Mark Kurlansky Popular Books

Mark Kurlansky Biography & Facts

Mark Kurlansky (December 7, 1948) is an American journalist and author who has written a number of books of fiction and nonfiction. His 1997 book, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (1997), was an international bestseller and was translated into more than fifteen languages. His book Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea (2006) was the nonfiction winner of the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Life and work Kurlansky was born in Hartford, Connecticut on December 7, 1948. He attended Butler University, where he earned a BA in 1970. He started his career as a playwright. He was a theatre major at college and wrote seven or eight plays, a few of which were produced. But he said that he became "frustrated with theatre, which is to say I became frustrated with Broadway". From 1976 to 1991, he worked as a correspondent in Western Europe for the Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and eventually the Paris-based International Herald Tribune. He moved to Mexico in 1982, where he continued to practice journalism. In 2007, he was named the Baruch College Harman writer-in-residence. Kurlansky wrote his first book, A Continent of Islands, in 1992 and went on to write several more throughout the 1990s. His third work of nonfiction, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, won the 1998 James Beard Award. It became an international bestseller and was translated into more than 15 languages. His work and contribution to Basque identity and culture was recognized in 2001 when the Society of Basque Studies in America named him to the Basque Hall of Fame. That same year, he was awarded an honorary ambassadorship from the Basque government. As a teenager, Kurlansky called Émile Zola his "hero", and in 2009, he translated one of Zola's novels, The Belly of Paris, whose theme is the food markets of Paris. Kurlansky's 2009 book, The Food of a Younger Land, with the subtitle "A portrait of American food – before the national highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation's food was seasonal, regional, and traditional – from the lost WPA files", details American foodways in the early 20th century. Publications Nonfiction A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny (1992), Addison-Wesley Publishing. ISBN 0-201-52396-5 A Chosen Few: The Resurrection of European Jewry (1995), ISBN 0-201-60898-7 Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (1997), ISBN 0-8027-1326-2 The Basque History of the World (1999), ISBN 0-8027-1349-1 Salt: A World History (2002), ISBN 0-8027-1373-4 1968: The Year that Rocked the World (2004), ISBN 0-345-45581-9 The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell (2006), ISBN 0-345-47638-7 Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea (2006), ISBN 978-0-224-07791-0 Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea (2006), ISBN 0-679-64335-4 The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town (2008), ISBN 0-345-48727-3 The Food of a Younger Land (2009), ISBN 1-59448-865-7 The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris (2010), ISBN 1-59448-750-2 World Without Fish (2011), this work was chosen by many school districts to be used in their curriculum as part of EL education, including Wake County Public School System. What?: Are These the 20 Most Important Questions in Human History—Or Is This a Game of 20 Questions? (2011), ISBN 978-0-8027-7906-9 Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn't Want to Be One (2011), ISBN 978-0300136609 Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man (2012), ISBN 978-0-385-52705-7 Ready for a Brand New Beat: How "Dancing in the Street" Became the Anthem for a Changing America (2013), ISBN 978-1-59448-722-4 International Night: A Father and Daughter Cook Their Way Around the World with Talia Kurlansky (2014), ISBN 978-1-620-40027-2 Paper: Paging Through History (2016), ISBN 978-0393239614 Havana: A Subtropical Delirium (2017), ISBN 978-1632863911 Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas (2018), ISBN 9781632863843 Bugless: Why Ladybugs, Butterflies, Fireflies, and Bees are Disappearing (2019), ISBN 978-1547600854 Salmon and the Earth: The History of a Common Fate (2020), ISBN 978-1938340864 The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing (2021), ISBN 978-1635573077 The Importance of Not Being Ernest: My Life with the Uninvited Hemingway (2022), ISBN 9781642504637 Fiction The White Man in the Tree, and Other Stories (2000), ISBN 0-671-03605-X Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue: A Novel of Pastry, Guilt, and Music (2005), ISBN 0-345-44818-9 Edible Stories: A Novel in Sixteen Parts (2010), ISBN 1-59448-488-0 City Beasts: Fourteen Stories of Uninvited Wildlife (2015), ISBN 9781594485879 Children's books The Cod's Tale, illustrated by S. D. Schindler (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2001), ISBN 0-399-23476-4 The Girl Who Swam to Euskadi (Reno, NV: Center for Basque Studies, 2005), ISBN 1-877802-54-9 The Story of Salt, illus. S. D. Schindler (Putnam, 2006), ISBN 0-399-23998-7 Battle Fatigue (Walker Books & Co., 2011), ISBN 978-0-8027-2264-5, young-adult historical novel, OCLC 704383968 Frozen in Time: Clarence Birdseye's Outrageous Idea About Frozen Food (2014), ISBN 978-0-385-37244-2, 165 pp. As editor Choice Cuts: A Savory Selection of Food Writing From Around the World and Throughout History (2002), ISBN 0-345-45710-2 As translator The Belly of Paris by Émile Zola, Mark Kurlansky as translator. The Modern Library, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8129-7422-5 Awards 1998: James A. Beard Award for excellence in food writing 2006: Bon Appétit Food Writer of the Year 2007: Nonfiction winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea (2006). 2007: Honorary Doctor of Letters, Butler University 2011: Gold Award, National Parenting Publications Awards for World Without Fish Pluma Plata award for Salt References External links Official website Appearances on C-SPAN. Discover the Mark Kurlansky popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Mark Kurlansky books.

