On the Road

May E. Southworth
The Motorist's Luncheon Book.
New York: Harper Brothers, 1923.
Rare Book & Special Collections Division
Gift of Katherine Golden Bitting, 1939-1944 (132)

Linda Hull Larned (b. 1853)
One Hundred 'Picnic' Suggestions.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915.
Rare Book & Special Collections Division
Gift of Katherine Golden Bitting, 1939-1944 (131)

"The love of the great outdoors grows with each new automobile," states May Southworth in her book, The Motorist's Luncheon Book. The trouble with the countryside in the early days of the automobile was a lack of eateries. To meet this need, writers such as May Southworth and Linda Hull Larned of One Hundred 'Picnic' Suggestions wrote recipe books specifically for the motorist. They included tips on how to heat one's meal by placing it over the internal combustion engine and how to keep ants away from the picnic site.