Carla Emery
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Carlotta Louise Harshbarger Emery DeLong (January 19, 1939,
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
– October 11, 2005,
Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...
) was an American writer and encyclopedist. She is best known for authoring the ''Encyclopedia of Country Living'', known until its 9th edition as ''The Old-Fashioned Recipe Book''. Emery was a proponent of
organic farming Organic farming, also known as organic agriculture or ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2024 on organic production and labelling of ...
and the "
back-to-the-land movement A back-to-the-land movement is any of various agrarianism, agrarian movements across different historical periods. The common thread is a call for people to take up smallholding and to grow food from the land with an emphasis on a greater degree o ...
", and expressed support for
sustainable agriculture Sustainable agriculture is agriculture, farming in sustainability, sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an ...
as technology continued to advance.


Early life and education

Emery was born in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
to Carl Harshbarger, who hailed from a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
family, and his wife Ferne, a schoolteacher. The couple had moved to California in search of employment after being displaced from their home in
Washington state Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...
by a
crop failure Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...
. In Los Angeles, her father worked as a chauffeur for
Dorothy Lamour Dorothy Lamour (born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton; December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for having appeared in the ''Road to...'' movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing C ...
before the family moved north to Oregon, where he worked as a logger. He was injured by a falling tree and was unable to work the winter. He later found a job at a shipyard in Seattle before raising enough money to buy a ranch in Montana. They lived in a rural area near
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and Clyde Park, where her school had eight children in eight grades. An only child other than an older half-brother who lived with his other relatives, Emery had a happy but lonely upbringing. Emery spent three years at
University of Illinois, Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...
on a pre-med track before transferring to
Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a private university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The university enrolls arou ...
, where she earned her bachelor's in political science with a minor in history. This was followed by a master's program at
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
in Chinese, with a focus on Red China. She also studied at the Taipei Language Institute in Taiwan. While at Columbia, she met Michael Emery, a PhD psychology student who had been raised on a farm in Idaho. After college, they married and purchased three acres of land in
Kendrick, Idaho Kendrick is a city in Latah County, Idaho, United States. Its population was 303 at the 2010 census, a decrease from 369 in 2000. History Founded as Latah or Latah City in 1889 by Thomas Kirby, a post office was established on May 24 with Kir ...
, the town where Mike grew up. He worked as a clinical psychologist for several years.


