Dearie

by Bob Spitz

“Furthermore,” he wrote: John McWilliams III, letter to JC, December 12, 1952, private collection.

  “New Dealer”: “He absolutely dismisses Paul, as artist and New Dealer … ” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 4, 1953, SA.

  “Julie wants to keep everything”: “These days are devoted to sorting, throwing away and packing.” PC, letter to family, February 22, 1953, SA.

  Paul had taken hundreds: “Yesterday we did photographs, of which there are hundreds and hundreds, today it is books, of which we have a like amount.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, February 23, 1953, SA.

  “two wretchedly heavy steamer”: PC, letter to family, March 1, 1953, SA.

  “God,” Paul moaned: “The household barnacles that can attach themselves to one’s ship are astonishing.” PC, letter to family, February 22, 1953.

  “two steam engines”: PC, letter to family, February 28, 1953, SA.

  “the ancient Queen Bee”: Ibid.

  Thirteen FRENCHY FRENCH

  “Such a feeling of life and movement”: JC, letter to family, September 14, 1949, SA.

  “There seems to be ten times as much”: “I always forget what a raucous, colorful city this is.” PC, letter to family, February 12, 1953, SA.

  “The Marseille types are terrific”: “We plan to do a bit more pausing and walking and sketching and reading and writing.” PC, letter to family, September 9, 1949, SA.

  “a rough, rude, ‘Southern’ ” town: JC, My Life, p. 167.

  “into the cabarets, laughing with the girls”: Martin Garrett, Provence: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 128.

  “covered with flowered wallpaper”: “We are packed into a little hotel room.” JC, letter to family, March 7, 1953, SA.

  especially the loup: “There was a lovely sea trout type of fish called a loup.” JC, letter to family, September 14, 1949, SA.

  “there was something else,” she suspected: JC, letter to family, September 18, 1949, SA.

  “Marseille is a place where women”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, February 12, 1953, SA.

  Only a week after they’d arrived: “I found myself feeling … bored.” JC, My Life, p. 169.

  “Well, dammit, we can’t cook”: “Julie says she’s bored—a most unusual state for the wifelet.” PC, letter to family, March 8, 1953, SA.

  “an awfully nice bunch”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, April 4, 1953, SA.

  “Very nice folk”: PC, letter to family, February 17, 1953, SA.

  “What with all this moving and settling”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, April 24, 1953, SA.

  “There is a small, two-masted schooner”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 18, 1953, SA.

  “The French are magnificent”: JC, Mastering, Vol. I, p. 207.

  Minneapolis, Omaha, Phoenix: Julia made reference to these cities in The Way to Cook, where she noted they could finally buy fresh fish thanks to “fast cross-country transportation” (p. 79).

  “We had broiled fish”: JC, From Julia Child’s Kitchen, p. 117.

  “I [never] imagined fish”: Ibid., p. 118.

  Trouble was, there was no way: “She’s trying to work out correspondence between French, English, and US types [of fish], both as to nomenclature and cookability.” PC, letter to family February 8, 1953, SA.

  “Many types of European fish”: “Problem: find an American equivalent.” Ibid.

  There was a West Coast fish: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 6, 1953, SA.

  There were two books on her shelf: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, May 3, 1953, SA.

  “My, there is so much to know”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, April 4, 1953.

  Department of Fisheries: “Julie’s in touch with our Dept. of Fisheries … and its French equivalent,” PC, letter to family, February 8, 1953, SA.

  “I loved this kind of research”: JC, My Life, p. 172.

  “very typical of most average Americans”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, February 18, 1953, SA.

  “It was terrible, just awful”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 208.

  “real innovations”; “become old stuff”: “Naturally it must be shown to practically nobody.” JC, letter to Dorothy Cousins, undated, 1953.

  she made her guinea pigs swear: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, February 18, 1953.

  “a lot of bushwah”: “I think there is a lot of bushwah talked about bouillabaisse and what the ‘real’ types do.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 6, 1953.

  “Balls!”: “This dogmatism in France is enraging.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, February 12, 1953.

