Rydon, John. Oysters with Love. London: Peter Owen, 1968.
FOOD
Barnes, Donna R., and Peter G. Rose. Matters of Taste: Food and Drink in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2002.
Batterby, Michael and Ariane. On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution. New York: Routledge, 1999
Benes, Peter, ed. Foodways in the Northeast. Boston: Boston University, 1984.
Blot, Pierre. Handbook of Practical Cookery, for Ladies and Professional Cooks. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1869
Brereton, Georgina E. and Janet M. Ferrier, eds. Le Mesnagier de Paris. Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 1994.
Charpentier, Henri. The Henri Charpentier Cookbook. Los Angeles: Price/Stern/Sloan, 1970.
Chadwick, J. Home Cookery: A Collection of Tried Receipts Both Foreign and Domestic. New York: Charles S. Francis and Company, 1853.
———. Ladies’ Indispensable Companion and Housekeepers’ Guide. New York, 1854.
Collins, John. Salt and Fishery. London: A. Godbid and J. Playford, 1682
Corson, Juliet. Juliet Corson’s New Family Cookbook: A Complete Cookbook for Family Use in City and Country. New York: George Munro, 1885.
———. Meals for The Millions. New York, New York School of Cookery, 1882.
Crowen T. J. The American System of Cookery: Comprising Every Variety of Information for Ordinary and Holiday Occasions. New York: T.R. Dawley, 1864.
Diat, Louis. Cooking à la Ritz. New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1941
De Gouy, Louis P. (See Oysters)
Drummond, J. C., and Anne Wilbraham. The Englishman’s Food: Five Centuries of English Diet. London: Pimlico, 1994.
DuSablon, Mary Anna. America’s Collectible Cookbooks. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1994.
Giacosa, Ilaria Gozzini. A Taste of Ancient Rome. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. Totnes, Devon, England: Prospect Books, 1995.
Hieatt, Constance B., ed. An Ordinance of Pottage: An Edition of the Fifteenth Century Culinary Recipes in Yale University’s Ms Beinecke 163. Totnes, Devon, England: Prospect Books, 1988.
Grant, Mark, trans. and ed. Anthimus: On the Observance of Foods. Totnes, Devon, England: Prospect Books, 1996.
———. Galen on Food and Diet. London: Routledge, 2000
Guest, Flora Bigelow. Soup, Oysters and Surprises. London: The John Lane Company, 1918.
Hagen, Ann. A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food & Drink Production & Distribution. Norfolk, England: Anglo-Saxon Books, 1995
Kirkland, Alexander. Rector’s Naughty ’90s Cookbook. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1949.
Leslie, Eliza. Miss Leslie’s Directions for Cookery. New York: Dover Publications, 1999.
Lewis, Amelia. How to Live in Winter. New York: Food and Health Publishing Office, 1881.
Peachey, Stuart. The Book of Boiled Meats: Volume 1: Fish. Bristol, England: Stuart Press, 1999.
Pliny the Elder. Natural History. London: Penguin Books, 1991
Ranhofer, Charles. The Epicurean: A Complete Treatise of Analytical and Practical Studies of the Culinary Arts. New York: Dover Publications, 1971.
Riley, Gillian. The Dutch Table: Gastronomy in the Golden Age of the Netherlands. San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1994
Root, Waverley, and Richard de Rochemont. Eating in America: A History. New York: William Morris, 1976.
Rorer, Sarah Tyson. (See Oysters)
Rose, Peter G. The Sensible Cook: Dutch Foodways in the Old and the New World. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1989.
Rundell, Maria Eliza Ketelby. American Domestic Cookery: Formed on Principles of Economy, for the Use of Private families by an experienced Housekeeper. New York: E. Duyckinck, 1823.
Seely, L. Mrs. Seely’s Cook Book: A Manual of French and American Cookery. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902.
