Marie Nightingale fonds

The Marie Nightingale fonds consists of correspondence, manuscripts and broadcast scripts, clippings and promotional materials about Nightingale and her work, records relating to Saltscapes magazine, and newspaper articles and columns written by Nightingale including the "Good Cooking" column (Metro Telecaster), the "Best Buys" column (The Mail-Star); the "Food," "Living Today," "Food for Thought," and "Food in the Fast Lane" columns (The Chronicle-Herald and The Mail-Star); and the "Seasoned to Taste" column (Fifty Plus).

The definitive authority on Canadian East Coast cuisine, Marie Annetta Nightingale was born to Raymond and Violette (Loner) Johnston in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in April 1928. She began her career in radio as a women's commentator, working at Halifax's CHNS Radio; Windsor, Nova Scotia's CFAB Radio; and Halifax's CJCH Radio. In 1951, she married Laurie Atherton Nightingale, an insurance underwriter, with whom she raised three sons: Frank, Gary and Bobby. Her first book, Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens was published in 1970 and remains to this day a classic - a leader in cookbooks covering regional cuisine. The bestselling cookbook was awarded a spot in the Canadian Culinary Landmarks Hall of Fame in 2011. She went on to publish three more cookbooks: Marie Nightingale's Favourite Recipes (1993), Out of Nova Scotia Gardens (1997), and Cooking with Friends (2003) which was nominated for a 2004 Cuisine Canada Book Award. Nightingale was the food writer and editor for Halifax newspapers The Chronicle-Herald and The Mail-Star from 1982 to her retirement in April 1993, though she continued to contribute to the papers on a regular basis until 1999. She was the founding food editor of Saltscapes magazine, where she worked from 2000 to 2009. In 1998, she received the Edna Staebler Lifetime Achievement Award from Cuisine Canada. In 2013, she was presented with a Canadian Food Hero Award from Slow Food Canada. She passed away from cancer on March 15, 2014, at the age of 85.