Mark Kurlansky

The remarkable life story of the first Jewish superstar athlete, by New York Times best-selling author Mark Kurlansky One of the reasons baseball fans so love the sport is that it involves certain physical acts of beauty. And one of the most beautiful sights in the history of baseball was Hank Greenberg's swing. His calmly poised body seemed to have some special set of springs with a trigger release that snapped his arms and swept the bat through the air with the clean speed and strength of a propeller. But what is even more extraordinary than his grace and his power is that in Detroit of 1934, his swing—or its absence—became entwined with American Jewish history. Though Hank Greenberg was one of the first players to challenge Babe Ruth's single-season record of sixty home runs, it was the game Greenberg did not play for which he is best remembered. With his decision to sit out a 1934 game between his Tigers and the New York Yankees because it fell on Yom Kippur, Hank Greenberg became a hero to Jews throughout America. Yet, as Kurlansky writes, he was the quintessential secular Jew, and to celebrate him for his loyalty to religious observance is to ignore who this man was. In Hank Greenberg Mark Kurlansky explores the truth behind the slugger's legend: his Bronx boyhood, his spectacular discipline as an aspiring ballplayer, the complexity of his decision not to play on Yom Kippur, and the cultural context of virulent anti-Semitism in which his career played out. What Kurlansky discovers is a man of immense dignity and restraint with a passion for sport who became a great reader—a man, too, who was an inspiration to the young Jackie Robinson, who said, "Class tells. It sticks out all over Mr. Greenberg."

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, the remarkable life story of the first Jewish superstar athlete, by New York Times best-selling author Mark Kurlansky One of the reasons baseball fans so love the sport is that it involves certain physical acts of beauty. And one of the most beautiful sights in the history of baseball was Hank Greenberg's swing. His calmly poised body seemed to have some special set of springs with a trigger release that snapped his arms and swept the bat through the air with the clean speed and strength of a propeller. But what is even more extraordinary than his grace and his power is that in Detroit of 1934, his swing—or its absence—became entwined with American Jewish history. Though Hank Greenberg was one of the first players to challenge Babe Ruth's single-season record of sixty home runs, it was the game Greenberg did not play for which he is best remembered. With his decision to sit out a 1934 game between his Tigers and the New York Yankees because it fell on Yom Kippur, Hank Greenberg became a hero to Jews throughout America. Yet, as Kurlansky writes, he was the quintessential secular Jew, and to celebrate him for his loyalty to religious observance is to ignore who this man was. In Hank Greenberg Mark Kurlansky explores the truth behind the slugger's legend: his Bronx boyhood, his spectacular discipline as an aspiring ballplayer, the complexity of his decision not to play on Yom Kippur, and the cultural context of virulent anti-Semitism in which his career played out. What Kurlansky discovers is a man of immense dignity and restraint with a passion for sport who became a great reader—a man, too, who was an inspiration to the young Jackie Robinson, who said, "Class tells. It sticks out all over Mr. Greenberg." About Jewish Lives: Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present. In 2014, the Jewish Book Council named Jewish Lives the winner of its Jewish Book of the Year Award, the first series ever to receive this award. More praise for Jewish Lives: "Excellent" –New York Times "Exemplary" –Wall Street Journal "Distinguished" –New Yorker "Superb" –The Guardian

Big lies are told by governments, politicians and corporations to avoid responsibility, cast blame on the innocent, win elections, disguise intent, create chaos and gain power and wealth. Big lies are as old as civilisation. They corrupt public understanding and discourse, turn science upside down and reinvent history. They prevent humanity from addressing critical challenges. They perpetuate injustices. They destabilise the world. The modern age has provided ever-more-effective ways of spreading lies but it has also given us the scientific method, which is the most effective tool for finding what is true. In the book’s final chapter, Kurlansky reveals ways to deconstruct an allegation. A scientific theory has to be testable and so does an allegation. BIG LIES soars across history: alighting on the “noble lies” of Socrates and Plato; Nero blaming Christians for the burning of Rome; the great injustices of the Middle Ages; the big lies of Stalin and Hitler and their terrible consequences; the reckless lies of contemporary demagogues, which are amplified through social media; lies against women and Jews are two examples in the long history of “othering” the vulnerable for personal gain; up to the equal-opportunity spotlight in America. “Belief is a choice”, Kurlansky writes, “and honesty begins in each of us. A lack of caring what is true or false is the undoing of democracy. The alternative to truth is a corrupt state in which the loudest voices and most seductive lies confer power and wealth on grifters and oligarchs. We cannot achieve a healthy planet for all the world’s people if we do not keep asking what is true.”

