Vintage cookbooks are fun, if not downright cool. The better ones are books that you'll want to read again and again, regardless of whether you've tried any of the recipes, while the worst will make you laugh at their illustrations. The best ones will give you lots of good advice, inspiration and recipes that still taste great.
The only problem with vintage cookbooks is that it can be hard to get hold of them. My own collection, which is large, was mostly acquired from my parents and grandparents. The rest are made up of books that I found at various used bookstores when browsing through their offerings. Once in a while, I'll get a specific cookbook in mind, but tracking it down can take time. That's where a store like Old Cookbooks.com can come in. They have a wealth of vintage cookbooks, from personal family collections to "ethnic" foods. In fact, theirs is one of the larger collections that I've seen. The price of the books varies by rarity and age (my 1943 Joy of Cooking is listed at $36.50), but it's still a great resource if you're looking to find a few of these older cookbooks easily.
Interestingly, Epicurious also offers a vintage book search. You can e-mail a description of the book you're looking for, and their contact will get back to you with a title, author and date of a book, as well as a price, if they have it on hand. It's a great way to look-up that book your mom always had sitting on the counter if you never knew what it was called!
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