Summary

Creator:

Atlas, Nava

Abstract:

Fine artist and author of many cookbooks and other works of nonfiction. Collection includes materials from Atlas' dual careers as a fine artist, book artist, and as the author of vegetarian/vegan cookbooks and other works of nonfiction. Includes book proposals, correspondence, proofs and dummies, reviews, and promotional pieces from many of Atlas' published works, as well as artwork, articles, and drafts from various freelance pieces. Also contains a number of slides of Atlas' early artwork, exhibit-related correspondence and files, publisher and agent materials, and other miscellaneous files relating to her works.

Extent:

12.5 Linear Feet

Language:

Material in English

Collection ID:

RL.00059

Background

Scope and Content:

This collection has been sorted into two series, reflecting the presence of materials from Atlas' dual careers as a book artist and as a vegetarian chef and cookbook author. Both series includes book proposals, correspondence, proofs and dummies, reviews, and promotional pieces from many of Atlas' published works, as well as artwork, articles, and drafts from her various freelance pieces. The collection also contains a number of slides of Atlas' early artwork, exhibit-related correspondence and files, publisher and agent materials, and other miscellaneous files relating to her works.

Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

Biographical / Historical:

Nava Atlas is an artist and writer who is known both as a fine artist and as a vegetarian cookbook author. Her artists' books engage images, text, and structure to explore themes of social justice and women's roles. Many of her works, like the altered comic book Love & Marriage, reappropriate found materials and challenge the language and images used to reinforce gender roles and stereotypes.

One unusual aspect of Atlas's work is her adaptation of limited edition artist's books to create trade editions, bridging the divide between hand crafted books and conventional publishing. The first, Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife, a parody 1950s-style cookbook exploring contemporary marriage, was published in 2009 by Simon & Schuster; the second, Dear Literary Ladies, was published as a trade edition under the title The Literary Ladies' Guide to the Writing Life in 2011 by Sellers Publishing. This book explores first-person narratives on the writing lives of twelve classic women authors, and comments on the universal relevance of their experiences to all women who love to write.

Atlas is also the author and illustrator of many books on vegan and vegetarian cooking, most recently Vegan Holiday Kitchen, Vegan Express, Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons, The Vegetarian Family Cookbook, and The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet. A book on leafy greens, Wild About Greens, will be published in June 2012. Nava also has written scores of articles on healthful cooking with natural foods, which have appeared in Vegetarian Times, VegNews, Cooking Light, and numerous other publications. Her home is in the Hudson Valley region of New York State, where she lives with her husband; they have two grown children.

Visit her websites here: www.navaatlasart.com and www.vegkitchen.com/

Acquisition Information:

The Nava Atlas Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2020.

Processing information:

Processed by Kelly Wooten, Meghan Lyon, May 2012; addition processed by Megan Lewis, March 2014; addition processed by Michelle Runyon, October 2018; addition processed by Megan E. Lewis, February 2020.

Encoded by Meghan Lyon, May 2012 and Megan Lewis, March 2014

Accession(s) described in this finding aid: 2012-0042; 2014-0037; 2017-0056; 2020-0079.

Materials may not have been ordered and described beyond their original condition.

Rules or Conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Subjects

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Subjects:

Women authors
Man-woman relationships -- Humor
American wit and humor
Romance comic books, strips, etc.
Vegan cooking
Cooking, American
Prescriptive literature
Vegetarianism
Vegetarian cooking

Formats:

Artists' books

Names:

Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture
Atlas, Nava