M. F. K. Fisher facts for kids

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (born July 3, 1908 – died June 22, 1992) was an American writer who loved to write about food. She also helped start the Napa Valley Wine Library. She wrote 27 books, including a translation of a famous book about taste by Brillat-Savarin. Mary Frances believed that eating well was an important part of life, and she wrote a lot about it. A famous poet named W. H. Auden once said she was one of the best writers in the United States.

Early Life and Education

Mary Frances Kennedy was born on July 3, 1908, in Albion, Michigan.

Mary Frances loved to read when she was a child. She started writing poems when she was only five years old. Her family had a huge library at home, and her mom made sure she could read many other books too. Later, her dad, who owned a newspaper, had her write short news stories. She sometimes wrote up to fifteen stories a day!

Mary Frances went to school, but she wasn't always the best student. She often skipped classes. When she was sixteen, her parents sent her to a private school called The Bishop's School in La Jolla, California. After a year, she moved to the Harker School for Girls in Palo Alto, California. She graduated from Harker in 1927.

She then went to Illinois College for one semester. In 1928, she took summer classes at UCLA. This helped her get enough credits to transfer to Occidental College. While there, she met her first husband, Alfred Fisher, also known as "Al." She attended Occidental College for one year. On September 5, 1929, she married Al and moved with him to Dijon, France.

A Passion for Food

Food became important to Mary Frances early in her life. Her first memory of taste was "the grayish-pink fuzz my grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam." Her grandmother, Mrs. Holbrook, lived with them until 1920. Mrs. Holbrook was a strict person who believed in plain, overcooked food. She followed the diet rules of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg from the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

Another early food influence was "Aunt" Gwen. Gwen was not a relative, but the daughter of family friends. Mary Frances would camp with Gwen at Laguna Beach. She remembered cooking outdoors with Gwen. They steamed mussels on seaweed over hot coals. They also caught and fried rock bass, cooked eel, and made fried egg sandwiches for hikes. Mary Frances wrote, "I decided at the age of nine that one of the best ways to grow up is to eat and talk quietly with good people." Mary Frances also liked to cook in her home kitchen. She "easily fell into the role of the cook's helper."

Life in Dijon, France

In September 1929, Mary Frances and Al sailed to France. After a short stay in Paris, they went to Dijon. They rented two rooms with no kitchen or separate bathroom. Al studied for his doctorate at the University of Dijon.

Mary Frances took night classes at the École des Beaux-Arts. She studied painting and sculpture for three years. Their landlords, the Ollangnier family, served good food. Mary Frances remembered big salads and deep-fried Jerusalem artichokes. For their three-month anniversary, Al and Mary Frances went to Aux Trois Faisans restaurant. There, Mary Frances learned about fine wine from a sommelier named Charles.

In 1930, Lawrence Clark Powell came to Dijon to study at the University of Burgundy. He became lifelong friends with Mary Frances. In 1931, Mary Frances and Al moved to their own apartment above a pastry shop. This was Mary Frances's first kitchen. It was very small, only five feet by three feet, with a two-burner hotplate. Despite the small space, Mary Frances started creating her own cooking style. She wanted to "shake [her guests] from their routines, not only of meat-potatoes-gravy, but of thought, of behavior."

After Al finished his doctorate, they moved to Strasbourg, France. Mary Frances felt lonely and sad in their cold apartment. They then moved to a tiny French fishing village, Le Cros-de-Cagnes. Powell visited them there. Al was becoming more thoughtful and had stopped writing his poem. He wanted to write novels but knew job prospects were bad back home. After running out of money, the Fishers returned to California.

Returning to California

Back in California, Al and Mary Frances first lived with Mary Frances's family. They later moved into a cabin in Laguna. This was during the Great Depression, so finding work was hard. Al looked for a teaching job for two years before finding one at Occidental College.

Mary Frances started writing. Her first published piece, "Pacific Village," appeared in Westways magazine in February 1935. It was a fictional story about life in Laguna Beach. In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife Gigi moved next door to them, and they quickly became friends.

When Al began teaching, the Fishers moved to Eagle Rock, Los Angeles. Mary Frances worked part-time in a card shop. She also researched old cookbooks at the Los Angeles Public Library. She began writing short pieces about food. Parrish's sister showed them to her publisher at Harpers, who was interested. These pieces later became her first book, Serve It Forth.

During this time, Mary Frances's marriage with Al began to struggle. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary Frances fell in love with him. In 1935, Mary Frances traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother. They sailed on a luxury ship. They visited Paris, Provence, and the French Riviera. Mary Frances also went back to Dijon and ate at Aux Trois Faisans, where her old friend, the waiter Charles, recognized her. She later wrote about this visit in "The Standing and the Waiting," which became a key part of Serve It Forth. When she returned, Mary Frances told Al about her feelings for Parrish. In 1936, Dillwyn invited the Fishers to join him in creating an artists' colony in Switzerland. Al agreed, even though it was a risk to his marriage.

Life in Vevey, Switzerland

View from Chexbres toward Vevey

The Fishers sailed to Holland and then took a train to Vevey, Switzerland. Their new home, "Le Paquis," meant "the grazing ground." It was a stone house on a sloping meadow by Lake Geneva, with views of the snowcapped Alps. In mid-1937, Al and Mary Frances separated. Al returned to the United States and became a respected teacher and poet. In 1938, Mary Frances went home to tell her parents about her separation and upcoming divorce from Al.

