THE COOKIE JAR is the outgrowth of a hobby which began in my childhood and lasted through twenty years.

I loved the attic better than any room in the old house in the South where I was reared. Evidently my great-grandmother had the same fondness for it. She hoarded valuables in that attic. Her recipes, in a hand-written cook book, which I found in the attic, began my hobby for collecting formulas for small cakes. The interesting information she had written about the cakes was the in spiration for writing this book.

The collector's demand for nothing but the authentic grew in me as the years passed. No formula went into my collection unless it was the best of its kind. Gradually I began looking to other lands to satisfy my desire for new and unusual recipes. I found them in out of the way places, in cottages, in manor houses, in castles. I present them to the housewives around the world, with the hope that they may find as much pleasure in using them as I have found in collecting them and writing this book.

j.p.