Mark Kurlansky

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.

Early life and education

Kurlansky was born in Hartford, Connecticut on December 7, 1948.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He attended Butler University, where he earned a BA in 1970.<ref name=":0" /> 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".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He moved to Mexico in 1982, where he continued to practice journalism. In 2007, he was named the Baruch College Harman writer-in-residence.<ref name=":0" />

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It became an international bestseller and was translated into more than 15 languages. His 2002 book, Salt, was a New York Times bestseller.<ref name="lithub">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /> That same year, he was awarded an honorary ambassadorship from the Basque government.<ref name=":0" />

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.<ref name=bop>"A Conversation with Mark Kurlansky, translator of Zola's Classic" Template:Webarchive, conversation with Terrance Gelenter</ref>

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. Template:ISBN
• A Chosen Few: The Resurrection of European Jewry (1995), Template:ISBN
• Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (1997), Template:ISBN<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• The Basque History of the World (1999), Template:ISBN
• Salt: A World History (2002), Template:ISBN<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• 1968: The Year that Rocked the World (2004), Template:ISBN<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell (2006), Template:ISBN
• Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea (2006), Template:ISBN
• Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea (2006), Template:ISBN
• The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town (2008), Template:ISBN
• The Food of a Younger Land (2009), Template:ISBN
• The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris (2010), Template:ISBN
• 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), Template:ISBN
• Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn't Want to Be One (2011), Template:ISBN
• Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man (2012), Template:ISBN
• Ready for a Brand New Beat: How "Dancing in the Street" Became the Anthem for a Changing America (2013), Template:ISBN
• International Night: A Father and Daughter Cook Their Way Around the World with Talia Kurlansky (2014), Template:ISBN
• Paper: Paging Through History (2016), Template:ISBN<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• Havana: A Subtropical Delirium (2017), Template:ISBN
• Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas (2018), Template:ISBN
• Bugless: Why Ladybugs, Butterflies, Fireflies, and Bees are Disappearing (2019), Template:ISBN
• Salmon and the Earth: The History of a Common Fate (2020), Template:ISBN
• The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing (2021), Template:ISBN
• The Importance of Not Being Ernest: My Life with the Uninvited Hemingway (2022), Template:ISBN
• The Core of an Onion (2023)
• The Boston Way: Radicals Against Slavery and the Civil War (2025), Template:ISBN

Fiction

• The White Man in the Tree, and Other Stories (2000), Template:ISBN
• Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue: A Novel of Pastry, Guilt, and Music (2005), Template:ISBN
• Edible Stories: A Novel in Sixteen Parts (2010), Template:ISBN
• City Beasts: Fourteen Stories of Uninvited Wildlife (2015), Template:ISBN
• Cheesecake: A Novel (2025), Template:ISBN

Children's books

• The Cod's Tale, illustrated by S. D. Schindler (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2001), Template:ISBN
• The Girl Who Swam to Euskadi (Reno, NV: Center for Basque Studies, 2005), Template:ISBN
• The Story of Salt, illus. S. D. Schindler (Putnam, 2006), Template:ISBN
• Battle Fatigue (Walker Books & Co., 2011), Template:ISBN, young-adult historical novel, Template:OCLC
• Frozen in Time: Clarence Birdseye's Outrageous Idea About Frozen Food (2014), Template:ISBN, 165 pp.

As editor

• Choice Cuts: A Savory Selection of Food Writing From Around the World and Throughout History (2002), Template:ISBN

As translator

• The Belly of Paris by Émile Zola, Mark Kurlansky as translator. The Modern Library, 2009. Template:ISBN

Selected awards

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• 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)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• 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)

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:C-SPAN