Pennell, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Robins Pennell (1855–1936) could not cook, yet she wrote a newspaper cookery column for five years, authored two books related to cooking, and amassed an extensive collection of rare cookbooks, which is the second largest of the holdings in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.

Pennell, a resident of London from 1884 through World War I, was born in Philadelphia. After the death of her mother, her father sent both Elizabeth and her sister to a Catholic convent outside Philadelphia. Pennell remained there until her graduation in 1872; she then moved to her father’s home and reluctantly acceded to her family’s demands to blend into Philadelphia’s social milieu. A reacquaintance with her uncle, Charles Godfrey Leland, a journalist with ties to the intellectual community of writers and artists in the United States and Europe, stimulated her imagination and introduced her to a world outside of Philadelphia. Under his tutelage Pennell began to write.