa, Berkeley, or San Francisco. Themes that run throughout the correspondence are single parenthood and making a living as a writer. Their correspondence was most active from 1970-89. The letters add another layer of intimacy to Fisher’s body of professional writing, which is largely autobiographical.

.45 cubic feet (1 Hollinger legal document box)

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