Collecting Highlights

11/15/2005:  Serve it Forth
by Hans van der Boom

With Christmas time “a-coming” I thought it appropriate to write this article on one of the two cookbooks that Anne edited. I have chosen the second one because a) the first one, being Cooking Out Of This World is much harder to research on short notice (even though the older printings are definitely the more collectible of the two titles) and b) I was pressed for time with many other things to do but I’m sure you’ll excuse me.

Serve It Forth has “Cooking With Anne McCaffrey” as subtitle and promises “Stellar Recipes and Gourmet Lore from Fantasy and Science Fiction’s Star Authors.”  It is listed as edited by Anne McCaffrey, whom we all know, and author/publisher John Gregory Betancourt, the man behind Wildside Press. No surprise that the book was published by the same publishing company in October of 1996. The very nice cover design is by Pat Morrissey.

Special about this book is the dedication: “For Virginia Kidd”, Anne’s literary agent who passed away in 2003 and who also has the honour of having had the most important Pern book ever dedicated to her.  Yes, the dedication of “Dragonflight” reads: “Dear God, Yes, there is a Virginia who helped me create this planet and the marvels theron. And for whom I thank you.” That shows us how incredibly important a person like Virginia has been in Anne’s life. Another specialty of this cookbook is that both authors “have kindly agreed to donate their profits to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s Emergency Medical Fund. How’s that for Christmas/charity feeling eh?

To list here all contributing authors and their recipes would take too much time, but a few I must mention. Of course there’s Anne herself who wrote the introduction and who gives us the recipe for an Irish dish called “Colcannon”. Other very famous contributors are: Poul Anderson, Lois McMaster Bujold, Phyllis Eisenstein, Katherine Kurtz, Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon, Larry Niven, Kate Wilhelm and literally dozens of others.

The original (paperback) price back in 1996 was $ 12.99 ($ 19,95 now) and although the First printing might be collectible (mine is signed by John Betancourt), the book will never be rare because Wildside Press is still publishing it (on demand). Among many other Anne McCaffrey books I should say, because Wildside Press publishes a number of very “collectible” and nice AMC books you won’t be able to buy anywhere else. They also reprint the first cookbook (which I also recommend) and some really nice other titles: go here to look (and if you get a chance, do mention we, from A Meeting of Minds, sent you there).

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