  “Some people also say”: “Many recipes call for just water … but to me it ain’t good enough.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 6, 1953.

  “How in the hell are we”: Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, February 23, 1953, SA.

  bouilla-ing: JC, notes for Mastering, July 11, 1953, SA.

  “Don’t compromise—,” she warned Julia: Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, February 23, 1953.

  “not well-written”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 6, 1953, SA.

  “I want ours to be way ahead”: Ibid.

  “a real workhorse”: “She is an exceptionally fine old girl.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, November 10, 1954, SA.

  “five solid hours of bookery a day”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, November 23, 1953, SA.

  “knew in her bones why”: Avis DeVoto, letter to Ms. Charles Keene, August 4, 1967, SA.

  “I consider ourselves just as much”: Shapiro, Julia Child, p. 68.

  “I keep forgetting that in the European”: “So it has taken a little practice for Simca to realize that she does not necessarily have to believe and take for TRUTH all that she reads from the great masters.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, November 10, 1954.

  “big competition”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 6, 1953.

  “It is a wonderful and beautiful book”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, January 5, 1953, SA.

  Poulet à la Niçoise: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 6, 1953.

  “We must be Descartesian”: JC, letter to Simca Beck, November 5, 1953, SA.

  “I have a strong feeling”: JC, letter to Simca Beck, undated.

  “role in our bookwork was minimal”: JC, My Life, p. 189.

  “a good natural promoter”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, November 10, 1955.

  “Louisette, sweet as she is”: Ibid.

  “most definitely a joint effort”: JC, letter to family, October 25, 1953, SA.

  “must be French”: JC, letter to Simca Beck, July 6, 1953, SA.

  “Frenchy French”: “This must always be Frenchy French, though practical for the US.” JC, letter to Simca Beck, October 12, 1953, SA.

  “the writing has to be done”: PC, letter to family, September 2, 1953, SA.

  “put herself on a relentless”: PC, letter to family November 25, 1953, SA.

  Queeg: “We had Hill (Queeg) to lunch today … a miasma of weak petulance hangs about him … it would be pleasant to bash him in the face.” PC, letter to family, June 12, 1953, SA.

  “a wonderful guy”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 211.

  “his contacts around the region”: Paul is so beautifully set … his office running well.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, April 11, 1954, SA.

  “Swept off my feet”: “I am absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of work you all have put into this.” Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, February 27, 1954, SA.

  “Paris is heavenly”: “I think, more than ever, that I shall never get over Paris.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, March 26, 1954, SA.

  “the likelihood”: Charles Moffley, letter to PC, March 18, 1954, SA.

  “God damn it, we just aren’t”: “We like it here.” PC, letter to family, March 31, 1954, SA.

  “To think of living in Germany”: JC, letter to family, April 2, 1954, SA.

  “this is Paul’s career”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, April 11, 1954, SA.

  “I must warn you to be careful”: Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, March 11, 1953.

  “I
feel, actually, that at any moment”: JC, letter to Dort Child, April 14, 1954.

  “My dear old Pop”: JC, letter to family, April 2, 1954.

  “He is a man of violent dislikes”: Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, July 31, 1954, SA.

  “If there is such a disease”: Stegner, The Uneasy Chair, p. 9.

  “He was quite intimidating”: “Paul was an opinionated guy.” Cousins interview.

  “chronically depressed”: Ibid.

  “I got a letter from Julia”: Avis DeVoto, Memoir About Julia Child, October 16, 1988.

  “I feel that we do not have the definitive”: “Now how do I know whether you look as I pictured you.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, February 23, 1953, SA.

  “Julia, 6 ft. plus”: Ibid.

  “I am rather astonished”: “I am very, very pleased with your looks, so warm and vigorous and handsome.” Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, February 27, 1953, SA.

  Big women cast big shadows: “I have always looked on really tall women with helpless admiration.” Ibid.

  “Hurry, hurry”: “I am so anxious to see you both.” Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, May 17, 1954, SA.

