Dining for Moderns, With Menus and Recipes: The Why and When of Wining. Compiled by Mrs. G. Edgar Hackney. Wine notes by Peter Greig. Edited by Ann R. Silver

[New York]: Published by and for the benefit of The New York Exchange for Woman's Work; [Elert Printing Company, Inc.], 1940. Octavo-size (23 x 15 cm.), 72 pages. Cover title: New York Woman's Exchange Presents Dining for Moderns. Advertisements inside covers and interspersed. FIRST EDITION. A community cookbook of sorts, that is, one compiled to benefit a cause, but one aimed not at cooks but rather at gentlewomen who employ them. "The first rule to remember," instructs Irmgard Hackney, Chairman [!] of the Woman's Exchange Revue," concerns your cook. Don't make her nervous" (preface, page 5). The menus and recipes of Dining for Moderns were drawn from the first three years of the Revue (1938-1940; though the serial had begun life under the name Exchange Revue in 1936), an organ of a New York instantiation of the woman's exchange movement incorporated in November 1878. Originally established to benefit "women of cultivation in reduced circumstances," the Exchange prospered long (its last store, on East 60th Street, closed in 2003) and became as well known in the middle decades of the last century for its restaurants as for its promotion of domestic arts and crafts by women. Irmgard Glinicke (Mrs. George Edgar) Hackney (1892-1976) perceived the need for a kind of manual for women with maids who must fulfill the duties of society hostess but do not particularly relish the role. "You'll be astonished how often you can repeat your dinners with only slight variations to fool your husband" (in her case, an investment analyst for a firm on the Stock Exchange). Patés, canapés, consumés, Lobster Thermidor, Noisette d'Agneau--a snapshot of the cuisine of philanthropic board members, not of those in "reduced circumstances." The "wine notes" by Peter Greig –a name some may recall from the inaugural issue of Gourmet Magazine – might be (only slightly unfairly) summarized: "all that is necessary is to ask a wine merchant" (page 6). A few marginal ink marks, and some light spotting throughout; some pages have creases. In publisher's wire spiral-bound, tan and burgundy stiff wrappers. Some rubbing to edges, otherwise near very good. [OCLC locates seventeen copies; Brown 2324 (corporate name misspelled); not in Cagle]. (Inventory #: 4910)