JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

Before I recognized the importance of this book I was attracted to its endless title, which always seems to be truncated when looking for a version to cut-and paste: The House Servant's Directory, or a Monitor for Private Families: Comprising Hints on the Arrangement and Performance of Servants' Work, with General Rules for Setting Out Tables and Sideboards in First Order; the Art of Waiting in all Its Branches; and Likewise how to Conduct Large and Small Parties with Order; with General Directions for Placing in Table all Kinds of Joints, Fish, Fowl, &c.. With Full Instructions for Cleaning Plate, Brass, Steel, Glass, Mahogany; and Likewise all Kinds of Patent and Common Lamps: Observation on Servants' Behaviour to their Employers, and Upwards of 100 Various and Useful Recipes Chiefly Compiled for the use of House Servants; and Identically Made to Suit the Manners and Customs of Families in the United States...with Friendly Advice to Cooks and Heads of Families, and Complete Instructions on How to Burn Leigh Coal.

I enjoy the stab of a three-word-long book title--but if the title can't be short, then just let it all go, I say.

Mr. Roberts is recognized to be the first African-American author of a book intended for commercial enterprise, and it evidently did quite well--when he died 32 years after the appearance of this second edition, he left an estate of $7,000, which was a considerable sum in 1860. (A skilled carpenter in 1860 might make $500/600 or so for a filled-up year of 52 60-hour weeks; a free African-American would have made far less--here I'd guess that they would make a fraction of a white unskilled laborer's wages, if there were jobs like that to be had, and make $100 or so a year. So Mr. Roberts was able to live his 80-year life and support a family of 12 and still was able to save a lot of money.)

There's a lot of wide interest in this book, not the least of which is "The Art of Waiting all its Branches".

See the full text here, via the Library of Congress:

https://archive.org/details/houseservantsdir00robe/page/n7