author

Alfred Festen

Best known as the co-author of a cheerful mid-century recipe booklet, this little-known writer is tied to a slice of American food history. His surviving work blends practical cooking ideas with the upbeat, product-driven style of classic community and company cookbooks.

1 Audiobook

To Be "Talked About" Use Cookie 'n' Cracker Cookin'

To Be "Talked About" Use Cookie 'n' Cracker Cookin'

by Jeanette Hindman Elliott, Alfred Festen

About the author

Alfred Festen is credited alongside Jeanette Hindman Elliott as a co-author of To Be "Talked About" Use Cookie 'n' Cracker Cookin', a recipe booklet preserved by Project Gutenberg and later recorded by LibriVox. The book was copyrighted in 1959 and published for the United Biscuit Company of America, with recipes built around familiar cracker and cookie products.

Very little confirmed biographical information about him appears in readily available literary sources, which makes Festen an unusually obscure figure compared with many authors in public-domain catalogs. Project Gutenberg currently lists this cookbook as the only work under his name, so his reputation rests mainly on this single collaborative title.

What gives Festen lasting interest is the book itself: a lively example of promotional American food writing from the mid-20th century, when company cookbooks doubled as practical kitchen guides and snapshots of everyday taste. For listeners and readers today, his name survives through that charming mix of home cooking, brand history, and period style.