Marcia Adams: Heart to Heart

About the Book

MARCIA ADAMS: HEART TO HEART, is a contradiction of sorts, and a delightful one. A happy hurrah of joy and determination, this book by the well known cookbook author and PBS cooking chef, Marcia Adams writes of her new role as she grapples with congestive heart failure and a possible heart transplant. It is not a sad book, but is written with both honesty and good humor. "The first thing I tell people about my illness is that the food I write about in my cookbooks, did not do this to me. My congestive heart failure is caused by an upper respiratory virus that settled in my heart, damaging it before it left my body—such a nuisance! "

The book reflects Adams' far-ranging interests in cuisine, travel, gardening, art and antiques. She admits to a passion for literature and books, saying "I am a literature junkie. I have real feelings of anxiety that I might run out of good things to read. I have never understood why people go to bars or do drugs to escape, when they could go to a library. . .  A  library is such a quiet civilized place, and you never have a hang over."  

A self-described control freak, Adam's journey from frustration and "a sort of denial, because I wasn't being true to my inner self" to the acceptance of her condition is a compelling reading experience. Her news of her diagnosis and her decision to be a potential heart transplant patient is presented as a daily journal, over a year's period. Uninhibited and natural, the journal records Marcia's emotional ups and downs, making the decision to live. She became active in promoting more information about women and heart disease through the media.

"I was devastated when I first heard I had serious heart disease. I was in the middle of writing another cookbook and producing another public television series," said Adams. "How could this happen to me? I still have so much to do, and more books are in my head just waiting t0 tumble out and be written on the page. What I learned immediately was, 'why not me?'"

Suffering also from painful and ever-present arthritis and fibromyalgia, Adams first decided to let nature take its course. "I began to get my life in order, the will was re-written, the cemetery plot and stone were selected, all the cupboards and closets were cleaned, the memorial service planned. . . then I just kept on living. It was taking too long to die. I had difficulty just lying around, waiting for death. It is very unlike me to passively wait for anything, including my demise. I was reminded myself of the character of Pozzo in Samuel Beckett's play, who observes with a touch of surprise, "I do not seem . . . able to depart."

The introduction of a new arthritis drug enabled me to come to the decision I would attempt to have a heart transplant. "Emily Dickinson points out 'we dwell in possibility,' which, incidentally, is a mantra of mine. My quality of life, other than the slowing down from cardiac heart failure,  still provides me with so much creative satisfaction and interaction with hundreds of people.  With a laptop computer, and four very devoted caregivers, including my Spouse, Dick, I have been able to survive this interim period before I receive a new heart, with some grace and a great deal of happiness. And I have been given enough time to write this book and produce half-hour PBS documentaries on women and heart disease. This is a precious opportunity. During all this upheaval, my philosophy and lifestyle did  change totally. The essence of it is, though, the whole experience certainly has not been a negative one. And I want people to know that and also to take encouragement and comfort from the book, if they choose."

Determined to turn the negative into a positive, Adams went on a local heart transplant list in February, 2000, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, a regional heart surgery center. The journal, which also includes over a hundred of her new recipes, plus a list of medical resou

About the Author

The irrepressible and energetic Marcia Adams, award-winning food columnist, is an authority on American cuisine, including the Amish and Shakers, as well as American antiques and quilts. She was one of the first current food writers to recognize and promote the importance of researching and publishing early American recipes. Her first book,Cooking from Quilt Country, published by Clarkson Potter won the prestigious IACP award for the Best Regional Cookbook of 1989, and nationally triggered the renaissance of interest in authentic American cookery. Says Adams, “I thoroughly enjoy cuisines from around the world, and certainly have done my share of French, Italian and Oriental cookery, but now specialize in American cookery. So many of our recipes are handed down from generation to generation by oral tradition and never written down. My goal is to keep those recipes in print, so we can all enjoy them, including future generations.

          All of her books have been made into popular PBS cooking series, airing in every market in the United States and on the Armed Forces Network around the world. Her second PBS series based on Heartland Cooking, won the CEN award for the Best Informational Series of 1992. “I receive so much mail from abroad; those people stationed at military bases yearn for American food, and many of them have never cooked before, so the show has been a help as well as entertainment to them—I’m so glad!”

          Adams lectures around the country and writes for newspapers and magazines; her work appears in Gourmet, New York Times Sunday Magazine, McCalls, TV Guide, and many of the Meredith publications. Appearing on many national TV shows and NPR, including Good Morning America and “Fresh Air,” her naturalness and pragmatism make her a refreshing guest.

          Heirloom Recipes,  based on historical American recipes was picked as one of the 12 best cookbooks of 1994 by USA Today. Her sixth book, New Recipes from Quilt Country,  published in October, 1997, was picked by both People magazine and USA Today, as one of the best twelve cookbooks of 1997. It is accompanied by a companion PBS series taped in Adams’ own kitchen by Commorato Media Communications of Indianapolis, Indiana, and presented by Maryland Public Television.

          Adams is married to a retired banker, Dick Adams, who is now her business manager and is responsible for looking after her finances; she ruefully admits she has not bothered to balance her own checkbook for 25 years. “I just can’t worry about that,” she says. “Now, souffles not rising, I worry about that. Thank goodness we bring to our marriage different skills and really, it works out very well. I stay away from the checkbook and he stays away from the oven.”

          The couple live on a quiet lake in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and argue in a restrained fashion about their amicably disordered gardens, where they experiment with new plants and flowers. Currently, she writes about her gardening experiences on one section of her web page, www.MarciaAdams.com.

          “I have loved writing all my books, for they are more than just a collection of recipes since they are accompanied by researched history and personal narratives. I’ve learned so many new things and met so many interesting, great people that I would have missed had I not decided to be a food writer.”

          Both Dick and I are passionate about antiquing, and we seldom drive past an antique shop without stopping to look. Some are good, some aren't, but most are worth a quick run through. And we have found some marvelous things during our travels, not necessarily expensive ones either.”

          In addition to affection for cooking and entertaining, gardening and travel, she is a serious reader. “I’m a literature junkie,” she admits. “Being raised in the country, without nearby playmates, I lived in my imagination and in our home library, which was quite a good one, since my parents were both teachers. I simply could not exist without books. I have never understood why people go to bars for help and entertainment; the library is so much quieter and you never have a hangover.”

          “I will never run out of things to write about,” she muses. “Life is a wonderful adventure and like Margaret Mead, I think you should be learning new things and adapting new attitudes, if necessary, until the day you die. And ‘Vita brevus, Ars longa—Life is short, Art is long.’