In this poetic, sensitive memoir, M. F. K. Fisher traces her life from birth through childhood into adulthood through memories of her loving family and their lives as outsiders in the Quaker community of Whittier, California. Recalling the people, passions, sounds, and scents of her childhood, with its kindnesses and quiet cruelties, Fisher also portrays her developing interests in literature, food, and cooking. Elegantly and invitingly written, Among Friends demonstrates the writer's belief that "every lesson, every lecture listened to, must be interpreted into a personal dialect of human language, and that is what I keep trying to do. "