A unique cookbook for the avid reader, the award-winning Literary Gourmet has become an underground culinary classic. One of the first American works to anthologize dining scenes from literary masterpieces, the book also explores why so many of the world's greatest authors used dining scenes in their work, and provides recipes for recreating these sumptuous literary meals. The recipes gathered from classic cookbooks of the authors' own times and accompanied by histories of the chefs who wrote those books, have been adapted for our times and tested in the kitchens of New York's famed Four Seasons Restaurant. "A succulent anthology of food literature." - Anne Fadiman, Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader "An orginal idea beautifully carried out." - Boston Herald "A feast for both the mind and the serious belly." -United Features Syndicate