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher*Life-changing food adventures around the world. From bat on the island of Fais to chicken on a Russian train to barbecue in the American heartland, from mutton in Mongolia to couscous in Morocco to tacos in Tijuana - on the road, food nourishes us not only physically, but intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually too. It can be a gift that enables a traveller to survive, a doorway into the heart of a tribe, or a thread that weaves an indelible tie; it can be awful or ambrosial - and sometimes both at the same time. Celebrate the riches and revelations of food with this 38-course feast of true tales set around the world. Features stories by Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern, Mark Kurlansky, Matt Preston, Simon Winchester, Stefan Gates, David Lebovitz, Matthew Fort, Tim Cahill, Jan Morris and Pico Iyer. Edited by Don George. About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places where they travel. TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia) *#1 in the world market share - source: Nielsen Bookscan. Australia, UK and USA. March 2012-January 2013

From the award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Cod and Salt, a new global history of the mysterious, misunderstood, globally beloved crustacean. When Mark Kurlansky was 17, he took his first job as a commercial fisherman in the Atlantic on a 45-foot, wooden-hulled, two-man lobster boat, thus igniting a lifelong fascination and kinship with the mysterious creature. Yet since that defining experience, the lobster's role in cuisine and culture have changed dramatically, as it has throughout history: once thought of as peasant food ("Lobster again?" some 18th century New Englanders are reported to have griped), the humble crustacean, a cornerstone of coastal cuisine and economies, is now considered a delicacy, an animal rights cause c l bre, and a scientific marvel. In The Life of a Lobster, Kurlansky examines the lobster and its scientific, cultural, historical, and culinary identities throughout history and around the world, including fifteen historic recipes that bring to life eras and cultures devoted to capturing and cooking the crustacean.

Inside the curious lives of one of the ocean’s most intriguing creatures Mark Kurlansky is synonymous with narratives about fascinating sea creatures. Now he turns his lens on the lobster – a strange, alien-looking crustacean that swims backwards and can live for well over a hundred years. Yet this unlikely being possesses remarkable cultural cachet. A stalwart of international cuisine – from Paris to Boston to Beijing – it remains a hallmark of luxury. From the still lifes of the Dutch Masters to the Surrealists' lobster-mania, lobsters are a fixture on the art circuit. And with their remarkably long lives and navigational abilities, they continue to confound scientists. Mark Kurlansky examines the cultural and culinary imprint of this brilliant shellfish from Apicius to the present day. Woven through fifteen historical recipes, The Life of a Lobster offers a gourmand’s claw-to-tail tour of the lobster.

A charming and gorgeously illustrated collection of essays on fish and fishing by Mark Kurlansky, the acclaimed bestselling author of Cod and Salt. Covering everything from techniques and methods to fishing culture, ecology, and cooking and eating one's catch, Kurlansky guides readers through the waters and into the mind of the fish through fascinating and entertaining anecdotes, all in his signature informative and meditative style. For as long as there have been humans, there have been humans trying to catch fish. The two species-fish and man-live in constant tension. One chases the other. One tries to get away. Some of us-author Mark Kurlansky included-are hard-wired for that chase. Guiding readers through the waters and into the mind of the fish, Kurlansky considers who fish are and why they behave the way they do, and along the way delves into the many approaches to catching a fish, their ecology, and the ins and outs of cooking and eating your catch. Whether you're a seasoned angler or a novice, or simply want to explore the world of fish, the forty short essays in this collection and the dazzling illustrations by Bri Dostie, shed new light on these creatures and our relationship to them.

