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[Identification of item], Nava Atlas Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
The Nava Atlas Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as a gift in 2012.
Processed by Kelly Wooten, Meghan Lyon, May 2012
Encoded by Meghan Lyon, May 2012
Accession(s) described in this finding aid: 2012-0042
This collection is minimally processed: materials may not have been ordered and described beyond their original condition.
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory:
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
Nava Atlas is an artist and writer who is known both as a fine artist ans 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:
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.
These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.
Nava Atlas' published books have been removed from the collection to be cataloged individually in the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Series includes a wide range of materials from Atlas' career as a book artist, including files from her trade edition publication of The Literary Ladies' Guide to the Writing Life and Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife. Other publications include Expect the Unexpected When You're Expecting!, Love and Marriage, The Idea Book, and Hand Jobs. Other material in this series relates to her many exhibits, correspondence, installations, travels, and other artwork and illustrations. Oversize material is housed in Box 9.
[PDF file has been transferred to Library Server and can be accessed in the reading room]
Series consists largely of materials surrounding Atlas' career as a food writer, including proposals, correspondence, proofs, and reviews from many of her vegetarian and vegan cookbooks. Also includes agent correspondence, exhibit and promotional materials, and some artwork from selected publications. Oversize material is housed in Box 9.