![Jan Longone](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Jan_Longone.JPG)
Janice Longone ( Bluestein; July 31, 1933 – August 3, 2022) was an American food historian, Curator of American Culinary History at Special Collections,
Hatcher Library,
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
.
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...
,
James Beard
James Andrews Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985) was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. He pioneered television cooking shows, taught at The James Beard Cooking School in New York City and Seaside, ...
, and ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' food editor
Craig Claiborne
Craig Claiborne (September 4, 1920 January 22, 2000) was an American restaurant critic, food journalist and book author. A long-time food editor and restaurant critic for ''The New York Times'', he was also the author of numerous cookbooks and ...
were all early fans of Longone's out-of-print cookbook collection. Their enthusiasm prompted her to create The Wine and Food Library in 1972, which offers books by mail order or private appointment and remains one of the most important antiquarian culinary resources in the world.
Personal life
The second of three children, Longone was born to Alexander and Edith Gropman Bluestein, both Eastern European immigrants. She grew up in a six-family tenement house in the Boston neighborhood of
Dorchester. Her father was a kitchen equipment salesman, and her mother a homemaker. She recalled lively family dinners when her father would quiz the children over traditional
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
dishes like
gefilte fish
Gefilte fish (; from yi, געפֿילטע פֿיש, lit. "stuffed fish") is a dish made from a poached mixture of ground deboned fish, such as carp, whitefish, or pike. It is traditionally served as an appetizer by Ashkenazi Jewish household ...
and stuffed cabbage rolls.
[Steve Friess,]
Cookbook Collector Savors Recipes for Living in Michigan
in ''Forward'' (January 28, 2015)
Longone was the first in her family to attend college, enrolling in Bridgewater State Teacher's College (now
Bridgewater State University
Bridgewater State University is a public university with its main campus in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. It is the largest of nine state universities in Massachusetts. Including its off-campus sites in New Bedford, Attleboro, and Cape Cod, BSU ha ...
). She earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1954 and later did graduate work at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, where she completed coursework toward a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
in Chinese history.
After graduating from college, Longone married her childhood sweetheart, Daniel T. (Dan) Longone, whom she had met as a teenager during summers spent swimming at
Revere Beach
Revere Beach is a public beach in Revere, Massachusetts, located about north of downtown Boston. The beach is over long. In 1875, a rail link was constructed to the beach, leading to its increasing popularity as a summer recreation area, and in ...
near Boston.
[Joel Goldberg,]
Dan Longone's Grape Expectations at the Clements
in ''Ann Arbor Chronicle'' (May 2, 2009) In 1959 the Longones moved to
Ann Arbor
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, where Dan had received an appointment in the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
's Department of Chemistry. He retired as Professor of Organic Chemistry in 1988.
The couple was active in
Democratic Party politics. Jan Longone worked on the congressional campaign of
Wes Vivian, one of the so-called “
Five Fluke Freshmen” who won congressional seats in the Democratic landslide election of 1964. Longone subsequently became District Representative for
Michigan's 2nd congressional district
Michigan's 2nd congressional district is a United States congressional district in Western Michigan. The current 2nd district contains much of Michigan's old 4th congressional district, and includes all of Manistee, Mason, Lake, Osceola, Cla ...
.
Career
When Wes Vivian lost reelection, Longone and her husband began teaching classes on food and wine at the University of Michigan Extension. Their interest in
gastronomy
Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between food and culture, the art of preparing and serving rich or delicate and appetizing food, the cooking styles of particular regions, and the science of good eating. One who is well versed in gastr ...
had begun soon after they married, when Dan gave Jan a copy of the first ''
Gourmet
Gourmet (, ) is a cultural idea associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by refined, even elaborate preparations and presentations of aesthetically balanced meals of several contrasting, of ...
'' magazine cookbook. Inside was a coupon for two dollars off a lifetime subscription. As graduate students, the Longones had little money, but they managed to scrape together the forty-eight dollars needed to buy a subscription. Reading ''Gourmet'' changed Longone's life. She became passionately interested in recipes and the history and culture behind them. In 2014 Longone revisited the impact ''Gourmet'' had on several generations of readers by organizing an exhibition on "The Life and Death of ''Gourmet—The Magazine of Good Living''" at the
Hatcher Library at the University of Michigan.
