The New Cyclopædia of Domestic Economy

This 1872 book offers guidance to “the inexperienced housewife.” It is organized into three parts – housekeeping, cooking, and pharmaceutical concerns – and includes 5,000 practical receipts and maxims “from the best English, French, German, and American sources.” The editor of the volume was E. F. (Elizabeth Fries) Ellet, an American writer, historian, and poet who published her first book of poetry at age 17. She also wrote a three-volume history titled The Women of the American Revolution. Ellet was part of a scandalous love triangle with Edgar Allan Poe and another woman, Frances Sargent Osgood, also a poet, in 1846. The story is that Poe had spurned Ellet, and in retaliation she told Poe’s wife about his relationship with Osgood, who was herself married. She even spread rumors that Osgood’s third child was actually Poe’s. But here she is, editing a book on maintaining a well-run household!