The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell

“Part treatise, part miscellany, unfailingly entertaining.”<br><i>–The New York Times </i><br><br>“A small pearl of a book . . . a great tale of the growth of a modern city as seen through the rise and fall of the lowly oyster.”<br><i>–Rocky Mountain News</i><br><br>Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants–the oyster.<br>For centuries New York was famous for this particular shellfish, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s life that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for all classes, and a natural filtration system for the city’s congested waterways.<br><br>Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight–along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos–this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the seventeenth-century founding of New York to the death of its oyster beds and the rise of America’s environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars of the rough-and-tumble Five Points slums to Manhattan’s Gilded Age dining chambers. With <i>The Big Oyster</i>, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.<br><br>“Suffused with [Kurlansky’s] pleasure in exploring the city across ground that hasn’t already been covered with other writers’ footprints.”<br>–<i>Los Angeles Times Book Review</i><br><br>“Fascinating stuff . . . [Kurlansky] has a keen eye for odd facts and natural detail.”<br>–<i>The Wall Street Journal</i><br><br>“Kurlansky packs his breezy book with terrific anecdotes.” <br>–<i>Entertainment Weekly</i><br><br>“Magnificent . . . a towering accomplishment.”<br>–<i>Associated Press<br></i>