The Gay Cookbook
New York: Bell Publishing Company / Sherbourne Press, 1965. In red cloth boards, with original dust jacket. Offset. Second edition. 280pp. 5 ¾ in x 8 ¼ in. Very good, with age toning, light discoloration and a closed tear (< ½ in.) on the bottom edge of the dust jacket recto. Previous owners inscription to front flypaper. Item #6864
The second edition of The Gay Cookbook, published the same year as the first. A high-camp masterpiece and one of the first books openly marketed to a gay audience. Randall modeled the recipes on the fine dining experience of luxury cruises, and his writing mimicked the homosexual sensibility that defined the back-of-house of cruiseship fine dining.
One of the earliest attempts to model gay domesticity in the public sphere.
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