Audiobooks by Mark Kurlansky

The Importance of Not Being Ernest: A Writing Life with an Uninvited Guest

An Ernest Hemingway Biography Like No Other Discover Hemingway’s biography through the eyes of a fellow author and journalist. New York Timesbestselling author of Salt Mark Kurlansky turns his historical eye to the life of Ernest Hemingway. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, The Importance of Not Being Ernest shows the huge shadow Hemingway casts. The perfect gift for writers. By a series of coincidences, Mark Kurlansky’s life has always been intertwined with Ernest Hemingway's legend, starting with being in Idaho the day of Hemingway’s death. The Importance of Not Being Ernest explores the intersections between Hemingway’s and Kurlansky’s lives, resulting in creative accounts of two inspiring writing careers. Travel the world with Mark Kurlansky and Ernest Hemingway in this personal memoir, where Kurlansky details his ten years in Paris and his time as a journalist in Spain—both cities important to Hemingway’s adventurous life and prolific writing. Key West, Havana, and Chicago. Get to know the extraordinary people he met there—those who had also fallen under the Hemingway spell, including a Vietnam veteran suffering from the same syndrome the author did, two winners of the Key West Hemingway look-alike contest, and the man in Idaho who took Hemingway hunting and fishing. In this unique gift for writers, find: • A memoir full of entertaining and illuminative stories • Little-known historical facts about Hemingway’s life • Anecdotes about those who suffer from what the Kurlansky calls “hemitis”

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Adam Grupper (Narrator)

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Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate

In what he says is the most important piece of environmental writing in his long and award-winning career, Mark Kurlansky, best-selling author of Salt and Cod, The Big Oyster, 1968, and Milk, among many others, employs his signature multi-century storytelling and compelling attention to detail to chronicle the harrowing yet awe-inspiring life cycle of salmon. During his research Kurlansky traveled widely and observed salmon and those who both pursue and protect them in the Pacific and the Atlantic, in Ireland, Norway, Iceland, Japan, and even the robust but not as frequently visited Kamchatka Peninsula. This world tour reveals an eras-long history of man’s misdirected attempts to manipulate salmon and its environments for his own benefit and gain, whether for entertainment or to harvest food. In addition, Kurlansky’s research shows that all over the world these fish, uniquely connected to both marine and terrestrial ecology as well as fresh and salt water, are a natural barometer for the health of the planet. He documents that for centuries man’s greatest assaults on nature, from overfishing to dams, from hatcheries to fish farms, from industrial pollution to the ravages of climate change, are evidenced in the sensitive life cycle of salmon. Kurlansky’s insightful conclusion is that the only way to save salmon is to save the planet and, at the same time, the only way to save the planet is to save the mighty, heroic salmon.

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Mark Kurlansky (Narrator)

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Paper: Paging Through History

From the New York Times best-selling author of Cod and Salt, a definitive history of paper and the astonishing ways it has shaped today's world. Paper is one of the simplest and most essential pieces of human technology. For the past two millennia, the ability to produce it in ever more efficient ways has supported the proliferation of literacy, media, religion, education, commerce, and art; it has formed the foundation of civilizations, promoting revolutions and restoring stability. One has only to look at history's greatest press run, which produced 6.5 billion copies of Mao zhuxi yulu, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (Zedong)which doesn't include editions in 37 foreign languages and in brailleto appreciate the range and influence of a single publication, in paper. Or take the fact that one of history's most revered artists, Leonardo da Vinci, left behind only 15 paintings but 4,000 works on paper. And though the colonies were at the time calling for a boycott of all British goods, the one exception they made speaks to the essentiality of the material; they penned the Declaration of Independence on British paper. Now, amid discussion of "going paperless"and as speculation about the effects of a digitally dependent society grows rampantwe've come to a world-historic juncture. Thousands of years ago, Socrates and Plato warned that written language would be the end of "true knowledge," replacing the need to excise memory and think through complex questions. Similar arguments were made about the switch from handwritten to printed books, and today about the role of computer technology. By tracing paper's evolution from antiquity to the present, with an emphasis on the contributions made in Asia and the Middle East, Mark Kurlansky challenges common assumptions about technology's influence, affirming that paper is here to stay. Paper will be the commodity history that guides us forward in the twenty-first century and illuminates our times.