Simmons, Amelia. American Cookery: or the Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables and the Best Modes of Making Puff-Pastries, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards and Preserves, and all kinds of Cakes, from the Imperial Plumb to Plain Cake, adopted to the country and all grades of life. Bedford, Mass.: Applewood Books, 1996.
Tschirky, Oscar. “Oscar” of the Waldorf ’s Cookbook. New York: Dover Publications, 1973.
Waugh, F. W. Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation. Ohsweken, Ontario: Iroqrafts, 1991.
Wilkins, John, and Shaun Hill. The Life of Luxury: Archestratus. Totnes, Devon, England: Prospect Books, 1994.
ARTICLES
Blumberg, Deborah Lynn. “At the River Project, the World Is Their Oyster.” The Villager, 73, no. 50 (March 14–20, 2004).
Brouwer, Norman. “The New York Fisheries.” Seaport: New York’s History Magazine, Winter/Spring 1990.
Claassen, Cheryl. “Summary of the Results of Research at the Archaic Dogan Point Site, Westchester County, New York.” The Bulletin 107 (Spring 1994). New York State Archeological Society.
Hewitt, John H. “Mr. Downing and His Oyster House: The Life and Good Works of an African American Entrepreneur.” New York History, July 1993 New York Historical Association.
Kochiss, John M. “New York Oyster Barges.” The Log of Mystic Seaport, Winter 1971.
Kollmer, Burton A. “The Yesterday of the Oysterman.” Staten Island Historian, July 1940.
Lockwood, Reverend Samuel. “The Natural History of the Oyster.” Popular Science Monthly, November 1874.
London Daily News. “American Oysters Praised.” New York Times, September 10, 1882.
Melvin, Tessa. “Site of Artifacts Poses Quandary in Dobbs Ferry.” New York Times, April 17, 1988.
National Historic Landmark Nomination for Old Barge Cafe (the last oyster barge) in New Haven Connecticut. National Register of Historic Places, 1994.
Schaper, Hans F., and Louis A. Brennan. “Shell Middens in the Lower Hudson Valley.” The Bulletin 98 (Spring 1989). New York State Archeological Society.
———. “Oysters and Settlement in the Lower Hudson Valley.” The Bulletin 106 (Fall 1993). New York State Archeological Society.
Schuyler, Robert L. “Sandy Ground: Archeological Sampling in a Black Community in Metropolitan New York.” The Conference on Historic Site Archeology Papers. University of South Carolina, August 1974.
Walford Memorial Convocation. “Raritan Bay: Its Multiple Uses and Abuses.” Sandy Hook Laboratory Technical Series Report no. 30, August 1984.
Whitridge, Arnold. “Dickens and Thackeray in America.” New York Historical Society Quarterly 62, no. 3 (July 1978).
Zeisel Jr., William N. “Shark!!! And Other Sport Fish Once Abundant in New York Harbor.” Seaport: New York’s History Magazine, Winter/Spring 1990.
“The City’s Oyster Market: Oystermen Combining at the Foot of Perry Street.” New York Times, September 10, 1889.
“Extinction of Oysters in New York Now Feared.” New York Times, January 27, 1920.
“An Early Attack by Typhoid.” New York Times, July 11, 1924.
“The Great Oyster Placer: Millions of Dollars’ Worth Found: Great Excitement Along the Shore.” New York Daily Tribune, October 1, 1859.
“Grievances of Oystermen.” New York Times, November 25, 1884.
“How New York Is Fed.” Scribner’s Monthly, October 1877.
“How the Oyster ‘De Luxe’ is Gathered.” New York Times Illustrated Magazine, December 25, 1898.
“Jamaica Bay, Foul with Sewage, Closed to Oyster Beds; 300 Bushels Gone.” New York Times, January 30, 1921.
“Mine Oyster.” Harper’s Weekly, Supplement, March 16, 1872.
“National Meeting Booms the Oyster.” New York Times, May 6, 1969.
“The Oyster Season.” New York Times, September 6, 1909.
