Russ Parsons gives away even more cookbooks

November 6, 2019 by
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A little over three years ago, we reported that food writer Russ Parsons planned to donate his extensive cookbook collection to the Long Beach Public Library. As you might expect, Parsons collected a lot of cookbooks over his 30 year career. “Getting rid of some of those cookbooks seemed like a good start to my transition. Like shedding an old habit,” he said at the time.

Parsons initially donated about 500 cookbooks to the library, which established a culinary collection in his name. He made a second donation in the ensuing years, and just recently provided a third trove of books to the library.

This latest donation’s size is undetermined at this time. The library will have to sort through it and decide which volumes to utilize. Parsons admits, however, that giving away this selection of books was far more difficult than the first two. “I knew what I had to get rid of,” he said about the first group. “And with the second unloading, I got smarter—I told them to bring a truck to load up—and it was more a question of, ‘OK, I have six books on Provençal cooking, which single one do I keep?’” For this, the third cut, Parsons had to dig even deeper into both his collection and his heart. “I might have even cried a little,” he admits.

Even though he has given away a large portion of his collection, there are books that Parsons is keeping, including signed copies of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child along with books by M.F.K. Fisher.

Category: Food Biz People

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4 Comments

  • Jane  on  November 7, 2019

    As long as I have the space, I’m keeping all mine. Though I occasionally feel guilty thinking about my children having to do the clearing after I’m gone!

  • SilverSage  on  November 7, 2019

    I’m trying to cull out mine right now. We’re moving in 30 days, and need to downsize. Since I have been accumulating cookbooks since the 1970’s, there are some I haven’t looked at in a decade or more. It’s hard -but it’s time…

  • MarciK  on  November 7, 2019

    I’ve given away an old cookbook on microwave cooking and a cookbook for heart healthy cooking full of recipes using margarine back before they knew about trans fats. Beyond that, I’ve tried to give up cookbooks, and the farthest they got was in my basement.

  • veryfine  on  November 8, 2019

    As a librarian for a college that includes a culinary school… I say keep them coming. As one of the chefs likes to remind his students: “If there was only one way to do things, there would be only one cookbook.”

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