A Welcoming Life: An MFK Fisher Scrapbook

M.F.K.Fisher was one of America's best prose writers ever. Though known for her writings about food, it's insufficient to say she was a food writer. Her real subject was herself, her journeys through life and relationships, and her ability to render intensely personal experiences in some of the best writing I've ever had the pleasure to read. If you are a fan of her work, you will enjoy "A Welcoming Life", which has many, many fine photographs of Fisher and her companions and the places they travelled. It's enjoyable to actually have a face to match to her descriptions of "Chexbres" or "Timmy" (Dillwyn Parrish, her second husband) and others as well. The photographs, black and white, are beautifully printed in this book.

I checked this book out from the library prior to a book club session focusing on M.F.K. Fisher's works. I had never read anything by or about Mary Frances before, because I thought she was "just" a cooking/culinary writer. Was I ever wrong! What a gorgeous, wonderful, fascinating, philosophical woman and writer! Her writing style is as splendid as her life. . . and what a superb life she lived in spite of being a woman ahead of her times and in spite of tragedies and set backs. Now I'm adding her books and books about her to my personal library. She's my latest inspiration, in line with Willa Cather, Pearl Buck, Madeleine L'Engle, Emily Dickinson, the Brontes, and a few others.