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Andrew Garman (Narrator)

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Ready for a Brand New Beat: How "Dancing in the Street" Became the Anthem for a Changing America

New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky chronicles the extraordinary events of the summer of 1964 and showcases the momentous role that a simple song about dancing played in history. Can a song change a nation? In 1964, Marvin Gaye, record producer William "Mickey" Stevenson, and Motown songwriter Ivy Jo Hunter wrote "Dancing in the Street." The song was recorded at Motown's Hitsville USA Studio by Martha and the Vandellas, with lead singer Martha Reeves arranging her own vocals. Released on July 31, the song was supposed to be an upbeat dance recording-a precursor to disco, and a song about the joyousness of dance. But events overtook it, and the song became one of the icons of American pop culture. The Beatles had landed in the U.S. in early 1964. By the summer, the sixties were in full swing. The summer of 1964 was the Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, the beginning of the Vietnam War, the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and the lead-up to a dramatic election. As the country grew more radicalized in those few months, "Dancing in the Street" gained currency as an activist anthem. The song took on new meanings, multiple meanings, for many different groups that were all changing as the country changed. Told by the writer who is legendary for finding the big story in unlikely places, Ready for a Brand New Beat chronicles that extraordinary summer of 1964 and showcases the momentous role that a simple song about dancing played in history.

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Stephen Hoye (Narrator)

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Birdseye

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Jon Van Ness (Narrator)

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Las estrellas Orientales: Como el beisbol cambio el pueblo dominicano de San Pedro deMacoris

Al final de la temporada de 2010, mas de ochenta y seis jovenes y hombres de la empobrocida ciudad de San Pedro de Macoris jugaban en las Grandes Ligas-lo que significa que uno de cada seis dominicanos de las Grandes Ligas vinieron de los mismos equipos locales de los ingenios azucareros, y acudieron en masa a los Estados Unidos en busca de oportunidades, de riqueza, y de una vida mejor. Pero este viaje es tambien una cronica del racismo en el beisbol, de la necesidad de cambiar las costumbres sociales del deporte en la Republica Dominicana y en los Estados Unidos, y de las historias personales de los hombres que han buscado escapar de la pobreza jugando beisbol. En Las estrellas orientales, Mark Kurlansky revela el amor de dos paises por un deporte, y descubre unos significados mas profundos sobre lugar e identidad, tenacidad y supervivencia, colonialismo y capitalismo, pero especialmente sobre el beisbol.

Mark Kurlansky (Author), David Crommett (Narrator)

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The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris

The intriguing, inspiring history of one small, impoverished area in the Dominican Republic that has produced a staggering number of Major League Baseball talent, from an award-winning, bestselling author. In the town of San Pedro in the Dominican Republic, baseball is not just a way of life. It's the way of life. By the year 2008, seventy-nine boys and men from San Pedro had gone on to play in the Major Leagues—that means one in six Dominican Republicans who have played in the Majors have come from one tiny, impoverished region. Manny Alexander, Sammy Sosa, Tony Fernandez, and legions of other San Pedro players who came up in the sugar mill teams flocked to the United States looking for opportunity, wealth, and a better life. Because of the sugar industry and the influxes of migrant workers from across the Caribbean to work in the cane fields and factories, San Pedro is one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the Dominican Republic. A multitude of languages are spoken there, and a variety of skin colors populate the community; but the one constant is sugar and baseball. The history of players from San Pedro is also a chronicle of racism in baseball, changing social mores in sports and in the Dominican Republic, and the personal stories of the many men who sought freedom from poverty through playing ball. The story of baseball in San Pedro is also that of the Caribbean in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and on a broader level opens a window into U.S. history. As with Mark Kurlansky's Cod and Salt, this small story, rich with anecdote and detail, becomes much larger than ever imagined. Kurlansky reveals two countries' love affair with a sport and the remarkable journey of San Pedro and its baseball players. In his distinctive style, he follows common threads and discovers wider meanings about place, identity, and, above all, baseball.