“Shell Fisheries.” Keyport Weekly, Christmas Edition, 1905.
PHOTO: © SYLVIA PLACHY
MARK KURLANSKY is the New York Times bestselling author of Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World; Salt: A World History; 1968: The Year That Rocked the World; Nonviolence: Twenty-Five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea and several other books. He is the winner of the James Beard Foundation Award for Excellence in food writing, the Bon Appétit American Food & Entertaining Award for Food Writer of the year, and the Glenfiddich Food & Drink Award for Food Book of the year, as well as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in New York City.
ALSO BY MARK KURLANSKY
Nonviolence: Twenty-Five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea
1968: The Year That Rocked the World
Salt: A World History
The Basque History of the World
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
A Chosen Few: The Resurrection of European Jewry
A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny
Choice Cuts: A Savory Selection of Food Writing from
Around the World and Throughout History (anthology)
Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue: A Novel of Pastry, Guilt, and Music
The White Man in the Tree and Other Stories (fiction)
The Story of Salt (for children)
The Cod’s Tale (for children)
The Girl Who Swam to Euskadi (for children)
PRAISE FOR
The Big Oyster
“[A] well and sharply told history of a shellfish and its impact on the evolution of a great city . . . [Mark] Kurlansky gets the ache of the bivalve’s tale just right.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Kurlansky is a genial and enthusiastic guide . . . . The Big Oyster proves that it is possible for a skilled researcher to tell the history of New York—its wealth, excitement, greed, destructiveness and filth—through the history of a single creature.”
—The New York Times
“A lively, witty, and occasionally racy yarn.”
—Chicago Tribune
“A fascinating history of the mollusk’s role in [New York City’s] development.”
—People
“[Kurlansky] continues to do what he does best with The Big Oyster, teaching you history while making you think you’re just enjoying a good read.”
—GQ
“Kurlansky is a splendid writer, the master of culinary history.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Mark Kurlansky has done it again. The Big Oyster is a zesty love song to a bivalve and a city—intelligent, informative, and impossible to put down.”
—NATHANIEL PHILBRICK, National Book Award–winning author of In the Heart of the Sea
“Kurlansky’s oyster-steeped approach [is] fun and accessible.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“[Kurlansky’s] tangents are more interesting than most writers’ main points, and his dry, understated style is perfect for the material; he’ll take a shot, and it’s so subtle that you’ll find yourself laughing two pages later . . . . [The Big Oyster] offers genuine insight into the world through an accessible doorway . . . . A wonderfully curatorial and quirky biography of the city.”
—Associated Press
“Kurlansky’s real gift is that, in uncovering biological quirks and forgotten social customs, he makes the ordinary extraordinary.”
—Booklist
“Highly original . . . Kurlansky has produced a tasty mixture of history and analysis, larded with illustrations. The result will appeal to a wide range of appetites.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“A compelling, highly readable treat, whether you partake of Ostreidae or not.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A chatty, free-wheeling history of New York City told from the humble perspective of the once copious, eagerly consumed, now decimated eastern oyster. Kurlansky’s history digresses all over the place, and sparkles.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“In his portrait of the once-famous oyster beds of New York Harbor, Kurlansky beautifully illustrates food’s ability to connect us deeply to our particular place in the world and shows how our nourishment is so vitally tied to the health of the natural world.”
—ALICE WATERS
2007 Random House Trade Paperback Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Mark Kurlansky
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House Trade Paperbacks, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE TRADE PAPERBACKS and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2006.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Kurlansky, Mark.
The big oyster : History on the half shell / Mark Kurlansky.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
Cookery (Oysters) 2. Oysters—New York (State)—New York. I. Title.
TX754.O98K87 2006
641.6'94—dc22 2005049853
www.atrandom.com
Frontispiece, title page, and part title pages art: Harper’s Weekly, 1882.
eISBN: 978-1-58836-591-0
v3.0
The Big Oyster Page 26