For two years beginning in 1975 Longone hosted a radio show, “Adventures in Gastronomy,” on
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
affiliate WUOM.
In 1983 Longone's interest in food history led her to found the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor, one of the earliest American culinary history groups. She served as its president until 1988 and remained the honorary president. Between 2001 and 2003 she was the major writer and planner of Michigan State University's Feeding America digital cookbook project.
Longone's prodigious research and extraordinary knowledge of American culinary history led to important discoveries, such as
Malinda Russell
Malinda Russell (ca. 1812 – ?) was a free black woman from Tennessee who earned her living as a cook and published the first known cookbook by a black woman in the United States. The book is historically significant, as it shows that black Sout ...
's ''A Domestic Cookbook,'' published in 1866 and believed to be the earliest black-authored cookbook in the U.S. Her particular interest in Jewish charity and community cookbooks prompted her to acquire publications from Jewish organizations in every U.S. state.
In 2000 the Longones began donating their extensive culinary archive to the University of Michigan to form the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive. It consists of more than 30,000 items, including cookbooks, culinary manuscripts, menus, and ephemera, all of which are being cataloged by an army of volunteers. The archive, originally housed at the university's
William L. Clements Library, was dedicated in 2005 with a symposium. Since 2013 it has resided in Special Collections at the
Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library
The University of Michigan Library is the academic library system of the University of Michigan. The university's 38 constituent and affiliated libraries together make it the second largest research library by number of volumes in the United State ...
. Over the years the collection has been the source of numerous exhibitions and symposia, such as "The Iceman Cometh…and Goeth!: The Ice Industry in America" (2004) and "The Second Biennial Symposium: A to Z: An Alphabet of Regional and Ethnic Culinary Traditions" (2007).
Longone was a founding member of the
American Institute of Wine & Food The American Institute of Wine & Food is a non-profit organization dedicated to gastronomy and food culture. The Institute was founded in 1981 by a group of food industry professionals and enthusiasts, including Julia Child and Robert Mondavi. Toda ...
(AIWF) and served on its board of directors, as well as on the editorial board of ''
Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture'', to which she also contributed a column, “Notes on Vintage Volumes.” She is the author of entries on American cookbook history for ''The Oxford Companion to Food''
and was an associate editor for ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America''.
Longone served as a judge for many cookbook awards, including those sponsored by the AIWF, the
International Association of Culinary Professionals The International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) is a United States-based not-for-profit professional association whose members work in culinary education, communication, or the preparation of food and beverage.
History
The organizati ...
(IACP), the
James Beard Foundation
The James Beard Foundation is a New York City-based national non-profit culinary arts organization named in honor of James Beard, a prolific food writer, teacher, and cookbook author, who was also known as the "Dean of American Cookery." The prog ...
, and the
McIlhenny Company
McIlhenny or McElhenny is an Irish surname commonly found in Donegal and Derry. They are a Sept of the Cenel Eogain race, son of Niall high king of Ireland. In Gaelic the name translates "servant of Saint Canice". Notable people with the surname in ...
, which for 20 years sponsored the Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards. She was active in organizing a chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier in Ann Arbor.
Awards
In June 2000 Longone received the ''Food Arts'' Silver Spoon Award for her work in uncovering and preserving American culinary history. In 2011 the Culinary Historians of New York honored her with the Amelia Award for lifetime achievement in culinary history.
[Catherine Arcure, ]
Ann Arbor woman honored in New York for lifetime achievement in culinary history
at AnnArbor.com (November 19, 2011)
References
External links
Culinary Historians of Ann ArborLes Dames d'EscoffierJanice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archiveat the Hatcher Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Longone, Jan
1933 births
2022 deaths
Women food writers
American food writers
Food historians
American bibliographers
Women bibliographers
University of Michigan people
People from Boston
American people of Jewish descent