Irma Rombauer (, October 30, 1877 – October 14, 1962) was an American cookbook author, best known for The Joy of Cooking (1931), one of the world's most widely read cookbooks. Following Irma Rombauer's death, periodic revisions of the book were carried out by her daughter, Marion Rombauer Becker, and subsequently by Marion's son Ethan Becker. The Joy of Cooking remains in print, edited by members of the Rombauer–Becker family, and more than 18 million copies have been sold.
Early life
Irma von Starkloff was born on October 30, 1877, in St. Louis, Missouri, the younger of two daughters born to Dr. Hugo von Starkloff, a German-born physician, and his second wife, Emma Kuhlmann von Starkloff, a teacher who also hailed from Germany. Her half-brother was Max C. Starkloff, the St. Louis Health Commissioner who introduced social distancing during the 1918 flu pandemic.
Irma's father was active in civic and political affairs; between 1889 and 1894 he served as the United States Consul in Bremen, and during his tenure Irma received some informal education there and in Lausanne, Switzerland. She frequently traveled to visit relatives in Indianapolis, where she met and was briefly courted by the young Booth Tarkington. The family opposed the match, however, and in 1899 Irma married Edgar Rombauer, a lawyer whose father was a St. Louis judge who had clerked for Supreme Court Justice John Harlan. The couple's first child, Roland, was born in 1900 but died before his first birthday. The two children who followed lived to adulthood: Marion was born in 1903, and Edgar Jr. (known as "Put") was born in 1907.</blockquote>
Through much of his adult life, Edgar Rombauer suffered periodic bouts of severe depression.
Although Rombauer suffered some digestive disorders and tired easily, her health at this time was good for a woman now in her mid-seventies. Rombauer had started work on a history of her life when she suffered a stroke on May 26, 1955.
On October 14, 1962, Rombauer died in St. Louis, Missouri. She was 84 years old. Rombauer was cremated and her ashes were buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.
Recognitions and honors
On February 23, 1956, Rombauer received a Founder's Day Award from Washington University, where she had attended classes in 1897, although she did not complete a degree program.
Rombauer was portrayed by Frances Sternhagen in the 2009 film Julie & Julia.