1931 [November 30] First Edition

THE JOY OF COOKING: A COMPILATION OF RELIABLE RECIPES WITH A CASUAL CULINARY CHAT. A.C. Clayton [Self-published]: St. Louis.

Author: Irma Rombauer Supporting Cast: Mazie Whyte, Marion Rombauer Illustrator: Marion Rombauer Pages: 396 Copies published: 3,000 Copies sold: Eventually all 3,000 copies were sold. Overview: Irma Rombauer first published THE JOY OF COOKING in 1936, for an initial investment of $3,000; with A.C. Clayton (a company which had never published a book before but printed labels for fancy St. Louis shoe companies and for Listerine). She included casual culinary chat with recipes (narrated paragraphs including ingredients and instructions intermingled) in a book designed and illustrated by her daughter, Marion Rombauer. The mix of these elements stirred the beginnings of a loyal readership and represented a split from the domestic science/home economist cooking tradition. Irma Rombauer's emphasis was on fun and flavor for the average cook. Note: A Facsimile reprint of this edition, with a new foreword by Edgar Rombauer was done in 1998. Click here for specific information.

1936 [May 1] First Trade Edition First Revision

THE JOY OF COOKING: A COMPILATION OF RELIABLE RECIPES WITH A CASUAL CULINARY CHAT. Bobbs-Merrill Company: Indianapolis and New York.

Author: Irma Rombauer Supporting Cast: Mazie Whyte Hartrich, Marion Rombauer Becker Illustrator: Marion Rombauer Becker Pages: 640 Copies published: 1936: 1st printing- 10,000. Yellow cover with orange diagonal basket weave. 1938: 2nd printing- 10,000. Blue & white cover with diagonal basket weave. 1939: 3rd printing- 10,000. Dark blue cover with blue & white diagonal basket weave beige cover in a molted pattern. 1940: 4th printing- 10,000. Yellow cover with orange diagonal basket weave, finer mesh. 1941: 5th printing: 10,000-(projection). 6th printing: 10,000-(projection). Yellow cover with orange diagonal basket weave. (The cover distinctions are the ones that have been observed. It is possible that there MAY be multiple types of covers for the same printing.) Copies sold: 1936-1942(end of) 52,151. Overview: The first trade edition of JOY pioneered a new recipe format: First, a chronological listing of ingredients and then instruction for preparation [what we now know as "action format"]. Unfortunately, Irma signed a contract with Bobbs-Merrill which assigned the copyright of both the 1931 and 1936 editions to Bobbs-Merrill.

1943 [June 7] Second Revision

THE JOY OF COOKING: A COMPILATION OF RELIABLE RECIPES WITH AN OCCASIONAL CULINARY CHAT. Bobbs-Merrill Company: Indianapolis and New York.

According to Anne Mendelson's STAND FACING THE STOVE, due to World War II paper quotas, some printings of JOY for 1945 and 1946 were done by the Blakiston Company of Philadelphia (subsidiary of Doubleday). It would appear that any printings done by Blakiston in 1946 would have the 1943 copyright, as I have observed only 1943 editions with the Blakiston imprint. The Blakiston printings do not say "Bobbs-Merrill" on the spine.       Author: Irma Rombauer Supporting Cast: Mazie Whyte Hartrich, Marion Rombauer Becker Illustrator: Marion Rombauer Becker Pages: 884 (About 3,350 recipes) Copies published: Information about print runs not located. Copies sold: In 1944 167,261 copies were sold. 1945 94,693. 1946 294,400. Overview: Irma added a number of "quick cooking" recipes to Joy [mostly taken from her 1939 book: STREAMLINED COOKING]. The relationship with her readership is now concretely stated in the foreword as "a close kinship with many thousands of persons." Trivia: Julia Child's first cookbook was the 1943 JOY.

1946 [February 5]	THE JOY OF COOKING: A COMPILATION OF RELIABLE RECIPES WITH AN OCCASIONAL CULINARY CHAT. Bobbs-Merrill Company: Indianapolis and New York.
	[Reprint of 1943 edition- printed from the same plates, with World War II rationing information deleted and replaced with more info from STREAMLINED COOKING in a forty page stretch at the end of the book and subsequent changes in the index.] Copies published/sold: Information not located.

1951 [July 16] Third Revision

THE JOY OF COOKING. (NEW appears on the dust-jacket but not on the title page.) Bobbs-Merrill Company: Indianapolis and New York.

Authors: Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker Supporting Cast: Mazie Whyte Hartrich, Jane Torno Illustrator: Ginnie Hofmann Pages: 1,021 Copies published: 1st printing- 100,000. 2nd printing- ? Copies sold: Information not located. Overview: Marion Rombauer Becker becomes more intricately involved with the affairs and working of JOY as Irma's health declines. Marion's interest in gardening and various health food/whole-grain food philosophies make for a sort of schizophrenic quality to the 1951 edition. Marion/Irma see the index as deficient.

1952 [April 28]	THE JOY OF COOKING. (NEW appears on dust-jacket but not on the title page.) Bobbs-Merrill Company: Indianapolis and New York.
	[Reprint of 1951 edition with a few corrections to text and index.] Pages: 1023 Copies published: Information not located. Copies sold: 1952 201,394.

1953 [April 20]	THE JOY OF COOKING. (NEW appears on dust-jacket but not on the title page.) Bobbs-Merrill Company: Indianapolis and New York.
	[Reprint of 1951 edition with a new index.] Copies published/sold: Information not located. Overview: The new index enhanced the serviceability of the book, although not perfecting it; owing to space limitations imposed by the publisher.

