Food became an early passion in her life. Her earliest memory of taste was "the grayish-pink fuzz my grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam". Her maternal grandmother Holbrook lived with them until her death in 1920. During that period, Holbrook was a source of tension in the household. She was a stern, rather joyless person, and a
Campbellite who firmly believed in overcooked, bland food. The Nettleships had an encampment on
Laguna Beach, and Mary Frances would camp out there with Gwen. Mary Frances recalled cooking outdoors with Gwen: steaming
mussels on fresh seaweed over hot coals; catching and frying
rock bass; skinning and cooking eel; and, making fried egg sandwiches to carry on hikes. Mary Frances wrote of her meals with Gwen and Gwen's brothers: "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 liked to cook meals in the kitchen at home, and "easily fell into the role of the cook's helper."
Dijon In September 1929, newlyweds Mary Frances and Al sailed on the
RMS Berengaria to Cherbourg (now
Cherbourg-Octeville), France. They traveled to
Paris for a brief stay, before continuing south to
Dijon. They initially found a rental at 14 Rue du Petit-Potet in a home owned by the Ollangnier family. The lodgings consisted of two rooms, with no kitchen, and no separate bathroom. Al attended the Faculté des Lettres at the
University of Dijon where he was working on his doctorate; when not in class, he worked on his epic poem,
The Ghosts in the Underblows. The poem was based on the Bible and was analogous to
James Joyce's
Ulysses. By 1931, Fisher had finished the first twelve books of the poem, which he ultimately expected to contain sixty books. Mary Frances attended night classes at the École des Beaux-Arts where she spent three years studying painting and sculpture. The Ollangniers served good food at home, although Madame Ollangnier was "extremely penurious and stingy." Mary Frances remembered big salads made at the table, deep-fried
Jerusalem artichokes, and "reject cheese" that was always good. To celebrate their three-month anniversary, Al and Mary Frances went to the Aux Trois Faisans restaurant — their first of many visits. There, Mary Frances received her education in fine wine from a
sommelier named Charles. The Fishers visited all the restaurants in town, where in Mary Frances's words: In 1930,
Lawrence Clark Powell came to Dijon to obtain his doctorate at the University of Burgundy. He came at Mary Frances's suggestion. Powell had become acquainted with Mary Frances when her sister was attending Occidental College, and roomed with Powell's girlfriend. Powell moved into the attic above the Fishers and became lifelong friends with Mary Frances. He described the food at the Fishers' pensione: In 1931, Mary Frances and Al moved to their own apartment, above a pastry shop at 26 Rue Monge. It was Mary Frances's first kitchen. It was only five feet by three feet and contained a two-burner
hotplate. Despite the kitchen's limitations, or perhaps because of it, Mary Frances began developing her own personal cuisine, with the goal of "cooking meals that would 'shake [her guests] from their routines, not only of meat-potatoes-gravy, but of thought, of behavior.'" In
The Gastronomical Me she describes one such meal: After Al was awarded his doctorate, they moved briefly to
Strasbourg, France, where Al continued to study and write. Mary Frances became depressed from loneliness and being cooped up in a cold, dank apartment. Unable to afford better accommodations, the Fishers next moved to a tiny French fishing village,
Le Cros-de-Cagnes. After running out of funds, the Fishers returned to California, sailing on the
Feltre out of
Marseille.
California Back in California, Al and Mary Frances initially moved in with Mary Frances's family at "The Ranch". They later moved into the Laguna cabin. This was during the
Great Depression and work was hard to find. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College. Mary Frances began writing and she published her first piece — "Pacific Village" — in the February 1935 issue of
Westways magazine (previously known as
Touring Topics). The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach. In 1934, Lawrence Powell moved to Laguna with his wife Fay. In 1933,
Dillwyn Parrish and his wife
Gigi moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends. When Al began teaching at Occidental, the Fishers initially moved to
Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, where the Parrishes helped them paint and fix up an older house they had rented. Unfortunately the home was sold shortly thereafter, and the Fishers had to move to another rented house in
Highland Park. Mary Frances worked part-time in a card shop and researched old cookery books at the
Los Angeles Public Library. She began writing short pieces on gastronomy. Parrish's sister Anne showed them to her publisher at
Harpers who expressed an interest in them. The pieces were later to become her first book:
Serve It Forth. Mary Frances next began work on a novel she never finished; it was based on the founding of Whittier. During this period, Mary Frances's marriage with Al was beginning to fail. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary Frances found herself falling in love with him. In Mary's words, she one day sat next to Parrish at the piano and told him she loved him. Mary Frances's biographer Joan Reardon, however, interviewed Gigi who told a different story. She stated that Parrish told her that one night after he had dined alone with Mary Frances, she later let herself into his house and slipped into bed with him. In 1935, with Al's permission, Mary Frances traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother. The Parrishes had money, and they sailed on the luxury liner
Hansa. Mary Frances also revisited Dijon and ate with Parrish at Aux Trois Faisans where she was recognized and served by her old friend, the waiter Charles. She later wrote a piece on their visit — "The Standing and the Waiting" — which was to become the centerpiece of
Serve It Forth. Notwithstanding the clear threat to his marriage, Al agreed.
