Can anyone here give me any information about the author of
"Recipes for All Nations"?
I received this 1935 recipe book for Christmas and I've been
fascinated with it ever since. Unfortunately I have not been able to
find much information about the author. Here's what I know. Any
further information would be greatly appreciated.

.. Here's what I do know, and some of what I don't know. Her actual
name MAY have been "Marcelle Azra Forbes" and she was born in New
Orleans sometime around the turn of the century. I can't find a real
date anywhere. She also may have been related to an international
chess player named Paul Forbes. Apparently he was the "Bobby Fisher"
of the turn of the century. Hold that thought though. There is no
information about Countess Morphy until she moves to England sometime
in the late 20's or early 30's. There is a rumor that she was
traveling in Italy in the early 30's and simply liked the name of
"Count Morphy", who actually existed, and took the name "Countess
Morphy", as a nom de plume. No facts to back this up. She wrote a
number of books about cooking in Europe and in Africa, under the name
Countess Morphy, from the 1930's until 1948. Here's where things get
very confusing. Around 1954 she married the editor of her books, a man
called "Ellert Forbes". I find it very interesting that both of their
Christian names are the same. Is this the truth? What I do know is
that an Ellert Forbes, in 1938 wrote a book called "Wine for
Everyman". Was it the same man? I have no idea. Can't find any more
information.

Here's the Library of Congress citation, if that helps:

Author: Morphy, Marcelle, Countess.
Title: Recipes of all nations, compiled & edited by
Countess Morphy.
Published: London, Published for Selfridge & co. limited, by
H. Joseph limited [1935]
Description: 800 p. 22 cm
LC Call No.: TX725.M68
Dewey No.: 641.5
Notes: Blank pages for additional recipes inserted after
some of the sections.
Maps on lining-papers.
Subjects: Cookery.
Control No.: 9702296

There's also:

Author: Morphy, Marcelle, countess. [from old catalog]
Title: English recipes,
Published: London, H. Joseph, limited [1936?]
Description: 2 p. l., 7-224 p. 22 cm.
LC Call No.: TX717.M74
Subjects: Cookery, English. [from old catalog]
Control No.: 7364436

Author: Morphy, Marcelle, Countess.
Title: Good food from Italy; a receipt book, by Countess
Morphy.
Published: London, Chatto & Windus, 1937.
Description: 2 p. l., vii-xxiv, 180 p., 1 l. 20 cm.
LC Call No.: TX723.M6
Dewey No.: 641.5945
Subjects: Cookery, Italian.
Control No.: 5963826

Author: Morphy, Marcelle, Countess.
Title: Lightning cookery, by Countess Morphy; cartoons
by the author.
Published: London, Country life ltd. [1931]
Description: 96, [2] p. illus. 19 cm.
LC Call No.: TX717.M75
Dewey No.: 641.56
Subjects: Cookery, English.
Control No.: 7816861

Author: Morphy, Marcelle, Countess.
Title: Mushroom recipes.
Edition: [2d ed.]
Published: London, Arco Publishers, 1954.
Description: 123 p. 19 cm.
LC Call No.: TX558.M9M6 1954
Subjects: Cookery (Mushrooms)
Control No.: 9797649

Author: Morphy, Marcelle, Countess.
Title: The polyglot cookery books.
Published: London, ARCO, 1954.
Description: v. 22 cm.
LC Call No.: TX725.M677
Notes: v. 2. English-German.
Subjects: Cookery, International.
Control No.: 9365074

LOC gives an earlier date for the Forbes book:

Author: Forbes, Ellert. [from old catalog]
Title: Wines for everyman,
Published: London, H. Joseph limited [1937]
Description: 191 p. 19 cm.
LC Call No.: TP548.F57
Subjects: Wine and wine making. [from old catalog]
Control No.: 9241103



Gary

A little more, from a genealogical site:

"...came across the countess in Great Britain, where she first
published the majority of her cookbooks and greatly advanced the fame
of Creole cuisine. Her books are now kept by the Bodleian Library at
Oxford University. One of her book jackets claims that her title was an
ancient Spanish one and that she was born and raised in New Orleans,
where she learned her art from distinguished professional chefs and
maids. By 1931, however, she had moved to England, where her books were
for the greater part published. By 1954, she was married to Ellert
Forbes, who assisted with the editing of her books."

source:http://www.nola.com/ancestors/archiv.../la082999.html

The chess player from New Orleans would have been world champion Paul Morphy
(1837-1884), a bizarre legend who renounced the game and spent most of his
last 15 years insane.

http://www.angelfire.com/games/SBChe...ul_Morphy.html

Morphy was the Bobby Fisher of 1850-64, a child prodigy who flamed out young
and lingered in obscurity.

He never married, so the Countess could not have been his descendent.

