Special Collections: Marilyn Schmidt Papers

Marilyn Schmidt was born March 2, 1929, in East Brunswick, NJ. She worked in pharmaceuticals, later co-writing her first book, Harper’s Handbook of Therapeutic Pharmacology. The founder of two publishing presses, she created Barnegat Light Press in 1980 and the Pine Barrens Press a few years later. The idea was to create a separate outlet to better market her books that were unrelated to seafood. In all, she published about 70 books between the two presses. She had an extensive process from research to final publications. She kept notecards on each species she cooked and wrote about and collected studies done on various aspects of cooking seafood. The books are predominantly self-illustrated, and she did her own spiral bounding.

This collection contains information regarding Marilyn Schmidt’s work outside the realm of her contribution to Buzby’s General Store. Included are various aspects of Marilyn’s writing and publishing process including notecards, page-by-page layouts, and edited copies. 

Marilyn was heavily involved in the Barnegat Light community. Later, she moved to Chatsworth, New Jersey, and was widely known for her purchase of Buzby’s General Store in 1998, which she ran until 2017. She specialized in seashore gardening and cooking unusual seafood species. These were the inspirations for most of her books as she failed to find the resources needed. She took this as a reason to create the resources herself.

Marilyn passed away on February 26, 2019, days before her 90th birthday.

Processed by Zophia Krause, Special Collections intern, Fall 2022. 

While Stockton University’s Bjork Library’s Special Collection and Archives owns the collection, Stockton may not own the copyright for all of the items. Researchers wishing to reproduce materials are responsible for obtaining the proper permissions.