launch with an enthusiastic feature article in which the reviewer remarked, "It does not insult my intelligence." With help from Marion, Rombauer sold copies personally and had copies placed in bookstores and gift shops throughout St. Louis and as far away as Michigan and Chicago, and by the summer of 1932 roughly two-thirds of the original print run of 3000 copies had been sold. It was the "casual culinary chat" that provided the book's major selling point. Rombauer added to the basic recipes bits of humor, friendly advice and homely anecdotes, projecting into the pages the same effervescent personality that had made her so successful as a hostess. A later cookbook author, Molly Finn, summed it up in these words:The best thing about The Joy of Cooking, however, is the voice of its author, Irma Rombauer. She engages in a constant dialogue with her readers, telling stories about herself and her family, sprinkling the text with genuine witticisms and excruciatingly corny puns, and making sure everybody knows that cooking is not an occult science or esoteric art, but part of the everyday work of the vast majority of women (and a few men) that can be turned into fun with her help. The success of the initial Joy encouraged Rombauer to seek an established publisher for an expanded edition. For several years her inquiries brought only rejection letters; but in 1935 her manuscript was accepted (on the third submission) by the Bobbs-Merrill Company, an Indianapolis-based firm specializing in legal publications, children's literature, and trade books. They had limited experience with cookbooks, and Rombauer knew nothing about dealing with publishers. She represented herself in the negotiations, without help from an agent or a lawyer, and the resulting contract was highly prejudicial to her interests, planting the seeds for an author-publisher relationship that brought misery and rage to both sides, up to and beyond the end of Rombauer's life. However, Bobbs-Merrill mounted a vigorous sales campaign on behalf of Joy, and the 1936 edition sold 6,838 copies within six months, on its way to an edition total of 52,151. The 1936 edition retained the author's anecdotes and witty comments (at Rombauer's insistence, despite Bobbs-Merrill's desire to cut them), and it added a new selling point in the format of its recipes. Traditionally recipes begin with a list of ingredients, after which come the preparation instructions. The 1936 Joy pioneered a different layout,