The details of Mary Holland's life are not available, but we do know that The Modern Family Receipt Book was her second book after The Complete Economical Cook and Frugal Housewife: An Entirely New System, published in London in the early nineteenth century. Both books were very successful in England, and as a result, American publisher R. Desilver of Philadelphia brought out an American edition of Modern Family Receipts. There is no indication that the contents were modified for life in the New World. Expanding her subject matter in Modern Family Receipts, Mrs. Holland compiled a comprehensive instruction and recipe book covering every possible activity in contemporary household management. Topics include agriculture; brewing; making varnishes and cement; bleaching, dyeing, scouring; perfumes and cosmetics; gardening; ink; paints, painting, and colour-making; clothes; destroying vermin; building; health; and miscellaneous advice covering everything else imaginable. A treasury of information about cooking, home and farm life of the day. This edition of The Modern Family Receipt Book was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the society is a research library documenting the lives of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection comprises approximately 1,100 volumes

Although there is no biography available for author Philomelia Ann Maria Antoinette Hardin, the subtitle of her book, “But More Particularly Designed for Buckeyes [Ohio], Hoosiers [Indiana], Wolverines [Michigan], Corncrackers [Kentucky], Suckers [Illinois], and All Epicures Who Wish to Live with the Present Times,” beautifully demonstrates the down-to-earth, local quality of this regional Midwestern cookbook—reputedly the first cookbook printed west of the Allegheny Mountains. In the mid-nineteenth century, many cookbook writers emphasized the practicality of local ingredients and culinary techniques since the isolation of communities and poor transportation made it difficult to cook with East Coast or European recipes. Hardin’s cookbook contains a full range of recipes from soup to nuts as well as “Valuable Rules” for housekeeping, simple remedies and medical recipes, and advice on the management of bees and care of fruit trees. Locale specific recipes such as Buckeye Dumplings, Wolverine Junket, Hoosier Pickles and Corncrackers Pudding are threaded throughout. This edition of Every Body’s Cook and Receipt Book by Philomelia Hardin was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the Society is a research library documenting the life of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The Society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection includes approximately 1,100 volumes.