  “hopping about”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, July 1954, SA.

  “We were having a Sunday cocktail”: DeVoto, Memoir About Julia Child.

  “words on paper”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, July 1954, SA.

  “love at first sight”: “I have never had anybody in my house who was so completely effortless and easy, and whom I was so eager to see again.” Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, July 31, 1954, SA.

  “My mother was the catalyst”: Mark DeVoto, interview with author, December 12, 2008.

  “I have never known anyone so selfless”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, September 21, 1954, SA.

  “with an all-embracing bang”: “It did not then seem that love on paper would not blossom into love in the flesh, and it certainly did.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, July 1954.

  Leaving France was “painful”: “It is not altogether real yet.” PC, letter to family, May 27, 1954, SA.

  They flirted with bagging: “We discussed again the idea of quitting the Foreign service and just staying in la belle France.” JC, My Life, p. 205.

  he’d seen Benny DeVoto’s literary agent: “We had a very nice half-hour with Carl Brandt.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, September 21, 1954.

  Fourteen THIS ELEPHANT OF OURS

  “Gawd, how did we ever get ourselves”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, October 27, 1954, SA.

  “Our hearts sunk at the sight”: JC, My Life, p. 209.

  It infuriated Julia: “The town housed mostly the military who really did not want to be there anyway and did not take any interest in the language or the people. We resented living in that kind of an environment.” Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 219.

  “just hate the Germans”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, January 16, 1954.

  “We feel as though we are on the moon”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, October 27, 1954.

  “to function at all properly”: “Without it, one is too cut off.” JC, letter to Simca Beck, undated, 1954, SA.

  They seemed to be decent, upstanding: “So far we have found everyone to be extremely pleasant and friendly.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, January 16, 1955.

  “How can Germans, who are”: “What would WE have become had we been Germans?” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, October 1, 1954, SA.

  “They are building like mad”: “I am beginning to see why such importance has been put on Germany.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, January 16, 1955.

  “very much like a Statler hotel”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, October 27, 1954.

  “Not much room to cook much here”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, October 1, 1954.

  “some of the most glorious dishes”: JC, Mastering, Vol. I, p. 234.

  Julia adored roast chicken: “There is nothing as satisfying as a good roast chicken. It’s the one dish I prefer to anything else.” JC, interview with author, September 20, 1992.

  “didn’t taste as good”: JC, My Life, p 213.

  “There is no doubt”: “Her research was exhaustive; she left no stone unturned.” Jacques Pépin, interview with author, January 6, 2009.

  “How to defreeze—ice-box”: “Chickens—General Remarks,” JC, notes, December 22, 1954, SA.

  “We must always remember”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 207.

  “Nothing goes in”: “We had a hard-and-fast rule.” JC interview.

  “She was anal when to came to researching”: Nancy Verde Barr, interview with author, December 16, 2008.

  “Thank heaven we both agree”: JC, letter to Simca Beck, July 6, 1953, SA.

  “produced just about nothing”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, December 8, 1954, SA.

  “not a good enough cook”: JC, My Life, p. 214.

  “nice little peripheral ideas”: “She is a good natural promoter.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, November 10, 1954.

  “the major responsibility for the book”: JC, letter to Louisette Bertholle, November 19, 1954, SA.

  “This little business with Louisette”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, December 8, 1954.

  “the buttery, aromatic steam”: Recipe for Poulet Poêle à l’Estragon, Mastering, Vol. I, p. 249.

  “I made that chicken liver and cream cheese”: Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, January 5, 1955, SA.

  With so much to cook, Julia was happy: “Thank heavens for the book.” Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 220.

  “So many US army are depressing”: JC, diary entry, January 2, 1955.

  “The Information Operation is colossal”: “It is just done on a tremendous scale, and they appear to have some very high-powered personnel.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, October 27, 1954.

  Amerika Hauses: “The ones near the East Zone have special rooms for East Zone tourists into the West, so they can be hidden from the populace, and soak up the news of the outside world.” JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, January 16, 1955.

  “I was sure he was going”: Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 225.