1962 [Mid-October] Fourth Revision

JOY OF COOKING. Bobbs-Merrill Company: Indianapolis and New York.

Authors: Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker Supporting Cast: John Becker, Mazie Whtye Hartrich (early stages), Jane Brueggeman, Odessa Whitehead, Isabel Coleman, Alice Richardson (Bobbs-Merrill's transcriber of the cards which the first draft had been written on, etc) Illustrators: Ginnie Hofmann and Beverly Warner Pages: 864 Copies published: 1962: 1st printing- 150,000. 2nd printing- 50,000 (with a few corrections by Marion, but with hundreds of remaining errors). Copies sold: 1962 91,010. Overview: This edition marks the transition of JOY towards an all-encompassing manual of cooking. Bobbs-Merrill Company published the edition without a contract (hence, it is usually referred to as the "un-authorized edition"). Marion first heard the edition was "in stores" from someone attending her mother, Irma Rombauer's wake. Because Bobbs-Merrill instructed Alice Richardson, "to edit the Becker's edited galleys, but the Beckers are not to know about this," the book published in 1962 was a much mangled version of what Marion had intended. Although Marion did not acknowledge the event publicly, she would disavow the 1962 and replace it with a corrected copy when faced with a friend or acquaintance who owned the 1962 edition. Although interesting from a collector's standpoint, this is not a user-friendly edition and contains many types of errors.

1963 [release date?]	JOY OF COOKING. Bobbs-Merrill Company: Indianapolis and New York.
	[Technically not a new edition, but published with so many corrections by Marion that the type had to be reset. Bobbs-Merrill calls this a reprint of the 1962 edition.] Pages: 859 Copies published: Information not located. Copies sold: 1963 109,984.

1964 [release date?]

JOY OF COOKING. Bobbs-Merrill Company [Reprint of 1963 edition].

Pages: 861 Copies published: Information not located. Copies sold: 1963 145,630. Overview: The corrections much improved this version, despite the publisher-imposed page limit which dictated some cropping/reworking of what Marion had in mind. Note: The 1963/1964 edition, as a paperback by New American Library, published in various one- or two- volume formats. (NAL paid $1.5 million for the paperback rights in 1973, and $2.5 million in 1982.)

1975 [September 15] Fifth Revision

JOY OF COOKING. Bobbs-Merrill Company: Indianapolis and New York.

Authors: Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker Supporting Cast: John Becker, Jane Brueggeman, Nancy Swats, Judy Israel, Mark Becker(token?), Ethan and Joan Becker Illustrators: Ikki Matsumoto and Ginnie Hofmann Pages: 915 Copies published: 1st printing 150,000 copies. 2nd printing 150,000 copies. Six printings in the first year of publication. Information about additional printings not located (the book remained in print until it was replaced with a new edition in 1997). Copies sold: 1975 236,443. 1976 334,483. Overview: Due to a turn-around in author/publisher relations, personified by Leo Gobin, the 1975 Joy achieved Marion's aims more fully than any of the previous editions she had worked on. It remained in print until it was replaced by the 1997 edition, a monument to her far-reaching vision and the durability of the text.

1997 [November 5] Sixth Revision

ALL NEW ALL PURPOSE JOY OF COOKING. Scribner: New York.

Authors: Irma Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker Illustrator: Laura Hartman Maestro Pages: 1,152 Copies published/sold: Information not located. Overview: Co-authored by Ethan Becker, grandson of Irma and son of Marion, and also a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu (Paris). Ethan Becker and his wife, Susan, live at Cockaigne (married home of Marion and John Becker and used as an adjective in JOY to designate favorite family recipes). The emphasis is on "freshness, convenience and health," and the book includes more thorough descriptions of ingredients (as well as a wider variety). For instance the book contains a section about chili peppers.

1998 [April 29]	A FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST EDITION. THE JOY OF COOKING. Scribner: New York.
	[Facsimile reprint of the first edition, With a foreword by Edgar Rombauer.] Author: Irma Rombauer Illustrator: Marion Rombauer Pages: 441 Copies published/sold: Information not located.

2006 [October 31] Ninth Revision

THE JOY OF COOKING: 75th Anniversary (edition). Scribner: New York.

Authors: Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker Supporting cast: Family - Ethan's wife (Susan, writing and editing), Elsa (Irma's niece) and Jack Hunstein and children Scribner - Maggie Green (a primary editor of Joy ), Beth Wareham (director of Lifestyle Publications at Scribner) Experts - Arch and Shirley Corriher (Cookwise), Anne Mendelsohn (Stand Facing The Stove: The Story of the Women who gave America the Joy Of Cooking), Ikki and Polly Matsumoto (Ikki's illustrations appeared in 1975 Joy), John Norton (picked up illustration where Ikki left off), Rebecca Gray (author of Eat Like a Wildman), Susan Gold Purdy (author As Easy As Pie among others), Gil Frishman (sproutpeople.com), William Rubel (author of The Magic of Fire), Elizabeth Andreas (director of The National Center for Food Preservation), Dr. Walter Willett (Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy), et al Illustrator: John Norton Pages: 1152 Copies published/sold: Information not located. Overview: Based on the 1975 edition and published in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Irma Rombauer's Joy of Cooking.] Know Your Ingredients resurrected. Teaching text restored, expanded, and revised. As Julia Child put it, "Thanks for putting the joy back in JOY."