A Recipe for Success: Private Collection Facts • First published in 1980, A Private Collection sold more than  7,000 copies in the first seven weeks. By September 1984, it was in its sixth printing with over 100,000 copies in circulation.  • A Private Collection won a Tastemaker Award and was at the top of Town & Country magazine’s list of favorite community cookbooks. Kim Waller of Town & Country wrote, “The perfect gift book is one you can’t bear to give away, perhaps for its treasured wisdom or because the very look and feel of the book is so seductive. A Private Collection qualifies as hoardable (and therefore giveable) on both counts.”  • Artist Linda Newberry provided drawings of local flora and fauna for both books. When A Private Collection was published in 1980, this California native was the resident naturalist and teacher at Deer Hollow Farm.  • Local designer Gerald W. Stratford also designed books for the California Palace of the Legion of honor and the de Young Museum.  • A Private Collection was selected for inclusion in the Walter S. McIlhenny hall of Fame for community cookbooks. The McIlhenny Tabasco cookbook Awards were established in 1990 to recognize the role cookbooks play in chronicling and preserving local culinary traditions.  • Private Collection 2 sold more than 16,000 copies in its first month.  • JLPA•MP staff regularly receive one to two calls or emails per month from people all over the country looking to purchase copies of A Private Collection and Private Collection 2 to give as gifts. Most say it is one of their most treasured cookbooks. While both books are long out of print, used copies regularly appear at online used book retailers.