Best Seller Mark Kurlansky Books of 2024

  • Of Ice and Men synopsis, comments

    Of Ice and Men

    Fred Hogge

    A New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceAn exploration of humanity’s relationship with ice since the dawn of civilization, Of Ice and Men reminds us that only by understanding ...

  • City Beasts synopsis, comments

    City Beasts

    Mark Kurlansky

    Allnew stories about the urban worlds where animals and humans fight, love, and find common ground, from the nationally bestselling author of Cod and Salt. In these stories, M...

  • The Food of a Younger Land synopsis, comments

    The Food of a Younger Land

    Mark Kurlansky

    Recommended by Chef José Andrés on The Drew Barrymore Show!A remarkable portrait of American food before World War II, presented by the New York Timesbestselling author of Cod...

  • Through The Looking Glasses synopsis, comments

    Through The Looking Glasses

    Travis Elborough

    'Elegant and multifocal. Glorious!' Simon Garfield'It will make you look at specs with fresh eyes' New Statesman'Lively, engaging and admirably wideranging' The Times'Fascinating' ...

  • Birdseye synopsis, comments

    Birdseye

    Mark Kurlansky

    Break out the TV dinners! From the author who gave us Cod, Salt, and other informative bestsellers, the first biography of Clarence Birdseye, the eccentric genius inventor whose fa...

  • The Core of an Onion synopsis, comments

    The Core of an Onion

    Mark Kurlansky

    An Eater Best Food Book of 2023 A Smithsonian Best Food Book of 2023 From the New York Timesbestselling author of Cod and Salt, a delectable look at the cultural, historical, and ...

  • Seaweed Chronicles synopsis, comments

    Seaweed Chronicles

    Susan Hand Shetterly

    “You might not expect unfettered passion on the topic of seaweed, but Shetterly is such a great storyteller that you find yourself following along eagerly.” Mark Kurlansky “Seaweed...

  • Cod synopsis, comments

    Cod

    Mark Kurlansky

    “A charming fish tale and a pretty gift for your favorite seafood cook or fishing monomaniac. But in the last analysis, it’s a bitter ecological fable for our time.” –Los Ange...

  • Faster Than A Cannonball synopsis, comments

    Faster Than A Cannonball

    Dylan Jones

    Decades tend to crest halfway through, and 1995 was the year of the Nineties: peak Britpop (Oasis v Blur), peak YBA (Tracey Emin's tent), peak New Lad (when Nick Hornby published H...

  • The Stowaway synopsis, comments

    The Stowaway

    Laurie Gwen Shapiro

    The spectacular, true story of a scrappy teenager from New York’s Lower East Side who stowed away on the most remarkable feat of science and daring of the Jazz Age, The Stowaway is...

  • Edible Stories synopsis, comments

    Edible Stories

    Mark Kurlansky

    Allnew stories about the food we share, love, and fight over from the national bestselling author of Cod and Salt. In these linked stories, Mark Kurlansky reveals the bond that ...

  • The Basque History of the World synopsis, comments

    The Basque History of the World

    Mark Kurlansky

    "A lively, anecdotal, allencompassing history of Basque ingenuity and achievement." Atlantic MonthlyFrom Mark Kurlansky, the bestselling author of Cod, Salt, Birdseye, and Paperth...

  • In Miniature synopsis, comments

    In Miniature

    Simon Garfield

    Bestselling, awardwinning writer Simon Garfield returns with an enthralling investigation of humans’ peculiar fascination with small thingsand what small things tell us about our l...