Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 2 — Child 1970

📖 Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two by Julia Child and Simone Beck (1970, Alfred A. Knopf) — the celebrated second volume expanding French culinary technique for American home kitchens, focusing on master classes in authentic bread baking, pastry, and charcuterie. Hardcover book club edition in original jacket, graded Very Good with Good/Good+ dust jacket.

QUICK FACTS

• Author: Julia Child (1912–2004) and Simone Beck (1904–1991)
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York (A Borzoi Book)
• Year: 1970 (First Book Club Edition; stated First Edition on copyright page)
• Format: Hardcover in dust jacket (patterned cloth boards with fleur-de-lis motif)
• Pages: xxiv, 555 pp., lv index | ISBN: None (1970 Book Club Edition, LCCN 72-111107 / 61-12313)
• Condition: Book: Very Good (VG) / Jacket: Good (G)/Good+ (full report below)

THE STORY

Following the monumental success of Volume One in 1961, Julia Child and Simone Beck spent nine years perfecting this companion volume to address areas intentionally omitted from the first work. Prompted in part by Craig Claiborne’s New York Times review noting the lack of French breads and croissants, Child and Beck conducted exhaustive kitchen trials using standard American all-purpose flour and home ovens. The resulting text introduced American home cooks to genuine French baguette baking, brioche, croissants, puff pastry confections like Pithiviers, and traditional charcuterie including pâtés, terrines, and sausages.

THIS EDITION

Published in 1970 by Alfred A. Knopf under the Borzoi imprint, this copy is the First Book Club Edition, retaining the stated “FIRST EDITION” slug and 1970 date on the copyright page alongside the Borzoi dog device. It features the unpriced dust jacket with the publisher’s four-digit book club identifier code. The volume includes the heartfelt printed dedication to publisher Alfred A. Knopf, honoring him as “as much an appreciator of good type faces, layout, and paper as he is of foie gras, truite au bleu, and Meursault Perrières.”

COVER ART / ILLUSTRATIONS / DESIGN

The dust jacket presents a deep navy blue ground patterned with gold-toned fleur-de-lis motifs, framing a central beige panel with bold vermilion title lettering. The jacket’s rear panel and flap feature a portrait photograph of Julia Child and Simone Beck, accompanied by culinary tool line drawings. Beneath the jacket, the cloth binding is decorated with an intricate repeating pattern of red and blue fleur-de-lis and star elements. The frontispiece displays the circular emblem of L’École des Trois Gourmandes, crediting line illustrations by Sidonie Coryn and technical drawings and photographs by Paul Child. Interior spreads are enriched with precise instructional step-by-step illustrations demonstrating bread shaping, larding meats, and pastry assemblies like Pithiviers and cream rolls.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Pioneering American Bread Baking: Contained the first fully tested, scientifically rigorous method for producing authentic French baguettes with a crisp crust and open crumb using standard American flour and home ovens.
• Five Times the Technical Illustrations: Features an extensive program of step-by-step line drawings by Sidonie Coryn and Paul Child, vastly outnumbering the visual guides in the 1961 first volume.
• Gastronomic Canon Cornerstone: Cemented Julia Child’s position as America’s preeminent culinary educator and completed the foundational two-volume canon of mid-century French culinary pedagogy.

FREQUENTLY ASKED

What edition is this? This is the 1970 First Book Club Edition published by Alfred A. Knopf, retaining the stated “FIRST EDITION” notice on the copyright page and the unpriced dust jacket with club code.

What condition is it in? The book is in Very Good condition with solid binding and clean pages, while the dust jacket is graded Good to Good+ with spine tanning, edge creasing, and minor chipping (full report below).

Does it include the French bread and croissant recipes? Yes, Volume Two is famous for its groundbreaking chapters on French breads, brioches, croissants, and puff pastries, complete with Paul Child’s technical drawings.

FOR COLLECTORS

A foundational companion to the 1961 first volume, this 1970 edition is particularly desirable for retaining its original fleur-de-lis patterned dust jacket, publisher’s dedication page to Alfred A. Knopf, and clean interior pages free of annotations or kitchen staining.

Book Details

Author: Julia Child and Simone Beck

Illustrator: Sidonie Coryn (Illustrations), Paul Child (Technical Drawings & Photographs)

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Binding: Hardcover

Edition Points: Stated “FIRST EDITION” on copyright page; 1970 date on title and copyright pages; Borzoi Book imprint. Book club edition as there is no price printed on the jacket and there is a 4 digit club code on the jacket’s back panel.

Condition Report

Overall Grade: Book: Very Good (VG) / Jacket: Good (G)/Good+ (G+)

Cover & Spine: Patterned cloth boards remain vibrant and clean with minor rubbing to extremities and light softening at spine ends.

Dust Jacket: Unclipped appearance with chipping and small closed tears at the head and heel of the spine, edge creasing along top and bottom perimeters, spine fairly well tanned, and spotting/offsetting to the interior flaps.

Text Block & Pages: Outer block edge is foxed, upper sprayed edge is smooth with some fading toward spine; tight and square. No loose, torn or folded pages. No writing, internals are bright and free from stains or marks, no writing.

Binding: Tight, firm, and square; hinges are intact and solid.

See accompanying images for full condition details. Will ship promptly, carefully packaged.

HFB-SEO-v1: 2026-10-14

Shelf: B1-5

1 in stock