Vevey toward Vevey The Fishers sailed to
Holland on a small Dutch passenger freighter, and from there took a train to Vevey. "Le Paquis" means the grazing ground. The house sat on a sloping meadow on the north shore of
Lake Geneva, looking across to the snowcapped
Alps. They had a large garden in which In mid-1937 Al and Mary Frances separated. He traveled to Austria and then returned to the States where he began a distinguished career as a teacher and poet at
Smith College. In a December 2, 1938, letter to Powell, Mary Frances explained her side of the marital breakup. She stated that Al was afraid of physical love; he was sexually
impotent in their marriage. Moreover, he was an intellectual loner who was emotionally estranged from Mary Frances. Mary Frances stated that contrary to Al's belief, she had not left him for another man; she had left him because he could not satisfy her emotional and physical needs. In 1938, Mary Frances returned home briefly to inform her parents in person of her separation and pending divorce from Al. Meanwhile, her first book,
Serve It Forth, had opened to largely glowing reviews, including reviews in ''
Harper's Monthly, The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune''. Fisher, however, was disappointed in the book's meager sales because she needed the money. During this same period, Fisher and Parrish also co-wrote (alternating chapters) a light romance entitled
Touch and Go under the pseudonym Victoria Berne. The book was published by Harper and Brothers in 1939. In September 1938, Fisher and Parrish could no longer afford to live at Les Paquis and they moved to
Bern. After only two days in Bern, however, Parrish suffered severe cramping in his left leg. Hospitalized, he underwent two surgeries to remove clots.
Gangrene then set in and his left leg had to be amputated. Parrish was in considerable pain and could not get a good diagnosis from his doctors. With the onset of
World War II, and Parrish's need for medical care, Fisher and Parrish returned to the States, where he saw a number of doctors. He ultimately was diagnosed as having Buerger's disease (
Thromboangiitis obliterans) — a circulatory system malady that causes extreme
thrombosis of the arteries and veins, causing severe pain, and often necessitating multiple amputations. The disease is progressive and there was (and is) no known successful treatment. They returned briefly to Switzerland to close down their apartment, and returned to California. They also needed to accumulate a stock of the painkiller Analgeticum, the only one that Parrish found efficacious, unavailable in the States.
California and Provence Once in California, Fisher searched for a warm dry climate that would be beneficial for Parrish's health. She found a small cabin on ninety acres of land south of
Hemet, California. They bought the property and named it "Bareacres" after the character Lord Bareacres in
Vanity Fair by
Thackeray. Lord Bareacres was land-poor; his only asset was his estate. Fisher wrote Powell: "God help us ... We've put our last penny into 90 acres of rocks and
rattlesnakes." Although Parrish's life at Bareacres had its ups and downs, its course was a downward spiral. He continued to paint, and Powell staged an exhibition of his works. Fisher was always trying to find ways to obtain Analgeticum; she even wrote
President Roosevelt at one point to urge him to lift the import restriction on the drug. Ultimately, Parrish could no longer tolerate the pain and the probable need for additional amputations. On the morning of August 6, 1941, Fisher was awakened by a gunshot. Venturing outside, she discovered that Parrish had committed suicide. Fisher later would write, "I have never understood some (a lot of) taboos and it seems silly to me to make suicide one of them in our social life." During the period leading up to Tim's death (Parrish was often called "Tim" by family and friends, but referred to as "Chexbres" in Fisher's autobiographical books), Fisher completed three books. The first was a novel entitled
The Theoretical Foot. It was a fictional account of expatriates enjoying a summer romp when the protagonist, suffering great pain, ends up losing a leg. Transparently based on Tim, the novel was rejected by publishers. The second book was an unsuccessful attempt by her to revise a novel written by Tim,
Daniel Among the Women. Third, she completed and published
Consider the Oyster, which she dedicated to Tim. The book was humorous and informative. It contained numerous recipes incorporating
oysters, mixed with musings on the history of the oyster, oyster cuisine, and the love life of the oyster. In 1942, Fisher published
How to Cook a Wolf. The book was published at the height of WWII food shortages. "Pages offered housewives advice on how to achieve a balanced diet, stretch ingredients, eat during blackouts, deal with sleeplessness and sorrow, and care for pets during wartime." The book received good reviews and attained literary success, leading to a feature article on Fisher in
Look magazine in July 1942. In May 1942 Fisher began working in Hollywood for
Paramount Studios. While there she wrote gags for
Bob Hope,
Bing Crosby, and
Dorothy Lamour. Fisher became pregnant in 1943, and secluded herself in a boarding house in
