Birdseye

Less a biography than a glimpse into an exuberantly inventive time in America. . . . In Kurlansky's hands, the arc of Birdseye's life . . . is a history of the American imagination. -- The Washington Post [An] intriguing book that . . . coaxes readers to re-examine everyday miracles like frozen food, and to imagine where places with no indigenous produce would be without them. -- The New York Times Kurlansky's skilled narration ensures that each detail is salient to the central story of Birdseye and his inventions. . . . [and] reinvigorates the spirit of this most American of entrepreneurs. -- The Boston Globe A lively . . . biography about one of America's most unusual innovators. -- Newsday A delight. . . . Fabulous factoids abound. -- The New York Times Book Review The master of the food monograph . . . Kurlansky typically begins with a single natural resource and studies its broad impact on humankind. This book flips that model on its head by studying one extraordinary man and the effect of his innovations on a host of commodities. . . . Birdseye was, in his tastes, surprisingly in sync with today's ethos of locavorism and nose-to-tail eating. -- Businessweek A key ingredient in the success of Kurlansky's biography is the mixture of Birdseye the modern man and Birdseye the throwback, who could not understand so much of contemporary society. -- The Houston Chronicle Having just read Mark Kurlansky's new biography of Clarence Birdseye, I now see the humble fish fillet in a whole new light. For as Kurlansky tells it, when Clarence Birdseye figured out how to pack and freeze haddock . . . he essentially changed the way we produce, preserve and distribute food forever. --Alison Richards, The Salt, NPR Kurlansky brings Birdseye to life. . . . Covering the science behind Birdseye's . . . inventions along with intimate details of his family life, [he] skillfully weaves a fluid narrat