"First published in Boston in 1838, this volume in the American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection is a facsimile edition of one of the first American books to advocate a vegetarian diet (vegan, actually), by a founding member of the first vegetarian organization, the American Vegetarian Society. The dedicated lifestyle philosophy advocated in Alcott's Vegetable Diet might have been written by a contemporary vegetarian food critic. Alcott's complete...

A book to guide mothers in the formation of early good habits in their offspring, should be the result of long observation and much experiment on these points, but more especially of a thorough understanding of human physiology. It should not consist so much of the conceits of a single brain—perhaps half turned—as of the logical deductions of severe science, and facts gleaned from the world's history.