Details
Synopsis
In the late 1930s, as part of the New Deal, Franklin Roosevelt established the Federal Writer's Project, a federally subsidized program meant to generate work for authors and other artists. The first and, thanks to World War II, the only assignment of the FWP was the creation of an encyclopedia of American food. Dozens of writers, including favorites such as Eudora Welty, Nelson Algren, and Zora Neale Hurston, were dispatched to different regions of the country to capture the distinct flavors of the local cuisines with essays and recipes. More than 70 years later, Mark Kurlansky, author of the food-centric histories COD and SALT, discovered this treasure trove of forgotten culinary literature in the dusty archives of the Library of Congress and edited it into this fascinating collection. In the days before fast-food restaurants and mega-plex grocery stores, food was more than a nutritional necessity--it was a ceremony central to the life and culture of every American citizen, a spirit which is celebrated by these vibrant and insightful essays which document diverse dishes from Maine lobster to Arkansas possum to New Orleans crawfish to California grunions (a sardine-sized fish unique to the Golden State).
| Size | | Length: | 397 pages | | Height: | 9.3 in | | Width: | 6.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.5 in | | Weight: | 21.8 oz |
Industry Reviews
"Fun, illuminating, and provocative....Kurlansky selected zesty writings, factual and imaginative, describing barbecues, fries, and feasts....The [entries] are vivid and playful dispatches from pre-interstate, pre-fast-food America, when food was local and cuisine regional."
(03/15/2009)
"[T]his extraordinary collection...provides a vivid and revitalizing sense of the rural and regional characteristics and distinctions that we've lost and can find here again."
(03/16/2009)
"Mark Kurlansky unearthed...[a] treasure trove of culinary Americana -- everything from Arkansas ash cakes and Arizona menudo patties to Vermont sugaring and Wisconsin sourdough pancakes -- represented in THE FOOD OF A YOUNGER LAND. The book is a delectable slice of culinary anthropology."
(05/26/2009)
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