Altadena. While there she worked on the book that would become
The Gastronomical Me. On August 15, 1943, she gave birth to Anne Kennedy Parrish (later known as Anna). Fisher listed a fictional father on the birth certificate, Michael Parrish. Her relationship with Friede gave her entree to additional publishing markets, and she wrote articles for
Atlantic Monthly,
Vogue,
Town and Country, ''Today's Woman
and Gourmet''. In fall 1945, Friede's publishing entity failed, and Fisher and Friede returned to Bareacres, both to write. On March 12, 1946, Fisher gave birth to her second daughter, Kennedy Mary Friede. Fisher began work on
With Bold Knife and Fork. Mary Frances's mother died in 1948. On Christmas Eve 1949, the limited edition release of her translation of Savarin's
The Physiology of Taste received rave reviews. "
Craig Claiborne of the
New York Times said Fisher's prose perfectly captured the wit and gaiety of the book and lauded the hundreds of marginal glosses that [she] added to elucidate the text." During this period, Fisher also was working on a biography of Madame
Récamier for which she had received an advance. Her marriage with Donald was starting to unravel. He became ill with intestinal pains and after considerable medical treatment, it became apparent that the pain was
psychosomatic, and Donald began receiving psychiatric care. Fisher in turn had been under considerable stress. She had been caretaker for Tim, had weathered his suicide, suffered her brother's suicide a year later, followed by the death of her mother, only to be thrust into the role of caretaker for Rex. Despite her financially successful writing career, Donald lived a lifestyle that exceeded their income, leaving her $27,000 in debt. She sought psychiatric counseling for what essentially was a nervous breakdown. By 1949, Donald had become frustrated by his isolation in a small Southern California town and separated from Fisher. Her father died June 2, 1953. Mary Frances subsequently sold the Ranch and the newspaper. She rented out Bareacres and moved to
Napa Valley, renting "Red Cottage" south of
St. Helena, California. She ended up in
Aix-en-Provence, France. She planned to live in Aix using the proceeds from the sale of her father's paper. Once in Aix, Fisher lodged with Mme Lanes at 17
rue Cardinale. She employed a French tutor and enrolled Anna and Kennedy, then aged 11 and 8, in the École St Catherine. In Aix, her life developed a pattern. Each day she would walk across town to pick up the girls from school at noon, and in late afternoon they ate snacks or ices at the Deux Garçons or Glacière. She never felt completely at home. She felt patronized because she was an American: "I was forever in their eyes the product of a naïve, undeveloped, and indeed infantile civilization ...". At one point, an important local woman, introduced to her through mutual friends in Dijon, invited her to lunch. During the meal, the woman sneered at Fisher:
St. Helena Fisher left Provence in July 1955, and sailed for
San Francisco on the freighter
Vesuvio. After living in the city for a short period, she decided that the intense urban environment did not provide the children enough freedom. She owned the house until 1970, using it as a base for frequent travels. During extended absences she would rent it out. In fall 1959 she moved the family to
Lugano, Switzerland, where she hoped to introduce her daughters to a new language and culture. She enrolled the girls in the Istituto Sant'Anna Convent boarding school. She revisited Dijon and Aix. Falling back in love with Aix, she rented the L'Harmas farmhouse outside Aix. In July 1961, she returned to San Francisco. In 1963, Fisher decided to try her hand at teaching at the African-American
Piney Woods Country Life School in
Mississippi. It was not a good experience for her. She received mixed reviews and was not invited back for another term. She next contracted to write a series of cookbook reviews for
The New Yorker magazine. Because her St. Helena house was rented out, she moved to her sister's home in
Genoa, Nevada, to work on the assignment. In 1966,
Time-Life hired Fisher to write
The Cooking of Provincial France. She traveled to Paris to research material for the book. While there, she met Paul and
Julia Child, and through them
James Beard. Child was hired to be a consultant on the book;
Michael Field was the consulting editor. Field rented out the Childs' country home — La Pitchoune — to work on the book. When Fisher later moved into the house immediately after Field, she found the refrigerator empty. She remarked: "How could a person who loves food be in the south of France and not at least have a piece of cheese in the refrigerator?" Fisher was disappointed in the book's final form; it contained restaurant recipes, without regard to regional cuisine, and much of her signature prose had been cut.
Glen Ellen, California In 1971, Fisher's friend
David Bouverie, who owned a ranch in
Glen Ellen, California, offered to build Fisher a house on his ranch. Fisher designed it, calling it "Last House". The presence of ranch staff made it easy for her to use the house as a base for frequent travels. She returned to France in 1970, 1973, 1976 and 1978, visiting, inter alia,
La Roquette, Marseille, and Aix. ==Death==