Her first book, Serve It Forth, received good reviews in magazines like Harper's Monthly and newspapers like The New York Times. However, Fisher was disappointed because the book didn't sell many copies, and she needed the money. During this time, Fisher and Parrish also wrote a romance novel together called Touch and Go. They used the shared pen name Victoria Berne.

In September 1938, Fisher and Parrish could no longer afford to live at Les Paquis, so they moved to Bern. Soon after, Parrish became very ill. He had surgery and his left leg had to be removed. He was in a lot of pain. With World War II starting and Parrish needing medical care, Fisher and Parrish returned to the United States. Doctors diagnosed him with Buerger's disease, a serious condition that affects blood vessels and causes severe pain. There was no cure. They briefly returned to Switzerland to close their apartment and get more of a painkiller that worked for Parrish.

California and Provence Again

Once in California, Fisher looked for a warm, dry place for Parrish's health. She found a small cabin on ninety acres of land near Hemet, California. They bought it and called it "Bareacres." Parrish continued to paint, but his health got worse. He died on August 6, 1941.

Before Parrish's death, Fisher finished three books. One was a novel that was not published. The second was an attempt to revise a novel by Parrish. Third, she completed and published Consider the Oyster, which she dedicated to Parrish. This book was funny and full of facts. It had many recipes using oysters, along with thoughts on oyster history and their life.

In 1942, Fisher published How to Cook a Wolf. This book came out during World War II when food was scarce. It gave advice to homemakers on how to eat well, make ingredients last, and cope during wartime. The book was very successful and led to a feature article about Fisher in Look magazine.

In May 1942, Fisher started working in Hollywood for Paramount Studios. She wrote jokes for famous actors like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. In 1943, Fisher became pregnant. She gave birth to her daughter, Anne Kennedy Parrish (later known as Anna), on August 15, 1943. Fisher never revealed the father's identity.

In 1944, Fisher left Paramount. In New York, she met and fell in love with publisher Donald Friede. She wrote to Powell, "I accidentally got married to Donald Friede." She spent the summer with Friede, working on her book The Gastronomical Me. Her relationship with Friede helped her get articles published in magazines like Atlantic Monthly and Vogue. In 1945, Friede's publishing business failed, and they returned to Bareacres to write. On March 12, 1946, Fisher gave birth to her second daughter, Kennedy Mary Friede.

Mary Frances's mother died in 1948. In 1949, she moved to "The Ranch" to care for her father, Rex. In December 1949, her translation of Savarin's The Physiology of Taste was released and received great reviews. Craig Claiborne of New York Times praised her writing. Her marriage with Donald began to fall apart. He became ill, and it turned out his pain was due to stress. Fisher was also under a lot of stress from caring for others. Even though she was a successful writer, Donald's lifestyle led her into debt. She sought help for a nervous breakdown. By 1949, Donald felt isolated and separated from Fisher. They divorced on August 8, 1950.

Her father died on June 2, 1953. Mary Frances then sold "The Ranch" and the newspaper. She rented out Bareacres and moved to Napa Valley, renting "Red Cottage" near St. Helena, California. She was not happy with the schools for her children, so in 1954, Fisher sailed to Aix-en-Provence, France. She planned to live there using money from her father's newspaper sale.

In Aix, Fisher lived with Mme Lanes. She hired a French tutor and enrolled Anna and Kennedy, then 11 and 8, in school. Mary Frances never felt completely at home in Aix. She felt people looked down on her because she was American.

Life in St. Helena, California

Fisher left Provence in July 1955 and sailed to San Francisco. After a short time in the city, she felt it was too busy for her children. She sold Bareacres and used the money to buy an old Victorian house in St. Helena. She owned this house until 1970, using it as a base for her many travels. She would rent it out when she was away.

Fisher home in Aix en Provence

In fall 1959, she moved her family to Lugano, Switzerland. She wanted her daughters to learn a new language and culture. She visited Dijon and Aix again. She loved Aix so much that she rented a farmhouse outside the city. In July 1961, she returned to San Francisco.

In 1963, Fisher tried teaching at the Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi. It was not a good experience, and she was not asked back.

She then agreed to write cookbook reviews for The New Yorker magazine. Since her St. Helena house was rented, she moved to her sister's home in Genoa, Nevada, to work.

In 1966, Time-Life hired Fisher to write The Cooking of Provincial France. She traveled to Paris to research the book. There, she met Paul and Julia Child, and through them, James Beard. Julia Child was a consultant for the book. Fisher was disappointed with the final book. It had restaurant recipes instead of regional ones, and much of her unique writing was cut.

Glen Ellen, California

In 1971, Fisher's friend David Bouverie offered to build her a house on his ranch in Glen Ellen, California. Fisher designed the house herself and called it "Last House." The ranch staff made it easy for her to travel often. She returned to France in 1970, 1973, 1976, and 1978, visiting places like La Roquette and Marseilles.

M F K Fisher Home in St Helena – Photo by Tash

Later Life and Death

After Dillwyn Parrish's death, Fisher felt like a "ghost" of a person. However, she continued to live a long and productive life. She died at the age of 83 in Glen Ellen, California, in 1992. She had suffered from Parkinson's disease and arthritis for many years. She spent the last twenty years of her life in "Last House."

See also

In Spanish: M. F. K. Fisher para niños