in which the directions unfolded as a narrative, with ingredients being listed (indented and in boldface type) as the need for them arose. This "action format" reinforced the chatty "Irmaisms" to suggest that the recipes were really just conversations between the author and the book's user. In 1939, Rombauer published Streamlined Cooking, featuring dishes that could be created in less than 30 minutes. The target audience included working women, students, vacationers, and campers, and, indeed, men pressed into a domestic version of KP duty. For this population, speed and ease of preparation overrode other considerations, and the book's recipes made generous use of canned, packaged, and frozen ingredients. While the book was not a commercial success, a number of its recipes found their way into the phenomenally successful 1943 edition of Joy. The 1943 edition boasted no innovation as revolutionary as the "action method" format introduced in 1936, but in addition to the recipes from Streamlined it included material on "herbs, nutritional tallies for common foods, cooking terms, table settings, and the serving of wines" and provided suggestions for dealing with wartime rationing, including alternatives to butter in some recipes. Also, the book's friendly, reassuring tone provided a form of relief to readers buffeted by "the hot and cold conflicts which raged outside its cozy covers...especially the 'War Bride'". The resulting edition, aggressively marketed by Bobbs-Merrill, became a national bestseller. Between 1943 and 1946, Joy sold 617,782 copies, far surpassing sales of its principal rival, Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. A 1946 reprint of the same edition deleted the material on rationing (substituting more recipes from Streamlined) but was otherwise nearly identical. Also appearing in 1946 was an entirely new title: a children's cookbook written by Irma called A Cookbook for Girls and Boys. By the mid-1940s Rombauer had become a national celebrity, a status in which she delighted. She also had more than enough income, and was able to provide some financial assistance to her children, and to pay more generously Mazie Whyte Hartrich, the secretary who had faithfully typed all of her manuscripts. But by the time the 1946 edition was printed, Rombauer was nearing 70, and her health was beginning to decline. A series of family crises and tragedies compounded the perpetual warfare with Bobbs-Merrill to leave Rombauer feeling weakened and concerned about the future of Joy. Deciding that she would need a collaborator for the