Author: Mark Kurlansky with illustrations by S. D. Schindler
Publisher: PENGUIN/PUTNAM (PENGUIN ACCT), Sep 2001
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 0-399-23476-4
Synopsis
Cod was the fish that led to the invention of frozen food, and inspired modern, efficient fishing systems. Incredible story offers a unique look at a thousand years of human civilization. Color illus; 10x9 inches, 48 pgs.
More Information
Once codfish was so plentiful that explorers reported being able simply to dip baskets into the ocean to collect them. For many hundreds of years people took it for granted, assuming that the millions of eggs that every female cod lays meant that there would always be millions of fish for man to eat--and get rich from. It was the abundance of cod and the way it could be easily dried and preserved that that allowed the Vikings to cross the cold Atlantic Ocean to America, and that fed Christopher Columbus and the other explorers after that. Cod was the fish that led to the invention of frozen food, and inspired modern, efficient fishing systems. Now the threat of the cod's disappearance is affecting the modern laws of the seas, a reminder of the devastating effect man has had on our earth.
Based on Mark Kurlansky's critically acclaimed bestseller for adults, this incredible story combined with S.D. Schindler's stunning, detailed, and often funny watercolors offers a unique look at a thousand years of human civilization.
Praise for COD: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
"One of the 25 Best Books of the Year" -- The New York Public Library
"This eminently readable book is a new tool for scanning world history." --New York Times Book Review
"Every once in a while a writer of particular skill takes a fresh, seemingly improbable idea and turns out a book of pure delight. Such is the case of Mark Kurlanksy and the codfish."
--Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough
ABOUT THE AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR
Mark Kurlansky lives in New York, New York.
S.D. Schindler lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
