Forgotten Bookmarks

Puttin' On The Ritz

Advertisement for "Pigall's" - a restaurant that is "the only fashionable establishment that is amusing."

It appears that the establishment was once well-known in Paris, located in Place Pigalle. Here's a fan from Pigall's found on Pinterest.

Found in "The Social Secretary" by David Graham Phillips. Published by Grosset and Dunlap, 1905.

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Sealed - updated

Found this unopened envelope marked "For Ethelwynne" in "Songs of Hope" by Grace Noll Crowell, published by Harper and Brothers, 1938.

What do you think, should I open it?

Readers have spoken - here you go:

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Plain And Tart

Two notes (one and a half, really - bottom note has been torn) -

Rhubarb for breakfast please -

NO sugar added -

I like it plain and tart - not sweet

---

...over the kitchen and pantry and the ceiling is very thin. ??? please ask Beeko (?) and Josephine to talk softly till nine o'clock.

Thank you.

We are going out to lunch, and we'll plan something you can leave for us tomorrow night in icebox.

Found in "The Joy of Cooking" by Irma S. Rombauer. Published by Bobbs Merrill, 1943.

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Instant Kahlua

Printed recipe for "Instant Kahlua." I have a feeling it was put out by the Yuban Coffee people:

Instant Kahlua
(Makes 2 Fifths)

3 cups sugar
2 cups water

Put in 3 quart kettle, bring to boil, remove from fire and let cool.

6 tablespoons instant Yuban coffee
1/2 cup hot water, mix and cool
Put above mixtures together when cool

Add and Stir

1 tsp vanilla (pure)
2 tsp. glycerin (can get from drug store)
1/5 bottle Vodka

When mixed together, put in dark bottles and store for two months before using.

Makes approximately 2 fifths

Found in "The Peanut Cookbook" by Dorothy Frank. Published by Clarkson N. Potter, 1976.

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There's Still Time

Just a friendly reminder that there's still time to get copies of Forgotten Bookmarks and Handwritten Recipes before Christmas via Amazon. If you'd like me to sign a copy you get online, just send me a note. I would be happy to send along an address, sign it, and ship your copy back for free: fb@forgottenbookmarks.com

Leaf through your cookbooks, and you’re likely to find a bit of paper with a recipe written in a familiar (or not-so-familiar) hand. It could be a family secret finally divulged, a scribbled interpretation of something seen on TV, even a culinary experiment long since forgotten. What happens to these recipes when the books are passed on?

Handwritten Recipes is a treasury of Michael’s most fascinating found recipes. You’ll find classic Americana like pies and casseroles alongside ethnic mainstays such as Italian cookies, springerle, and German dumplings. Some are perfectly clear and complete, while others leave crucial elements—like cooking times and ingredient measurements—to the reader’s imagination. You can venture to try any recipe, or just enjoy Popek’s findings as a time capsule from kitchens of generations gone by.

It's happened to all of us: we're reading a book, something interrupts us, and we grab the closest thing at hand to mark our spot. It could be a train ticket, a letter, an advertisement, a photograph, or a four-leaf clover. Eventually the book finds its way into the world-a library, a flea market, other people's bookshelves, or to a used bookstore. But what becomes of those forgotten bookmarks? What stories could they tell?

By day, Michael Popek works in his family's used bookstore. By night, he's the voyeuristic force behind www.forgottenbookmarks.com, where he shares the weird objects he has found among the stacks at his store.

Forgotten Bookmarks is a scrapbook of Popek's most interesting finds. Sure, there are actual bookmarks, but there are also pictures and ticket stubs, old recipes and notes, valentines, unsent letters, four-leaf clovers, and various sordid, heartbreaking, and bizarre keepsakes. Together this collection of lost treasures offers a glimpse into other readers' lives that they never intended for us to see.

Season's Greetings

I thought you might enjoy these bits of holiday ephemera.

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Constancy

Short verse:

I bring a gleam from the sun's bright beam.
It's golden yellow, you see.
It says "Be true in all you do."
The watchword is "Constancy."

Found in "Shadows on the Rock" by Willa Cather. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1931.

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