My feelings of indebtedness and gratitude to Joan Whitman for giving cohesiveness and intelligibility to the various, rather hodgepodge elements of this autobiography are beyond measure.
Joan has, over the years played an enormous role in my life, both as personal friend and deeply sympathetic, professional counselor. Among other things she is a neighbor who lives in Southampton.
After I left The New York Times in 1972 (the two events are not related) Joan became editor of the page—once referred to as the “women’s page”—which features “food news.” It was largely due to her entreaties and persuasions that I was encouraged to return to the newspaper as food editor in 1974.