  “He is not the kind of man”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, April 1955, SA.

  situation confused: PC, telegram to JC, April 9, 1955, SA.

  “For God’s sake,” he wondered: PC, letter to JC, April 13, 1955, SA.

  “there was a definite instruction”: PC, diary entry, April 12, 1955, SA.

  “assumed I was a CIA agent”: Ibid.

  “Billboards stick out”: PC, letter to JC, April 12, 1955, SA.

  McCarthy! … How she hated that man: “It was beyond me how anybody with any sense of what our country was supposed to stand for could have anything to do with him.” JC, My Life, p. 200.

  Little did she know the hotel: DC Preservation League website, “Most Endangered Places,” posted May 31, 2007.

  “an honest-to-goodness American steak”: JC, My Life, p. 206.

  situation here like kafka: PC, telegram to JC, April 13, 1955, SA.

  This was a security investigation: “This whole Kafka-like procedure appears to be marching toward a security investigation.” PC, letter to JC, April 13, 1955.

  “Paul wasn’t being promoted”: JC, My Life, p. 214.

  “simply one of those government mix-ups”: PC, letter to JC, April 13, 1955.

  “to combat my nervous tension”: “I’ve spent no night since I left Düsseldorf that I haven’t had to take a bloody old sleeping pill.” PC, letter to JC, April 18, 1955, SA.

  they asked Paul to drop his pants: “ ‘Drop your pants,’ they insisted.” Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 226.

  they thanked him for his cooperation: “investigation concluded successfully for me.” PC, telegram to JC, April 14, 1955, SA.

  “I am trying a bottle of Budweiser”: PC, letter to JC, April 19, 1955, SA.

  “libidinous hearts at the end”: “A fine and true symbol.” PC, letter to JC, April 23, 1955, SA.

  “I have just been wondering”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, April 1955.

  “I even wondered if you
r father”: Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, April 25, 1955, SA.

  “the great investigation”: JC, letter to family, September 1, 1956, SA.

  “Paul’s stock [had] risen considerably”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, October 1955, SA.

  “I have a feeling he may well”: “The Germans … all like and respect him immensely.” JC, letter to family, September 1, 1956.

  “Plittersdorf is such a strange half life”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, October 1955.

  “We both seem to be continually”: “I don’t know what happens to the time around here.” JC, letter to family, February 24, 1956, SA.

  Around this time she wrote: “There is just something about this language that fascinates me … it seems wonderfully expressive.” JC, letter to family, August 1, 1956, SA. Also, “German is getting to be more and more fun. I am just really loving this language.” JC, letter to family, February 24, 1956.

  hoped to wade into Göethe: “Little did I ever think that Göethe, whom I have always wanted to get into deeply, I might someday be able to read.” JC, letter to family, August 1, 1956.

  “as astonishingly beautiful”: PC, letter to family, August 18, 1956, SA.

  “Must feel a bit like an earthquake”: Avis DeVoto, letter to JC, August 23, 1956, SA.

  “Shall get a dishwashing machine”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, August 27, 1956, SA.

  And Avis, in Cambridge: Julia refers to Avis as “my soul mate” in several letters, in particular JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, June 22, 1956, SA.

  “tingle of excited apprehension”: JC, My Life, p. 214.

  the move would delay the book: “Our third move in 4 years!”: JC, letter to Avis DeVoto, August 27, 1956.

  “In fact,” she realized”: Ibid.

  She had made Paul a dinner: “she bought two packages of instant potatoes and after adding butter and cream served them to Paul, who noticed nothing.” Fitch, Appetite for Life, p. 232.

  “When the American housewife shops”: Helen McCully, “Short-Cut Foods Revolutionize American Cooking,” McCall’s, January 1955, p. 42.

  She swooned at the enormous selection: “One thing I do adore is to be shopping in these great serve-yourself markets.” JC, letter to Simca Beck, 1956.

  “Cooking, to her, is no longer”: Editors, “Outdoor Hospitality,” Esquire’s Handbook for Hosts, 1953.