Laurie Colwin Popular Books

Laurie Colwin Biography & Facts

Laurie Colwin (June 14, 1944 – October 24, 1992) was an American writer who wrote five novels, three collections of short stories and two volumes of essays and recipes. She was known for her portrayals of New York society and her food columns in Gourmet magazine. In 2012, the James Beard Foundation inducted her into its Cookbook Hall of Fame. Early life Colwin was born in Manhattan, New York City, and grew up in Lake Ronkonkoma, on Long Island, Philadelphia and Chicago, the second child of Estelle Colwin (née Woolfson) and Peter Colwin. In Philadelphia, she attended the Cheltenham High School, which inducted her posthumously into its Hall of Fame in 1999. Career From an early age, Colwin was a prolific writer. Her work first appeared in The New Yorker and, in 1974, her first collection of short stories was published. She was a regular contributor to Gourmet magazine and had articles in Mademoiselle, Allure, and Playboy. Her non-fiction books (Home Cooking and More Home Cooking) are collections of essays, and are as much memoirs as cookbooks. In the foreword to Home Cooking, Colwin wrote: "Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers. In my kitchen I rely on Edna Lewis, Marcella Hazan, Jane Grigson, Elizabeth David, the numerous contributors to The Charleston Receipts, and Margaret Costa (author of an English book entitled The Four Seasons Cookery Book)," In 2012, Colwin was posthumously inducted into the Cookbook Hall of Fame the James Beard Foundation. Works Her published works include Passion and Affect (1974), Shine on, Bright and Dangerous Object (1975), Happy All the Time (1978), The Lone Pilgrim (1981), Wet (1974), Family Happiness (1982), Another Marvelous Thing (1988), Home Cooking (1988), Goodbye without Leaving (1990), More Home Cooking (1993), and A Big Storm Knocked It Over (1993). The PBS series American Playhouse adapted Colwin's short story An Old-Fashioned Story as a 90-minute film retitled Ask Me Again, which aired February 8, 1989. Her last two books, More Home Cooking and A Big Storm Knocked It Over, were published posthumously. She also appears in Nancy Crampton's 2005 book of photography, Writers, which features Crampton's portraits of various literary figures. Personal life In 1983, Colwin married Juris Jurjevics (died 2018), who was a novelist and cofounder of Soho Press. They had one child, RF Jurjevics, who became a technology professional and writer-illustrator. Colwin died unexpectedly in 1992, in Manhattan, from an aortic aneurysm at the age of 48. References. Discover the Laurie Colwin popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Laurie Colwin books.

Best Seller Laurie Colwin Books of 2024

  • Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object synopsis, comments

    Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object

    Laurie Colwin

    "Seriously good. . . . Deep and rich."  Los Angeles TimesFrom the critically acclaimed author of Happy All the Time and Home Cooking, a insightful and witty tale of a woman st...

  • The Bread and the Knife synopsis, comments

    The Bread and the Knife

    Dawn Drzal

    "You'll wish the alphabet had more letters just so Dawn Drzal would keep on writing.”Laura Shapiro, author of What She Ate, Julia Child, Something from the Oven, and Perfection Sal...

  • Family Happiness synopsis, comments

    Family Happiness

    Laurie Colwin

    From the acclaimed author of Home Cooking comes a heartfelt novel about a midlife crisis and a woman tired of being taken for grantedand a reminder that family, like happiness, can...

  • Goodbye to a River synopsis, comments

    Goodbye to a River

    John Graves

    In the 1950s, a series of dams was proposed along the Brazos River in northcentral Texas. For John Graves, this project meant that if the stream’s regimen was thus changed, the be...

  • Notes from Madras synopsis, comments

    Notes from Madras

    Colonel Wyvern

    Colonel Wyvern, stationed with the army in Madras during the height of British imperial rule, opened a cookery school upon his return to England and was a passionate enthusiast for...

  • The Lone Pilgrim synopsis, comments

    The Lone Pilgrim

    Laurie Colwin

    A dazzling collection of stories that masterfully weaves together tales of love and desire in all its forms, exploring the universal complications of the heartand the mysterie...

  • Home Cooking synopsis, comments

    Home Cooking

    Laurie Colwin

    Weaving together memories, recipes, and wild tales of years spent in the kitchen, the acclaimed author of Happy All the Time delivers a beloved cookbook manifesto on the ...

  • Passion and Affect synopsis, comments

    Passion and Affect

    Laurie Colwin

    “Laurie Colwin was the best kind of master: human and humorous, full of wisdom and love.” Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of All Adults HereIn these fourteen tales, ...

  • Kitchen Bliss synopsis, comments

    Kitchen Bliss

    Laura Calder

    James Beard Foundation Award– and Taste Canada Award–winning author Laura Calder is back with Kitchen Bliss, a warm, funny, and pragmatic collection of stories and recipes that rev...

  • A Town Called Solace synopsis, comments

    A Town Called Solace

    Mary Lawson

    NATIONAL BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 BOOKER PRIZENAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GLOBE AND MAIL, CBC BOOKS AND THE DAILY TELEGRAPH "I've been telling everyone I kno...

  • The Achieve of, the Mastery of the Thing synopsis, comments

    The Achieve of, the Mastery of the Thing

    Laurie Colwin

    In this short story from Laurie Colwin’s The Lone Pilgrim, the perpetually stoned young wife of a popular college professor struggles to tell her husband that she’s been high since...

  • Love in the Time of Bertie synopsis, comments

    Love in the Time of Bertie

    Alexander McCall Smith

    The latest installment in the delightful 44 Scotland Street series finds all our favorite residents up to their usual hilarious hijinks.In the microcosm of 44 Scotland Street, all ...

  • Bad Thoughts synopsis, comments

    Bad Thoughts

    Nada Alic

    An exhilarating and delightfully deviant debut story collection that, with comedic precision and compulsive irreverence, explores the most surreal and inadmissible fantasies of con...

  • Another Marvelous Thing synopsis, comments

    Another Marvelous Thing

    Laurie Colwin

    The acclaimed author of Happy All the Time charts the story of a whirlwind love affair of two people who are happily married (just not to each other)from its fabulous inception to ...

  • Second Draft of My Life synopsis, comments

    Second Draft of My Life

    Sara Lewis

    Fortytwo years and five books into her life, Charlotte Dearborn abandons her noncommittal boyfriend and her sinkingship writing career, and becomes an elementary school teacher. Su...

  • Her Turn synopsis, comments

    Her Turn

    Katherine Ashenburg

    A delightful novel in the vein of Younger and The Unbreakables, with a hint of Nora Ephron, about a journalist who stumbles into an unusual relationship with the woman married to h...

  • Happy All the Time synopsis, comments

    Happy All the Time

    Laurie Colwin

    A modern classic first published in 1978 that is as much a sophisticated romantic comedy about the love between two partners as it is a novel about the powerful bonds shared b...