By Sara Mattes
Avis and her husband Bernard lived in the historic 1818 Hoar house on Weston Road, across from the Pierce House. Bernard DeVoto was an author of a series of popular histories of the American West (including the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Across the Wide Missouri), as well as books on Mark Twain and a regular column, “The Easy Chair,” in Harper’s Magazine.
It was one of Bernard’s “Easy Chair” articles, an essay on the poor quality of American knives, that sparked the DeVoto’s life-long friendship with Julia and Paul Child, and ultimately the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
After reading the article on knives, Julia sent a fan letter from Paris to Bernard. Avis, who read all of Bernard’s mail, responded. That was the beginning of a pen-pal relationship that led to Avis’s interest in Julia’s culinary work in France and their enduring friendship.
Avis soon learned that Julia was struggling to find a publisher for her newly completed cookbook. Avis and Bernard had many friends in the publishing business, so she first approached her friend and Lincoln neighbor, Paul Brooks, who was an editor at Houghton Mifflin.
But Houghton Mifflin had failed in its earlier attempt at cookbook publishing, so Avis moved her campaign to another friend and frequent dinner guest, Alfred Knopf. She would wow Alfred with dishes that she then revealed to be Julia’s recipes. Knopf took a gamble on the yet-unknown Julia Child, based on Avis’s urgings and her fabulous dinners. In all, a savory bit of Lincoln’s history.
Learn more about the Avis and Bernard DeVoto and their history as eco-warriors at the upcoming Bemis Free Lecture event on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. at Bemis Hall with Nate Schweber, author of This America of Ours: Bernard and Avis DeVoto and the Forgotten Fight to Save the Wilds. This event is sponsored by the Bemis Free Lecture Series, with the Friends of Minute Man National Park, the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust, the Lincoln Historical Society, and the Walden Woods Project.
Sara Mattes is a trustee of the Bemis Free Lecture Series and president of the Lincoln Historical Society. “Lincoln’s History” is an occasional column by the group.