Don Lindgren
Photo (c) Greta Rybus
2023
Literary and Culinary Achievement
"Literary Lion" Award
Don Lindgren is an antiquarian bookseller focused on the history of printed and manuscript cookery. His bookselling business, Rabelais Inc. acquires, researches, and sells rare books, manuscripts, ephemera, and other materials related to food & drink. Clients include private collectors, food professionals, and research institutions worldwide. Rabelais now operates as a private rare bookselling operation but was originally founded by Don with Samantha Hoyt as an open shop in 2005, first in Portland, and then in Biddeford, Maine. The shop has been featured on Netflix’s Somebody Feed Phil, and in the pages of The New Yorker, The Financial Times, Eater, Food & Wine, and Travel & Leisure, and was included in the 2020 Saveur 100. Rabelais has been called the “best cookbook shop in the world” by Andrew Knowlton in Bon Appetit and by Chef David Chang.
In 2019, with co-author Mark Germer, Don published the first part of a multi-volume exploration of the American community cookbook, titled “UnXld: American Cookbooks of Community & Place.” A deep-dive into this central component of American culinary literature, UnXld (pronounced “unexcelled”) is primary research based on a collection of thousands of early community cookbooks, Don has collected, many of which were previously unrecorded. Upon release of the first volume, Russell Martin, Director of Texas’ DeGolyer Library, remarked “truly an extraordinary catalogue. A masterpiece. A work of scholarship and permanent reference.” Don also contributed introductions, and a selection of historical recipes to both volumes of the Maine Community Cookbook, compiled by Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz (2020 & 2022). Recently, he became a member of the board of Community Plate, a new not-for-profit also founded by Margaret & Karl.
Don has spent more than forty years in the book business, originally specialized in 20th century arts and letters with an emphasis on the avant-gardes and modern thought. In the nineties, he took a turn in the music industry, where he was an Associate Director of Artist Development for Sony Music International. Since returning to rare bookselling, he’s curated exhibitions at Volume Gallery and Jan Van der Donk Rare Books (NYC) and served as Executive Director of NYC’s Center for Book Arts. He lectured and taught on subjects related to food history and the material culture of the book, and acts as an appraiser and cataloguer of culinary, literary, and artistic archives of significance. More importantly, Don lives on a small farm in southern Maine with his dog, cats, and chickens, and too many cookbooks, seeking the experience only a good bottle of wine and some well-cooked, local, fresh foods can provide. If, that is, he can decide on a recipe.