As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto (1st Mariner Books ed.)

With her outsize personality, Julia Child is known around the world by her first name alone.

But despite that familiarity,how muchdo we really know of the inner Julia?

Now more than 200 letters exchanged between Julia and Avis DeVoto, her friend and unofficial literary agent memorably introduced in the hit movie Julie & Julia, open the window on Julias deepest thoughts and feelings.

This riveting correspondence, in print for the first time, chronicles the blossoming of a unique and lifelong friendship between the two women and the turbulent process of Julias creation of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of the most influential cookbooks ever written.

Frank, bawdy, funny, exuberant, and occasionally agonized, these letters show Julia, firstas a new bridein Paris, then becoming increasingly worldly and adventuresomeas she follows her diplomat husbandin his postingsto Nice, Germany, and Norway.

With commentary by the noted food historian Joan Reardon, and covering topics as diverse as the lack of good wine in the United States, McCarthyism, andsexual mores, these astonishingletters show America on the verge of political, social, and gastronomic transformation.