The Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life

Those who drink Wine &c. for the purpose it was given as a Cordial to cheer the Circulation when it falters from Fatigue Age or profuse Evacuations of any kind for the Stomachs sake as St. Paul recommends it and for our often infirmities as a Medicine-will understand that of all the ways of saving to run any risk of buying bad Wine is the most ridiculously unwise Economy. -from Wine Self-help instructional manuals are hardly a 20th-century invention: witness this 1824 work which was quite a success in its day. Fully and charmingly titled The Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life by Food Clothes Air Exercise Wine Sleep &c. and Peptic Precepts Pointing Out Agreeable and Effectual Methods to Prevent and Relieve Indigestion and to Regulate and Strengthen the Action of the Stomach and Bowels it is but one of the masterworks of the domestic advisor and celebrity cook William Kitchiner who was the Martha Stewart and the Oprah Winfrey of his day. Laden with all manner of advice for everyone from delicate females to corpulent gentlemen in the matters of what to eat how to sleep what to wear and more this is a delightful look at what a healthy lifestyle looked like to the early 19th century. OF INTEREST TO: students of the history of self-help collectors of pop culture ephemera British author and bon vivant WILLIAM KITCHINER (1775-1827) was a doctor inventor musician and early-19th-century household name. His 1829 book The Cooks Oracle was a bestseller in England and America.