An untold story of the Civil War Era: pacifists in Boston who led the fight to end slavery without war. Has there ever been good violence or a good war? The American Civil War is likely considered to be so since there seemed to be no alternative. Or was there? Before the war, Bostonian abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison correctly predicted that fighting would not bring about real freedom and justice. If emancipation came about through violence, he believed, it would take at least a century for Black people to get their rights. As we now know, it has taken even longer than that. Here is the story of Garrison and other abolitionists, Black and white, male and female, who advocated a peaceful end to slavery and the start of human rights for Black people. The Boston Clique, as they were called, were victorious in persuading their fellow Bostonians to end Jim Crow laws on Massachusetts' railroads. Persuasion was, these pacificists believed, the only means to lasting change. In these pages, we find Frederick Douglass and lesser-known Black abolitionists, William Nell and Charles Remond. We meet leading feminists of the nineteenth century Lydia Maria Child, Margaret Fuller, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Additional key figures include Adin Balou, William Ladd, and Noah Worcester whose voices for nonviolence impacted Leo Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King. Still, if it meant a faster end to the horrors of slavery, wasn't violence the answer? In time, pacificist abolitionists such as Douglass and John Brown came to believe the entire system in the South needed to be overthrown and that could only happen through the shedding of blood. Time may now provide a different perspective. While history has little memory of abolitionists, and even less for pacifists, nothing can be learned from that which is not remembered. What if the Civil War had never have been fought? Might we now live in a world of far greater justice and peace? What does this mean today as we still pursue "righteous" violence? This is the story of a road not taken.

From New York Times-bestselling author Mark Kurlansky, a delectable novel following an ancient recipe for cheesecake as it spreads through the Upper West side-from the restaurant of a conniving landlord to the kitchens of the old-school New Yorkers he's trying to force out-and to the parties, feasts, and apartments they're not willing to give up that easily. The Katsikases have found a home in New York. A Greek cheesemaking family who immigrated in hopes of opening a restaurant, they've found the perfect storefront on the up-and-coming Upper West Side. They decide to call it The Katz Brothers. (Close enough, they think.) The diner becomes a neighborhood favorite-until Art Katsikas begins buying up all the real estate he can, forcing out their old "regulars" and scheming to replace the neighborhood's strudel shops and artists with ritzy boutiques and the nouveau riche. Meanwhile, at The Katz Brothers, the Katsikases rush to prepare for this new clientele by introducing a new "modern classical cuisine," changing the diner's name to "Mykonos," and deciding to serve "Cato's Cheesecake," an ancient Roman recipe known to be the oldest ever found. Sure enough, the enigmatic recipe is a hit, even minted by the New York Times restaurant critic. Soon the cheesecake is all over the Upper West Side, and wild interpretations of Cato's vision appear at the parties, feasts, and bakeries of old New Yorkers struggling to keep their withering community alive. Sometimes laced with green M&Ms, sometimes with sage and spite, the cheesecake becomes a herald of change as the Upper West Side-and New York's food scene-are transformed for good.

An Eater Best Food Book of 2023A Smithsonian Best Food Book of 2023 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cod and Salt, a delectable look at the cultural, historical, and gastronomical layers of one of the world's most beloved culinary staples-featuring original illustrations and recipes from around the world-now in paperback. As Julia Child once said, "It is hard to imagine a civilization without onions." Historically, she's been right-and not just in the kitchen. Flourishing in just about every climate and culture around the world, onions have provided the essential basis not only for saut s, stews, and sauces, but for medicines, metaphors, and folklore. Now they're Kurlansky's most flavorful infatuation yet as he sets out to explore how and why the crop reigns from Italy to India and everywhere in between. Featuring historical images and his own pen-and-ink drawings, Kurlansky begins with the science and history of the only sulfuric acid-spewing plant, then digs through its twenty varieties and the cultures built around them. Entering the kitchen, Kurlansky celebrates the raw, roasted, creamed, marinated, and pickled. Including a recipe section featuring more than one hundred dishes from around the world, The Core of an Onion shares the secrets to celebrated Parisian chef Alain Senderens's onion soup eaten to cure late-night drunkenness; Hemingway's raw onion and peanut butter sandwich; and the Gibson, a debonair gin martini garnished with a pickled onion. Just as the scent of saut ed onions will lure anyone to the kitchen, The Core of an Onion is sure to draw readers into their savory stories at first taste.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Cod and Salt, a delectable look at the cultural, historical, and gastronomical layers of one of the world's most beloved culinary staples-featuring original illustrations and recipes from around the world. As Julia Child once said, "It is hard to imagine a civilization without onions." Historically, she's been right-and not just in the kitchen. Uniquely flourishing in just about every climate and culture around the world, onions have provided the essential basis not only for saut s, stews, and stir fries, but for medicines, metaphors, and folklore. Abundantly commonplace yet extraordinarily indispensable, the onion is Kurlansky's newest global food fixation as he sets out to explore how and why the crop reigns over Wales to Italy and everywhere in between. Featuring historical images and his own pen-and-ink drawings, Kurlansky begins with the science behind the only sulfuric acid-spewing plant, then digs through the twenty varieties of onion and the cultures built around them. Among the first domesticated and cultivated crops, onions were seen by the ancient Egyptians as a symbol of eternity, the Greeks as an agent of strength, and the Chinese as a supplement for intelligence. Entering the kitchen, Kurlansky celebrates the raw, roasted, creamed, marinated, and pickled. Including twenty-five recipes from around the world, The Core of an Onion shares the secrets to celebrated Parisian chef Alain Senderens's onion soup eaten to cure late-night drunkenness; Hemingway's raw onion and peanut butter sandwich; and the Gibson, a debonair gin martini garnished with a pickled onion. Just as the smell of saut ed onions will lure anyone to the kitchen, The Core of an Onion is sure to draw readers into their savory stories at first taste.

