Mark Kurlansky
American journalist and writer (born 1948)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
- Journalist
- author
- Nonfiction
- microhistory
Mark Kurlansky | |
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Kurlansky in 2013 | |
| Born | December 7, 1948 Hartford, Connecticut, U.S. |
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| Education | Butler University (BA) |
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| Years active | 1976–present |
Early life and education
Kurlansky was born in Hartford, Connecticut on December 7, 1948.[1] He attended Butler University, where he earned a BA in 1970.[1] 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. He later said that he became "frustrated with theatre, which is to say I became frustrated with Broadway".[2]
Career
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.[1][3][4] He moved to Mexico in 1982, where he continued to practice journalism. In 2007, he was named the Baruch College Harman writer-in-residence.[1]
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.[5] It became an international bestseller and was translated into more than 15 languages. His 2002 book, Salt, was a New York Times bestseller.[6] Kurlansky's 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.[1] That same year, he was awarded an honorary ambassadorship from the Basque government.[1]
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.[7]
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[8]
- The Basque History of the World (1999), ISBN 0-8027-1349-1
- Salt: A World History (2002), ISBN 0-8027-1373-4[9]
- 1968: The Year that Rocked the World (2004), ISBN 0-345-45581-9[10]
- 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[11]
- 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
- The Core of an Onion (2023)
- The Boston Way: Radicals Against Slavery and the Civil War (2025), ISBN 9781567927658
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
- Cheesecake: A Novel (2025), ISBN 9781639735723
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
Selected awards
Source:[12]
- The New York Public Library Best Books of the Year award for A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny (1992)
- James Beard Foundation Award, the New York Public Library Best Books of the Year award, and Glenfiddich Award for Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (1998)
- Basque Hall of Fame (2001)
- Honorary ambassadorship from the Basque Government (2001)
- Orbis Pictus Award for The Cod's Tale (2001)
- Pluma Plata award at the Bilbao Book Fair for Salt: A World History (2002)
- ALA Notable Book award for 1968: The Year that Rocked the World (2004)
- ALA Notable Book award for The Story of Salt (2006)
- Bon Appétit Food Writer of the Year award (2006)
- Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea (2007)[13][14]
- National Parenting Publications Awards – gold award for World Without Fish (2011)
- Robert Laxalt Distinguished Writer award from the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno (2012)
- Junior Library Guild selection for Frozen in Time: Clarence Birdseye's Outrageous Idea About Frozen Food (2015)
- André Simon Food and Drink Award, John Avery Award, and IBPA Ben Franklin Gold Award for Nature and Environment Writing for Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of a Common Fate (2020)
- National Outdoor Book Award for The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing (2021)
