Originally published in 1904, “The Good Housekeeping Hostess” (Hearst Books), reissued without an update, still offers some practical advice, although there probably aren’t too many folks who still want to know how to throw a rocking monotype party. But it’s a worthy read for what it is: a historical text, not a modern entertaining manual. A more retro-appropriate volume is Mary and Russel Wright’s “Guide to Easier Living” (Gibbs Smith), originally out in 1950. It’s depressing to realize that all of America never lived up to the modernist utopia this book projected. But it’s equally fun reading about the era’s “increasingly mechanized civilization” next to illustrations of typewriters.
