Mark Kurlansky

Mark Kurlansky
Kurlansky at a Barnes & Noble book signing, New York City, July 11, 2013

Mark Kurlansky (born December 7, 1948) is an American journalist and writer of general interest non-fiction. Kurlansky's latest book, City Beasts: Fourteen Stories of Uninvited Wildlife was published in February, 2015.

Kurlansky was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He attended Butler University, where he harbored an early interest in theatre and earned a BA in 1970. However, his interest faded and he began to work as a journalist in the 1970s. During the '70s 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 do journalism. He wrote his first book, A Continent of Islands, in 1992 and went on to write several books throughout the 1990s. His 1997 book Cod was an international bestseller and was translated into more than 15 languages. His work and contribution to Basque identity and culture is recognized in the Basque hall of fame.

Kurlansky as a teenager called Émile Zola his "hero", and in 2009 Kurlansky translated one of Zola's novels The Belly of Paris whose theme is the food markets of Paris.

His 2009 book The Food of a Younger Land, details American foodways in the early 20th century, with the lengthy 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."

Published books

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 (winner of the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction)
• 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)
• Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man (2012), ISBN 978-0-385-52705-7
• International Night: A Father and Daughter Cook Their Way Around the World (2014), ISBN 978-1-620-40027-2

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

External links

• Official website
• Mark Kurlansky at Library of Congress Authorities, with 31 catalog records