Sook s Cookbook: Memories and Traditional Receipts from the Deep South. Designed and Illustrated by Barry Moser With a signed presentation by Marie Rudisill (Truman Capote's aunt) on the front endpaper.

Rudisill, Marie (Truman Capote s Aunt and The Fruitcake Lady of The Tonight Show Fame!)

Published by The Longstreet Press, 1989

About this Item

A near-fine copy sturdily bound in textured heavy dark green boards with gold lettering on the front boards and on the spine. In a near-fine dust jacket with the original price of $19.95" at the top of the front flap. This copy has been inscribed and signed in ink: "To Debbie Purcell with love and affection. Marie Rudisill (underscored)." Marie Rudisill grew up with Truman Capote in the midst of the Faulk family in Monroeville, Alabama. Marie was Sook's niece and Truman Capote's aunt. Upon Sook's death, Marie collected over 200 family recipes and published them in this volume. Marie went on to fame and fortune after writing Fruitcake: Memories of Truman Capote & Sook and appearing as "The Fruitcake Lady" on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. Rudisill was born Edna Marie Faulk in Monroeville, Alabama. Her first marriage, to a Japanese man in the 1930s, ended in divorce due to her family's disapproval. She later wrote, "I really loved that man. He was so talented and such a sweet wonderful person. And I would have been happier with him than I was with the man I married after that." She married James Rudisill in 1939. She wrote, "A man who drinks excessively, it's not a happy marriage. We loved each other, but we had our times." The couple had one son, James, and Rudisill had three grandchildren. Rudisill authored eight books, including Fruitcake: Memories of Truman Capote & Sook. The publication of her Fruitcake book led to her being invited to be a guest on The Tonight Show on December 14, 2000. During her first visit she showed Jay Leno and Mel Gibson how to make fruitcakes. This led to her being named The Fruitcake Lady and to several more appearances on The Tonight Show, in which she instructed host Jay Leno and other guests in the preparation of various baked desserts. In 2002, the "Ask the Fruitcake Lady" segments became a regular part of The Tonight Show. In these segments, viewers posed prerecorded questions to Rudisill (including questions of a graphic sexual nature), and her frank and often unpredictable responses were shown. She often lost patience with what she perceived as stupidity on the part of some questioners, and lapsed into profanity. Marie Rudisill died in Hudson, Florida, on November 3, 2006, at the age of 95, just before the publication date of her last book, Ask the Fruitcake Lady: Everything You Would Already Know If You Had Any Sense, on November 7. The November 8 broadcast of the Tonight Show included a tribute composed of highlights from her segments on the show, including one in which she cooked with (and was hugged and kissed on the cheek by) Tom Cruise. (Wikipedia) First Edition with "1st Printing, 1989" on the copyright page.

Seller Inventory # 710

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Sook s Cookbook: Memories and Traditional Receipts from the Deep South. Designed and Illustrated by Barry Moser With a signed presentation by Marie Rudisill (Truman Capote's aunt) on the front endpaper.
• Publisher: The Longstreet Press
• Publication Date: 1989
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Signed: Signed by Author
• Seller catalogs:
  • Cooking