Edible Book Festival 2013

Testudo the Terrapin, mascot of the University of Maryland, presides over the judging in front of McKeldin Library.

April 1st marked not just April Fool’s Day but also the International Edible Book Festival 2013 . This was the first year the tradition was celebrated on campus at the University of Maryland. Art librarian Judith A. Hoffberg and artist Béatrice Coron came up with the idea of edible book displays in 1999, as a means of paying homage to Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), a French food connoisseur famous for his 1825 book The Physiology of Taste, Or, Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy.

Below are photographs of all 19 entries at the inaugural festival, including the best in show.

There seemed to be a number of strategies on display. One competitor recreated the original book cover:

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss (entered by Vanessa Wang)

A number of entries were more or less literal depictions of the book titles:

The Natural Food Book by George Seddon (entered by Lulu Barnachea)

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (entered by Jason Speck)

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck (entered by Eileen Fisher)

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (also entered by Eileen Fisher)

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (entered by Jill Fosse)

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (entered by Thomas Whittaker)

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss (entered by Clara Ruttenberg)

Lonesome Dove (bar) by Larry McMurtry (entered by Joanne Archer)

A couple of the tableaux were interpretations of particular scenes from their books. A Douglas Adams homage included the cover to the book-within-the-book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the “dish of the day” cow from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and a tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit took the form of “Smaug’s Stash” cupcakes.

The dual Douglas Adams scene entered by Robin C. Pike

“Smaug’s Stash” cupcakes entered by Alexandra Calaway

Most of the remaining entries involved some kind of pun on a book’s title:

Y: The Last Man(go), a graphic novel series by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (entered by Elizabeth Larson)

“Shake spears” Romeo and Juliet (entered by Patricia Horron)

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett becomes a set of pizza toppings “Waiting for the Dough” (entered by Eric Cartier)

Peeps bunnies on popcorn = Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss (entered by Andrea and Kiera Norris)

Little Hows on the Pear E = Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (also entered by Andrea and Kiera Norris)

“The Well-Temper’d Baklavier” puns on J. S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier looked to be much the most delicious entry of the day:

My favorites, however, were the very clever “Decline and Fall of the Ramen Empire” and the winner of best in show, “Grape Expectations”:

Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman [Ramen] Empire (entered by Eric Bartheld)

Dickens’ Great Expectations becomes “Grape Expectations,” with each bunch dreaming of what it might become (entered by Laura Schnitker).

Congratulations to Laura for her winning entry! Here’s hoping this becomes a flourishing annual tradition for the University of Maryland libraries.

See here for a photo gallery of some of the best edible books produced around the world in recent years.