Barbara Swell began her baking career in Martinsburg, WV, on January 19th, 1962, when she whipped up her first batch of sugar cookies from her 4-H Club Pack-and-Snack cookbook. She is the author of a very popular series of historic cookbooks, including Log Cabin Cooking, Take Two and Butter 'Em While They're Hot, Secrets of the Great Old-Timey Cooks, The Lost Art of Pie Making, and others. Barbara lives in Asheville, NC, with her husband and their three children.

"The 1st American Cookie Lady: Recipes from a 1917 Cookie Diary offers all 208 recipes of Anna "Cookie" Covington, first recorded between 1917 and 1920. Classic and tasty cookie recipes range from Sand Tarts to Snickerdoodles, Fig Bars, Coconut Jumples, Maple Brandy Snaps and more. In addition , The 1st American Cookie Lady offers a host of fascinating cookie trivia titbits, including vintage art and photographs, baking superstitions, the story of women's suffrage and cookies, cookie poems, World War I food shortage recipes, and much more. An excellent dessert cookbook filled with recipes that survive the test of time with flying colors." -- Midwest Book Review