Big lies are told by governments, politicians, and corporations to avoid responsibility, cast blame on the innocent, win elections, disguise intent, create chaos, and gain power and wealth. Big lies are as old as civilization. They corrupt public understanding and discourse, turn science upside down, and reinvent history. They prevent humanity from addressing critical challenges. They perpetuate injustices. They destabilize the world. The modern age has provided ever-more-effective ways of spreading lies, but it has also given us the scientific method, which is the most effective tool for finding what is true. In the book’s final chapter, Kurlansky reveals ways to deconstruct an allegation. A scientific theory has to be testable, and so does an allegation. BIG LIES soars across history: alighting on the “noble lies” of Socrates and Plato; Nero blaming Christians for the burning of Rome; the great injustices of the Middle Ages; the big lies of Stalin and Hitler and their terrible consequences; the reckless lies of contemporary demagogues, which are amplified through social media; lies against women and Jews are two examples in the long history of “othering” the vulnerable for personal gain; up to the equal-opportunity spotlight in America. “Belief is a choice,” Kurlansky writes, “and honesty begins in each of us. A lack of caring what is true or false is the undoing of democracy. The alternative to truth is a corrupt state in which the loudest voices and most seductive lies confer power and wealth on grifters and oligarchs. We cannot achieve a healthy planet for all the world’s people if we do not keep asking what is true.”

An Ernest Hemingway Biography Like No Other“...illuminates his life and works in ways not seen before.” —Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award winner and author of The Friend and What Are You Going Through#1 New Release in Historical Latin America BiographiesDiscover Hemingway’s biography through the eyes of a fellow author and journalist. New York Times bestselling author of Salt, Mark Kurlansky turns his historical eye to the life of Ernest Hemingway. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, The Importance of Not Being Ernest shows the huge shadow Hemingway casts. The perfect gift for writers. By a series of coincidences, Mark Kurlansky’s life has always been intertwined with Ernest Hemingway's legend, starting with being in Idaho the day of Hemingway’s death. The Importance of Not Being Ernest explores the intersections between Hemingway’s and Kurlansky’s lives, resulting in creative accounts of two inspiring writing careers. Travel the world with Mark Kurlansky and Ernest Hemingway in this personal memoir, where Kurlansky details his ten years in Paris and his time as a journalist in Spain—both cities important to Hemingway’s adventurous life and prolific writing. Paris, Basque Country, Havana and Idaho. Get to know the extraordinary people he met there—those who had also fallen under the Hemingway spell, including a Vietnam veteran suffering from the same syndrome the author did, two winners of the Key West Hemingway look-alike contest, and the man in Idaho who took Hemingway hunting and fishing. In this unique gift for writers, find:A memoir full of entertaining and illuminative storiesLittle-known historical facts about Hemingway’s lifeAnecdotes about those who suffer from what the Kurlansky calls “hemitis”Readers of Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley in Search of America, or The Boys will love The Importance of Not Being Ernest.

