Biography
Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald have written four highly acclaimed books together about New England and American food history: United Tastes: The Making of the First American Cookbook (University of Massachusetts Press, 2017); Northern Hospitality: Cooking by the Book in New England (University of Massachusetts Press, 2011); America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking (University of North Carolina Press, 2004; pbk. 2015); and, to be issued in November 2026, Northern Comfort: The New England Baking Tradition (New York University Press). They are the co-authors of two entries, "Boardwalks" and "Fudge," in The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets (Oxford University Press, 2015). Papers they gave at the international Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, "Plainness and Virtue in New England Cooking," (2008) and "Eating in Eden: The Jonny-Cake Papers of 'Shepherd Tom,'" (2006) appear in the Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium, published by Prospect Books. Their articles, "Native Land, Pilgrims' Pride: An Updated History of the American Thanksgiving," "A Book of One's Own: New Light on Three New England Cookbook Authors," and "Women's Works: A Fresh Look at Three Historic New England Cookbooks," have appeared in the international food and food history journal, Petits Propos Culinaires (#123, #131, #134). America's Founding Food was named a "2005 Best of the Best from University Presses" selection by the Association of American University Presses. United Tastes was awarded the 2017 Bruce Fraser Award of the Association for the Study of Connecticut History.
Stavely and Fitzgerald have spoken at international conferences, historical societies, libraries, museums, and to a variety of community and professional groups, bringing the hidden history and cultural significance of New England and early American foodways to light. In their first book, America's Founding Food, they painted their unique synthesis of culinary and cultural history on a broad canvas. In their second, Northern Hospitality, they used this synthesis as a framework for an anthology of over 400 recipes, transcribed from original historic sources. Their third book, United Tastes, is devoted to the early national world of the first American cookbook, American Cookery, and its elusive author, Amelia Simmons, illuminating its full significance in relation to the larger and longer patterns of American history. And coming in the autumn of 2026 is their fourth book, Northern Comfort, offering readers a unique combination of lively historical vignettes and fifty-two delicious recipes for breads, pies, cakes, and cookies, adapted for the modern kitchen from historical originals, most of them included in Northern Hospitality.
Stavely is a writer and scholar whose interest in the Puritan influence on American and English culture has resulted in a number of critically-esteemed books and articles. He has been a Guggenheim and American Council of Learned Societies fellow and a winner of the Modern Language Association Prize for Independent Scholars. He holds a B. A. and a Ph. D. in English Literature from Yale University and a Master of Library Science from Simmons College. He taught at Boston University, Boston College, and Ohio State University and worked for many years as a librarian in Massachusetts public libraries, retiring in 2008 as director of the Fall River Public Library. His earlier published works include The Politics of Milton’s Prose Style (Yale University Press, 1975), Family Man (Contemporary Books, 1978), Puritan Legacies: Paradise Lost and the New England Tradition (Cornell University Press, 1987, pbk. 1990), winner of the Modern Language Association of America Prize for Independent Scholars (1987), and numerous articles on John Milton, Roger Williams, and the history of New England. The most recent of these articles, "Generation(s) of Wealth: Unpacking the Legacy of Marlborough's Williams Tavern," appeared in the Winter 2026 issue of the Historical Journal of Massachusetts.
Fitzgerald holds a B. A. in English Literature from Boston University, a Master of Divinity from Andover Newton Seminary, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from the University of Rhode Island. She worked for five years as a college chaplain, for eight years as a coordinator of a soup kitchen, and for over thirty years as a public librarian in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In 2019, she retired as director of the Willett Free Library in Saunderstown, Rhode Island. An accomplished guitarist, she teaches popular/folk guitar at the Willett Free Library to students on all levels from beginning to advanced. With her music partner, Richard Nicastro (an alumnus of these instructional sessions), she performs at open mics and farmers' markets throughout southern Rhode Island.
The one descended from the Protestant English settlers of New England and raised in the Midwest, the other a native New Englander of Irish descent, Stavely and Fitzgerald bring a diversity of cultural background, experience, and perspective to their ongoing collaborative studies of New England and American history and culture. Their hope is that this diversity informs and humanizes their work, helping both to attune them to the muted voices of history and to listen carefully and fairly to those who have been more audible.
Independent scholars Stavely and Fitzgerald are also husband and wife. They live in Jamestown, Rhode Island.