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Author Talk: The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook with Becky Diamond

Sunday, December 14 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Morven and the Princeton Public Library invite you to a festive morning with author and historian Becky Diamond exploring her new book, The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook.

Catch a colorful glimpse of Christmas during America’s Gilded Age, featuring recipes and holiday traditions dating back to the nineteenth century. Join author and historian Becky Diamond for an illustrated talk at Morven exploring her newest book, The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook: Cookies and Treats from America’s Golden Era. Tea and cookies included.

Additional copies of The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook will be available for purchase and signing at the event. 

Please note for ticketholders visiting Morven’s Festival of Trees: The display can be visited in the historic mansion between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. before the talk, or from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. following the talk. 

This program is held in partnership with the Princeton Public Library. Books available for purchase from Labyrinth Books. 

About the Author

A food writer, librarian and historian, Becky Libourel Diamond has had a varied career combining writing and research. Her latest book, The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook: Cookies and Treats from America’s Golden Era, launched in September 2025. Each recipe provides a colorful glimpse into the Gilded Age, featuring the history behind each treat, its ingredients and baking methods. Sidebars throughout offer tidbits of Christmas lore of the era.

Her previous book, The Gilded Age Cookbook, was published by Globe Pequot in August 2023 and transports the reader back in time to elegant dinner tables set with snow-white linen tablecloths, delicate china, and sparkling crystal glasses. Gilded Age details and entertaining stories of celebrities from the era—the Vanderbilts, Astors, Goelets, and Goulds—are melded with historic menus and recipes updated for modern kitchens.

She is also the author of The Thousand Dollar Dinner, the unique story of a nineteenth century “Top Chef”-style competition between Philadelphia restauranteur James Parkinson and the Delmonico family of New York. The result was a luxurious seventeen course feast that helped launch fine restaurant dining in America as we know it today. Her first book was Mrs. Goodfellow: The Story of America’s Cooking School, a successful nineteenth century pastry chef who also ran an innovative cooking school for young women - a Philadelphia first. 

She is currently working on a history of the City Tavern restaurant, to be published by Westholme in the summer of 2026.