Irma Rombauer, the author of self-published book “The Joy of Cooking”.

Seventy-five years ago, a St. Louis widow named Irma Rombauer took her life savings and self-published a book called The Joy of Cooking. Her daughter Marion tested recipes and made the illustrations, and they sold their mother-daughter project from Irma’s apartment. Today, nine revisions later, the Joy of Cooking — selected by The New York Public Library as one of the 150 most important and influential books of the twentieth century — has taught tens of millions of people to cook, helped feed and delight millions beyond that, answered countless kitchen and food questions, and averted many a cooking crisis.