Perhaps she took his name as a pen name, and was never really named Morphy?


--
-Mark H. Zanger
author, The American History Cookbook, The American Ethnic Cookbook for
Students
www.ethnicook.com
www.historycook.com

"Hippy" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> Can anyone here give me any information about the author of
> "Recipes for All Nations"?
> I received this 1935 recipe book for Christmas and I've been
> fascinated with it ever since. Unfortunately I have not been able to
> find much information about the author. Here's what I know. Any
> further information would be greatly appreciated.
>
> . Here's what I do know, and some of what I don't know. Her actual
> name MAY have been "Marcelle Azra Forbes" and she was born in New
> Orleans sometime around the turn of the century. I can't find a real
> date anywhere. She also may have been related to an international
> chess player named Paul Forbes. Apparently he was the "Bobby Fisher"
> of the turn of the century. Hold that thought though. There is no
> information about Countess Morphy until she moves to England sometime
> in the late 20's or early 30's. There is a rumor that she was
> traveling in Italy in the early 30's and simply liked the name of
> "Count Morphy", who actually existed, and took the name "Countess
> Morphy", as a nom de plume. No facts to back this up. She wrote a
> number of books about cooking in Europe and in Africa, under the name
> Countess Morphy, from the 1930's until 1948. Here's where things get
> very confusing. Around 1954 she married the editor of her books, a man
> called "Ellert Forbes". I find it very interesting that both of their
> Christian names are the same. Is this the truth? What I do know is
> that an Ellert Forbes, in 1938 wrote a book called "Wine for
> Everyman". Was it the same man? I have no idea. Can't find any more
> information.

To the gentlemen who have been discussing Countess Morphy:
As a hobby I am learning to research the Internet, partly because I am no
longer able to travel to various research libraries.
Following a trail of Countess Morphy has been a challenge, but
persistence will pay off.
I am 78 years old, and the thought passed my mind that I should put on
record a few things that I believe I have learned about the "countess."
To begin, I feel that scholarship demands documentation, and that is
not found in any of the posts on this site.
I believe I have found her birth name: she was born in New Orleans as
Marcelle Azra Hincks.
She appears in London in 1910 as the author of several articles for The
New Age journal. Those can be found online by searching for Modernist
Journals Project, a production of Brown University. She was also the
author of a booklet called "The Japanese Dance"; the articles are all on
the subject of dance.
I can understand why she may have abandoned the topic of dance to take
up the field of cookery, since it would have appeal to a larger group of
people. I note, also, that several sources identifiy her as a "culinary
specialist" and not as a cook or a chef.
I find it completely plausible that she married Ellert Forbes, but I
would like to have the source of this information. At any rate, her maiden
name was not Forbes. One source of information (if it is such) are the
catalogs of used book dealers; librarians and book dealers seem to have
sources to identify pseudonyms. However, they are not always correct, and
seldom documented.
I do not as yet have any explanation of why Miss Hincks chose Morphy
as a pen-name. Perhaps she was a distant relation of the Morphy names that
appear in genealogies of Spain. The use of a pen-name was very common, and
most of the contributors to The New Age used "nom de plumes."
I feel that a researcher needs the vital records such as birth,
marriage, and death records. Such records are available from TAhe
Registrar General, in the Office for National Statistics, in London.
However, the searcher needs the index entries in order to locate the
actual records. The index entries are currently being digitized and put
on-line, but they are not yet complete. That index did bring up an entry
for the birth of Ellert Forbes. In the birth records of New Orleans I
found an entry for Marcelle Azra Hincks.
The work of digitizing the world's records is continuing at an amazing
rate; it would be advisable continue checking the web sites to follow the
progress. Patience is probably a better
tactic than trying to find a congenial person in London who would inquire
in person at the General Register Office for the index entries.
Another factor is that the world's newspapers are being digitized at
an amazing rate, and they are on the brink of making the access to their
archives "open" and free. Digital searches on the London newspapers from
1910 to 1950 may bring out several items that would add to the knowledge
of the life and lifestyle of the Forbses.
The digitalization and placing on-line of journals of the time is
even further ahead of the newspaper projects.
I balk at the use of self-plagiarism in regard to her repetition of
recipes; if she is the source of the records, then repeating her own words
would not be stealing. The so-called "editing" for her books saves her
from the charge of stealing recipes from other sources: she made
adaptations, to fit her format and to her philosophy of "peasant" cooking
(not haute cuisine). I believe her recipes would be fair game for anyone
who wants to adapt them to current culinary practices as well as to the
current availability of ingredients, in spite of the fact that her books
are still within copyright protection.
In sum, to trace the life and the work of the "countess," I recommend
patience and persistence---and documentation. Keep files of records and
not just notes of an exchange of gossip.
---Lloyd Beldon Lacy