Career

In 1970, Emery was gifted a subscription to ''
Organic Gardening Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety pres ...
'' magazine by her mother-in-law. She noticed how many readers who wrote in wanted to raise their own food but didn't know where to begin; this gave her the idea to write what would become the ''Old-Fashioned Recipe Book''. She submitted an advertisement to the magazine in November 1970, believing that, in the two months it would take for the ad to be published, she would be able to write the guide she had in mind. By the end of two months, however, she had received $3.50 from 200 people, and had only the title and table of contents written. The money had already been spent on supporting her household, so she was unable to refund anyone. She wrote to the subscribers asking them for two more months, at which point she sent them a progress report. A year passed and, spurred in part by angry letters, decided to send out the book in chapters as she finished writing. The first "newsletter" contained the first three chapters, and the final section was mailed in February 1974. To fund the book's manufacturing, she continued to place ads in ''Organic Gardening'', raising the price incrementally in the four years before its completion. By 1974, she had received more than 800 orders, and only six people had asked for their money back. The first seven editions of ''The Old-Fashioned Recipe Book'' were produced on a
mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator or stencil machine) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a co ...
and bound with plastic-coated copper wire. Neighbors donated their time to help operate the mimeograph and, at one point, what she referred to as the Living Room Mimeographer was the third largest employer in Kendrick. The very first edition was printed on construction paper, with each chapter marked by a different color paper. Longtime subscribers would sometimes send back tips, recipes, suggestions, and edits, and the book "became sort of a cooperative effort" between her, her neighbors, and her readers. In addition to continuing to run ads, Emery began promoting her book by attending local craft shows and fairs. Early on, she was traveling five days out of the week, following festivals around the country to make enough money to support her family. She began to get sick from lack of sleep and decided to travel for three weeks at a time instead, so she was still able to spend time with her family. She also realized that her sales and interview requests would increase if she notified media ahead of time if she was coming to town. From May 1974 to May 1994, she brought her children with her on every tour regardless of length. As her success grew, Emery received an increasing number of letters from people asking to visit, which gave her the idea of starting a school where people of all ages, including locals, could get hands-on experience doing many of the things outlined in her book, and more. The Emerys purchased nearly 400 acres of land in Kendrick, primarily in Nez Perce County, and began building. While they did not encounter any major issues with Nez Perce County, they did so with Latah County, where three acres of their land fell. They failed to receive permission to charge visitors tuition. In total, the project cost around $200,000 and had no way to produce income. The School of Country Living opened on July 1, 1975 but was destroyed just over a year later on August 2, 1976, when
flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice and snow. Flash f ...
s caused a
mudslide A mudflow, also known as mudslide or mud flow, is a form of mass wasting involving fast-moving flow of debris and dirt that has become liquified by the addition of water. Such flows can move at speeds ranging from 3 meters/minute to 5 meters/ ...
that killed more than one hundred animals and severely damaged the School's buildings. They chose not to attempt to rebuild. Around this time, she hired someone in public relations to book television appearances for her, including for Ralph Story's show, ''
The Mike Douglas Show ''The Mike Douglas Show'' is an American daytime television talk show that was hosted by Mike Douglas. It began as a local program in Cleveland in 1961 before being carried on other stations owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting. The show went i ...
'',
Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson is a cultural phenomenon and w ...
's ''
The Tonight Show ''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has been broadcast on NBC since 1954. The program has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2 ...
'', and ''
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''. On
Phil Donahue Phillip John Donahue (December 21, 1935 – August 18, 2024) was an American media personality, writer, film producer, and the creator and host of '' The Phil Donahue Show''. The television program, later known simply as ''Donahue'', was the fir ...
's show, she demonstrated goat milking. By 1976, she had sold 88,000 copies of her book, around 45,000 of which were
mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator or stencil machine) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a co ...
ed. That year, Emery sold the rights to her book for $115,000 to
Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. K ...
, who published the seventh edition in 1977, the first of her books to be published commercially, this time with the tagline ''Encyclopedia of Country Living''. It was the fastest-selling large paperback in Bantam's history up to that point. She then went on a three-month, 93-city promotion tour for the edition. Prior to their divorce in 1985, the Emerys had seven children: Dolly, Daniel, Rebecca, Luke, Sara, Jacob, and Esther. Bantam had let her book go out of print by the latter half of the 1980s. She still received letters from people who wanted to buy copies, so she began producing the eighth edition herself, this time with a copying machine. In 1994, after a few years out of the public eye, she went on a 9-month book tour. In November 1997, she started a newsletter called ''Truthquest'' and in 1998 published her second book, ''Secret, Don't Tell: The Encyclopedia of Hypnotism'', a guide to "modern and ancient mind-control technologies." On the book's website, she claimed to have been a victim of unethical
hypnosis Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychological ...
. The book was also released on audio tape. Her ''Encyclopedia'' experienced newfound popularity in 1999 as Y2K approached and anxiety about food shortages increased. In 2000, she married Don DeLong and settled in San Simon, Arizona. On October 11, 2005, Emery died in
Odessa, Texas Odessa () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, Ector County with portions extending into Midland County, Texas, Midland County. Odessa's population was 114,428 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...
while on tour. An obituary posted to her website in the following days attributed her death to compilations due to low blood pressure. By 2005, more than 600,000 copies of her book had been sold. By the 50th anniversary edition release in 2019, that number had surpassed one million.


Books


See also

*
Back-to-the-land movement A back-to-the-land movement is any of various agrarianism, agrarian movements across different historical periods. The common thread is a call for people to take up smallholding and to grow food from the land with an emphasis on a greater degree o ...
*
Organic agriculture Organic farming, also known as organic agriculture or ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2024 on organic production and labelling of ...
*
Self-sufficiency Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person, being, or system needs little or no help from, or interaction with others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a sel ...


References


External links


''Secret, Don't Tell''
website (1998 archive)
''Secret, Don't Tell''
website, maintained by Don DeLong {{DEFAULTSORT:Emery, Carla 1939 births 2005 deaths Roosevelt University alumni American encyclopedists American food writers People from Latah County, Idaho Women encyclopedists American women food writers Columbia University alumni