Esther Bradford Aresty

Esther B. Aresty (March 26, 1908 — December 23, 2000) was a cookbook collector and culinary historian who wrote on cooking, cookbooks, cuisine, and etiquette.

Early life and education Esther Bradford was born March 26, 1908, in Syracuse, New York, to Lithuanian immigrants. Her family later moved to Chariton, Iowa. Her mother was a talented pianist and cook. Small but carefully chosen, it has been called "one of the country's most valuable troves of cookbook treasures".

She wrote both non-fiction and fiction. Her first published book was an adult romance, The Grand Venture (1963). She later published a teen romance novel, Romance in Store (1983) under the pseudonym Elaine Arthur.

Esther B. Aresty Collection of Rare Books on the Culinary Arts Aresty and her husband donated the Esther B. Aresty Collection of Rare Books on the Culinary Arts to the University of Pennsylvania in 1996. The collection includes, among others, the first cookbook ever printed, De Honesta Voluptate by Bartholomew de Platina, produced in Venice in 1475; a 15th-century Roman manuscript written by admirers of the Roman gourmet Apicius and an encomium in rhyme, written by Frederick the Great of Prussia in praise of his cook in 1772.