Remembering Isaac Hayes: Cooking with Heart & Soul

The legendary musician and personality Isaac Hayes passed away this week. An accomplished musician, singer, and songwriter, he is probably best remembered for his Oscar-winning song, Theme from Shaft (Hayes was the first African-American Oscar winner for any category outside of acting). He was also widely recognized for his work as the voice of "Chef" on the long-running animated series, South Park. Hayes got his start at Stax Records in Memphis (see the cool@hoole entry on Stax and Eddie Floyd) working as a session musician, but soon stood out as a songwriter and performer.

The item featured here is representative of another side of Isaac Hayes -- as a man who knew his way around the kitchen and loved to share his love of food with family and friends. This cookbook, Cooking With Heart & Soul (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2000) is part of the David Walker Lupton African American Cookbook Collection housed at the Hoole Special Collections Library, and just one of the many cookbooks by celebrity chefs. They are remarkable and important for many reasons, especially for the intimate and personal stories they tell about these very public people - stories that fans and others may never hear without these books.

On page 173 of Cooking with Heart & Soul, Hayes tells about his memories of his grandmother canning fruit -- a moving story of planning for the winter as a child growing up in rural Tennessee, of spending time with loved ones, and of fond memories with family and childhood. Here is that story:

Canning Fruits with Mama

"During the off-season (when there was no cotton to raise or pick), my grandmother canned a lot of fruits and vegetables. The land we lived on had peach trees and apple trees, with way more fruit than we could eat when it was ripe. There were great masses of blackberry bushes along the ditch that ran in front of the house separating the house from the road, and I was often sent out to pick berries for pies and jellies.

There was no more delicious aroma than those apples and peaches stewing on the stove as Mama prepared the mason jars. She'd put the jars in the pressure cooker and then when they were ready, she'd store them on shelves in the smokehouse. When I saw those rows of colorful jars brimming with fruit, I knew we would eat well all winter long."

Hoole Library Featured in ARL book and website, Celebrating Research

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The W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, and specifically the David Walker Lupton African-American Cookbook Collection is featured in the Association of Research Libraries' book and website, Celebrating Research: Rare and Special Collections from the Membership of the Association of Research Libraries.

The book and Web site profiles selected rare and special collections available for use in the major research libraries of North America, compiled to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Association of Research Libraries.

The collection profile for the David Walker Lupton Collection is available on the site at www.celebratingresearch.org/libraries/alabama/cookbooks.shtml

and the profile for the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library is available at www.celebratingresearch.org/libraries/alabama/index.shtml

The David Walker Lupton African American Cookbook Collection consists of over 450 volumes covering the period from 1827, when the first book with recipes by an African American was published, through the year 2000. To read more about the Lupton collection and to view a hand list of the volumes in the collection, visit www.lib.ua.edu/lupton.htm The collection and the book was also recently featured on Join us at the Table, a weekly radio show in Miami. The show's website is here: http://juatt.com/ and to listen to Jessica Lacher-Feldman's interview about the Lupton Collection visit http://cdn3.libsyn.com/nanrob/juatt020208.mp3 The interview is towards the middle of the show.

The David Walker Lupton African American Cookbook Collection -- So much more than recipes!

The University of Alabama Libraries holds one of the largest collections of African American cookbooks in the country – some 450 volumes (and growing!) covering the period from 1827, when the first book with recipes by an African American was published, through the year 2000. David W. Lupton, a distant cousin of former UA president Nathaniel Lupton (1871-1874), chose The University of Alabama as the ideal home for this collection, both geographically and institutionally. Mr. Lupton passed away in 2003, and his widow, Dorothy finalized arrangements for transferring the volumes in 2005. Mrs. Lupton, who resides in Oriental, North Carolina, recently stated, “David had a deep conviction that cookbooks compiled by individuals in America of African heritage needed to be identified and preserved.”

The David Walker Lupton African American Cookbook Collection strengthens the Hoole Special Collections Library's holdings in African American history and culture. It is significant addition to the Libraries’ resources for many reasons -- there are many rare and obscure books, many of them not widely published. The collection also allows for opportunities for creative research in food and ethnic identity, family and community life, social history, the roles of women and men, values, religion, and economics, as well as diet and nutrition, agriculture, and food history.

The beginnings of the soul food movement in 1960s are well documented and traced through the many subsequent volumes extolling dishes that can now be found in trendy restaurants around the country. Many of the cookbooks are community-based fund-raisers from churches, women’s clubs, and sororities. Such books can often be the most difficult to identify and locate because they usually do not receive wide publicity or distribution beyond their contributors.

Almost every title in the Lupton Collection suggests more than recipes: food is linked with music, humor, social satire (see the underground classic, Vibration Cooking, by Vertamae Grosvenor, published in 1970), cultural and religious celebrations (several Kwanzaa cookbooks, for example), and almost every other aspect of life. There are also several celebrity cookbooks -- with such figures as Muhammad Ali, Johnny Mathis, Pearl Bailey, and Mahalia Jackson contributing to this collection.

“The Lupton Collection was avidly sought by more than one institution, and we are honored that the Lupton family has entrusted the result of David’s creative vision to us,” said Louis A. Pitschmann, Dean of Libraries. “We are eager to add to the Collection,” added Pitschmann, “and are hopeful that the arrival of this important gift will encourage people throughout Alabama and the Southeast to consider contributing their African American cookbooks and recipe collections to the Hoole Library.”

The collection was featured in the new book, Celebrating Research: Rare and Special Collections from the Membership of the Association of Research Libraries. It was also the topic of an interview with Jessica Lacher-Feldman on Join us at the Table on WKAT radio in Miami hosted by Nancy Ancrum and Robbie Bell.