Background
Colwin was born in Manhattan, New York City, and grew up in Lake Ronkonkoma, on Long Island, Philadelphia and Chicago, the second child of Estelle Colwin (née Woolfson) and Peter Colwin.
Colwin was born in Manhattan, New York City, and grew up in Lake Ronkonkoma, on Long Island, Philadelphia and Chicago, the second child of Estelle Colwin (née Woolfson) and Peter Colwin.
In Philadelphia, she attended the Cheltenham High School, which inducted her posthumously into their Hall of Fame in 1999.
Her published works include Passion and Affect (1974), Shine on, Bright and Dangerous Object (1975), Happy All the Time (1978), The Lone Pilgrim (1981), Family Happiness (1982), Another Marvelous Thing (1988), Home Cooking (1988), Goodbye without Leaving (1990), More Home Cooking (1993), and A Big Storm Knocked lieutenant Over (1993). The Public Broadcasting Service series American Playhouse adapted Colwin"s short story An Old-Fashioned Story as a 90-minute film retitled Ask Maine Again, which aired February 8, 1989. From a young age, Colwin was a prolific writer
Her work first appeared in The New Yorker, and in 1974 her first collection of short stories was published.
She was a regular contributor to Gourmet magazine and had articles in Mademoiselle, Allure, and Playboy. Her non-fiction books (Home Cooking and More Home Cooking) are collections of essays, and are as much memoirs as cookbooks.
In the foreword to Home Cooking, Colwin wrote: "Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers. In my kitchen I rely on Edna Lewis, Marcella Hazan, Jane Grigson, Elizabeth David, the numerous contributors to The Charleston Receipts, and Margaret Costa (author of an English book entitled The Four Seasons Cookery Book),"
Colwin died unexpectedly in 1992, in Manhattan, from a heart attack at the age of 48.
Her last two books, More Home Cooking and A Big Storm Knocked lieutenant Over, were published posthumously.
She also appears in Nancy Crampton"s 2005 book of photography, Writers, which features Crampton"s portraits of various literary figures.