National Outdoor Book Award Winner for Outdoor LiteratureFrom the award-winning, bestselling author of Cod-the irresistible story of the science, history, art, and culture of the least efficient way to catch a fish. Fly fishing, historian Mark Kurlansky has found, is a battle of wits, fly fisher vs. fish-and the fly fisher does not always (or often) win. The targets-salmon, trout, and char; and for some, bass, tarpon, tuna, bonefish, and even marlin-are highly intelligent, athletic animals. The allure, Kurlansky learns, is that fly fishing makes catching a fish as difficult as possible. The flies can be beautiful and intricate, some made with over two dozen pieces of feather and fur; the cast is a matter of grace and rhythm, with different casts and rods yielding varying results. Kurlansky is known for his deep dives into specific subjects, from cod to oysters to salt. But he spent his boyhood days on the shore of a shallow pond. Here, where tiny fish weaved under a rocky waterfall, he first tied string to a branch, dangled a worm into the water, and unleashed his passion for fishing. Since then, his love of the sport has led him around the world's countries, coasts, and rivers-from the wilds of Alaska to Basque country, from Ireland and Norway to Russia and Japan. And, in true Kurlansky fashion, he absorbed every fact, detail, and anecdote along the way. The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing marries Kurlansky's signature wide-ranging reach with a subject that has captivated him for a lifetime-combining history, craft, and personal memoir to show readers, devotees of the sport or not, the necessity of experiencing nature's balm first-hand.

WINNER OF THE JOHN AVERY AWARD AT THE ANDRÉ SIMON AWARDS If we can save the salmon, we can save the world Over the centuries, salmon have been a vital resource, a dietary staple and an irresistible catch. But there is so much more to this extraordinary fish. As international bestseller Mark Kurlansky reveals, salmon persist as a barometer for the health of our planet. Centuries of our greatest assaults on nature can be seen in their harrowing yet awe-inspiring life cycle. Full of all Kurlansky’s characteristic curiosity and insight, Salmon is a magisterial history of a wondrous creature. ‘An epic, environmental tragedy’ Spectator ‘These creatures have nurtured our imagination as surely as our bodies. This book does them justice!’ Bill McKibben

From the award-winning, bestselling author of Cod--the irresistible story of the science, history, art, and culture of the least efficient way to catch a fish. Fly fishing, historian Mark Kurlansky has found, is a battle of wits, fly fisher vs. fish--and the fly fisher does not always (or often) win. The targets--salmon, trout, and char--are highly intelligent, wily, strong, and athletic animals. The allure, Kurlansky finds, is that fly fishing makes catching a fish as difficult as possible. There is an art, too, in the crafting of flies. Beautiful and intricate, some are made with more than two dozen pieces of feather and fur from exotic animals. The cast as well is a matter of grace and rhythm, with different casts and rods yielding varying results. Kurlansky is known for his deep dives into the history of specific subjects, from cod to oysters to milk. But he spent his boyhood days on the shore of a shallow pond. Here, where tiny fish weaved under a rocky waterfall, he first tied string to a branch, dangled a worm into the water, and unleashed his passion for fishing. Since then, a lifelong love of the sport has led him around the world to many countries, coasts, and rivers--from the wilds of Alaska to Basque country, from the Catskills in New York to Oregon's Columbia River, from Ireland and Norway to Russia and Japan. And, in true Kurlansky fashion, he absorbed every fact, detail, and anecdote along the way. The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing marries Kurlansky's signature wide-ranging reach with a subject that has captivated him for a lifetime--combining history, craft, and personal memoir to show readers, devotees of the sport or not, the necessity of experiencing nature's balm first-hand.

"Henry David Thoreau wrote, 'Who hears the fishes when they cry?' Maybe we need to go down to the river bank and try to listen." In what he says is the most important piece of environmental writing in his long and award-winning career, Mark Kurlansky, best-selling author of Salt and Cod, The Big Oyster, 1968, and Milk, among many others, employs his signature multi-century storytelling and compelling attention to detail to chronicle the harrowing yet awe-inspiring life cycle of salmon. During his research Kurlansky traveled widely and observed salmon and those who both pursue and protect them in the Pacific and the Atlantic, in Ireland, Norway, Iceland, Japan, and even the robust but not as frequently visited Kamchatka Peninsula. This world tour reveals an eras-long history of man’s misdirected attempts to manipulate salmon and its environments for his own benefit and gain, whether for entertainment or to harvest food. In addition, Kurlansky’s research shows that all over the world these fish, uniquely connected to both marine and terrestrial ecology as well as fresh and salt water, are a natural barometer for the health of the planet. He documents that for centuries man’s greatest assaults on nature, from overfishing to dams, from hatcheries to fish farms, from industrial pollution to the ravages of climate change, are evidenced in the sensitive life cycle of salmon. With stunning historical and contemporary photographs and illustrations throughout, Kurlansky’s insightful conclusion is that the only way to save salmon is to save the planet and, at the same time, the only way to save the planet is to save the mighty, heroic salmon.