Bloomsbury, 2001. Hardcover. Very Good with VG vellum jacket. Second printing. One of Anthony Bourdain’s (1956–2018) lesser known books, Typhoid Mary was the 2001 follow up to his most famous, Kitchen Confidential (2000). While it may seem like a departure from his depiction of the gritty world of professional cooking, Bourdain points out that, first and foremost, Mary Mallon—whom history only remembers as a villain—was indeed a working class cook. “Cooks work sick. They always have…you don’t work, you don’t get paid,” he says in the introduction. Bourdain approaches this story of an immigrant woman with his signature empathy for the marginalized and misunderstood, a champion for the underdog and overlooked. We’re pleased to offer a second printing in Very Good condition, inclusive of its oft-missing vellum jacket. Someone—perhaps nefariously, perhaps playfully—has scribbled what appears to be a forged signature on the half title page. We know from other examples of verified provenance that Bourdain did not sign in this fashion, and, in fact, a previous owner has attached a Post-It below the mark which states “Not Anthony Bourdain’s actual signature. :)” We’ve left it attached because it’s both humorous and useful.