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Ed Sala (Narrator)

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The Food of a Younger Land

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Stephen Hoye (Narrator)

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The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Po

This is the tale of our earth's disappearing fisheries and a vanishing way of life that has defined coastal towns throughout history. The colorful, exuberant story of the fishing town of Gloucester is the lens through which Kurlansky looks at a global tale. Gloucester was established in 1623 as a cod-fishing station. Today, it struggles on, its future uncertain. The Last Fish Tale is a wake-up call to a tragedy in the making. "[A] delightful, intimate history and contemporary portrait of the quintessential northeastern coastal fishing town....vividly depicts the contemporary tension between the traditional fishing trade and modern commerce."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Grover Gardner (Narrator)

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Nonviolence: 25 Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea

In this groundbreaking, controversial, and ultimately definitive history, New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky argues that nonviolence is not the same thing as pacifism; it's a technique that can speak truth to power to right social injustice or end wars. Gandhi utilized it; Martin Luther King, Jr., utilized it. It has been used to end apartheid and topple the Berlin Wall. Kurlansky offers a sweeping yet concise history of nonviolence from ancient Hindu times to today's many conflicts'including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iraq war. But he also draws into focus what a dangerous idea nonviolence has been perceived to be, drawing from history twenty-five provocative lessons on the subject, lessons we can use to effect change today. Is war necessary? Kurlansky persuasively argues that even the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II could have been avoided by nonviolent means. With Nonviolence, Mark Kurlansky has written an insightful and highly original book with lessons for our time.

H.H. Dalai Lama, Mark Kurlansky (Author), Richard Dreyfuss (Narrator)

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The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell

Before New York City was the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. Now 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, whose influence on the great metropolis remains unparalleled.For centuries New York was famous for its oysters, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city's economy, gastronomy, and ecology that the abundant bivalves were Gotham's most celebrated export, a staple food for the wealthy, the poor, and tourists alike, and the primary natural defense against pollution for the city's congested waterways.Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the island hunting ground of the Lenape Indians to the death of the 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. Kurlansky brings characters vividly to life while recounting dramatic incidents that changed the course of New York history. Here are the stories behind Peter Stuyvesant's peg leg and Robert Fulton's Folly; the oyster merchant and pioneering African American leader Thomas Downing; the birth of the business lunch at Delmonico's; early feminist Fanny Fern, one of the highest-paid newspaper writers in the city; even Diamond Jim Brady, who we discover was not the gourmand of popular legend. With The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.From the Compact Disc edition.

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Tom Stechschulte (Narrator)

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The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell

Before New York City was the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. Now 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, whose influence on the great metropolis remains unparalleled. For centuries New York was famous for its oysters, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s economy, gastronomy, and ecology that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for the wealthy, the poor, and tourists alike, and the primary natural defense against pollution for the city’s congested waterways. Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight–along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos–this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the island hunting ground of the Lenape Indians to the death of the 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. Kurlansky brings characters vividly to life while recounting dramatic incidents that changed the course of New York history. Here are the stories behind Peter Stuyvesant’s peg leg and Robert Fulton’s “Folly”; the oyster merchant and pioneering African American leader Thomas Downing; the birth of the business lunch at Delmonico’s; early feminist Fanny Fern, one of the highest-paid newspaper writers in the city; even “Diamond” Jim Brady, who we discover was not the gourmand of popular legend. With The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.

Mark Kurlansky (Author), John H. Mayer (Narrator)

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