The editor who fed America’s hunger for something new

By Frank Whitman

Have you ever heard of Judith Jones?  I’ll bet that you have more than one book on your shelves that she shepherded to publication as an editor at the prestigious Knopf publishing house.  Her speciality was cookbooks.

Not just any cookbooks.  Her books told stories and presented authentic, well-researched recipes that actually worked.  Her first success was Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child, and her French pals Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck.  It gave Child a shot at TV stardom and whetted America’s appetite for something new and creative in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, editors do not get credited for their work in the books they publish, so Jones is not well-known in the wider world, but in the food world, she’s a rock star. You may recognize some of these authors who introduced new cuisines and food to Americans under the deft guidance of Jones: Lidia Bastianich, James Beard, Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, Marion Cunningham, Elizabeth David, Michael Field, M.F.K. Fisher, Marcella Hazan, Madhur Jaffrey, Irene Kuo, George Lang, Edna Lewis, Joan Nathan, and Jacques Pepin.  If there were a cooking hall of fame, these authors would all be members.  One of my favorites is Splendid Fare by Albert Stockli, a much-spattered copy that is my go-to for Quiche and Butternut Squash soup among others.  Swiss born Stockli was a long-ago owner of the Stonehenge Inn in Ridgefield in its heyday. 

I know all this because of a new book: The Editor, how publishing legend Judith Jones shaped culture in America by Sara B. Franklin. Until I picked this up, I was vaguely aware of Jones, but had no idea of her importance and influence.  

Franklin, a writer, teacher and oral historian, was fortunate to have access to Jones’s papers and recognized a good story when she saw one. In clear and compelling prose, Jones’s story develops from a quick stint in publishing to years as a young career woman in Paris, and then back to New York for a hard-won, illustrious career at the prestigious publisher, Alfred Knopf.

The book reads like a thriller, one chapter leading directly to the next with enough narrative to make it captivating. Jones and the people she knows and works with come to life on the pages.   Not an academic biography, The Editor is great storytelling laced with plenty of facts. 

Jones worked hand-in-hand with her authors (who were cooks not professional writers), encouraging them to get their ideas and experiences down on paper.  Then, with her guidance, the notes could be shaped into a book.  Recipes were tirelessly tested, often in Jones’s tiny New York Apartment kitchen.  She wouldn’t print anything that was not going to work. 

As Julia Moskin, food reporter for the New York Times, said, “Ms Jones may not be the mother of the revolution in American taste that began in the 1960s and transformed the food Americans cook at home.  But she remains its most productive midwife.”

Jones was also an editor of literature and poetry. Her first big publishing success was The Diary of Anne Frank, a manuscript she fought to publish after other publishers had rejected it. We all know how that turned out. 

She also had career-long editing relationships, with writers including John Hersey, Langston Hughes, Anne Tyler, John Updike and poets Sharon Olds and Sylvia Plath among many more. 

If you like food and cooking (and I’ll bet you do) this book is a fascinating look through the side door of the American food revolution.