Mark Kurlansky Papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS115

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains the unprocessed papers of author and journalist Mark Kurlansky, spanning from approximately 1970 to 2018. It includes correspondence, manuscript and typescript drafts, articles and clippings, awards, media, artworks, and ephemera which document the journalistic and book writing career of Kurlansky.

Dates

Creation: circa 1970-2018

Creator

Kurlansky, Mark (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright restrictions apply. Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder. Please contact the Department of Special Collections, Rare Books, and University Archives at Butler University Libraries for more information.

Biographical Note

Mark Kurlansky is an American journalist and author. His articles have appeared in a variety of newspapers and magazines, and is the author of 39 published books of fiction, non-fiction, and children's books, and has won numerous awards.

Kurlansy was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He received a BA in Theatre from Butler University in 1970. He then worked as a playwright in New York, writing a number of off-off-Broadway productions and was playwright-in-residence at Brooklyn College. He won the 1972 Earplay award for best radio play of the year.

In the mid-1970s, he turned his professional focus to journalism and from 1976 to 1991 he worked as a foreign correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, The Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald, and The Philadelphia Enquirer.

In 1992 he published his first book, and has since steadily published 39 works. In 2007, Kurlansky was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Butler University. Mark Kurlansky currently lives in New York and is still writing.

Books By Mark Kurlansky

A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny, by Mark Kurlansky. Da Capo Press, 1992
A Chosen Few: The Resurrection of European Jewry, by Mark Kurlansky. Da Capo Press, 1994
The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola, translation and introduction by Mark Kurlansky. Sun & Moon Press, 1996
Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, by Mark Kurlansky. Penguin Books, 1998
The Basque History of the World, by Mark Kurlansky. Walker Books, 1999
The White Man in the Tree and Other Stories, by Mark Kurlansky. Washington Square Press, 2000
The Cod’s Tale, by Mark Kurlansky, illustrated by S.D. Schindler. G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2002
Choice Cuts: A Savory Selection of Food Writing from Around the World and Throughout History, edited and with an introduction by Mark Kurlansky. Ballantine Books, 2002
Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky. Walker & Company, 2002
1968: The Year that Rocked the World, by Mark Kurlansky. Ballantine Books, 2003
Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue: A Novel of Pastry, Guilt, and Music, by Mark Kurlansky. Ballantine Books, 2005
The Girl Who Swam to Euskadi, by Mark Kurlanski. Basque Studies Program/322, 2005
The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell, by Mark Kurlansky. Ballantine Books, 2006
The Story of Salt, by Mark Kurlansky and S.D. Schindler. G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2006
The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America’s Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town, by Mark Kurlansky. Ballantine Books, 2008
Non-Violence: The History of a Dangerous Idea, by Mark Kurlansky with foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Llama. Modern Library, 2008
The Food of a Younger Land, by Mark Kurlansky. Riverhead Books, 2009
The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris, by Mark Kurlansky. Riverhead Books, 2010
Edible Stories: A Novel in Sixteen Parts, by Mark Kurlansky. Riverhead Books, 2010
The World Without Fish: How Kids Can Help Save the Oceans, by Mark Kurlansky, illustrated by Frank Stockton. Workman Publishing Company, 2012
Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn’t Want to Be One (Jewish Lives), by Mark Kurlansky. Yale University Press, 2011
What?: Are These the 20 Most Important Questions in Human History – Or Is This a Game of 20 Questions?, by Mark Kurlansky. Walker & Company, 2010
Battle Fatigue, by Mark Kurlansky. Walker Childrens, 2011
Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man, by Mark Kurlansky. Doubleday, 2012
Ready for a Brand New Beat: How “Dancing in the Street” Became an Anthem for a Changing America, by Mark Kurlansky. Riverhead 2013
International Night: A Father and Daughter Cook Their Way Around the World, by Mark Kurlansky and Talia Kurlansky. Bloomsbury USA, 2014
Frozen In Time: Clarence Birdseye’s Outrageous Idea about Frozen Food, by Mark Kurlansky. Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2014
City Beasts: Fourteen Short Stories of Uninvited Wildlife, by Mark Kurlansky. Riverhead Books, 2015
Paper: Paging Through History, by Mark Kurlansky. Norton, 2016
Havana: A Subtropical Delirium, by Mark Kurlansky. Bloomsbury USA, 2017
MILK!: A Ten Thousand Year Food Fracas, by Mark Kurlansky. Bloomsbury USA, 2018
Bugs In Danger: Our Vanishing Bees, Butterflies, and Beetles, by Mark Kurlansky, illustrated by Jia Liu. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2019
Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate, by Mark Kurlansky. Patagonia, 2020
The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing, by Mark Kurlansky. Bloomsbury, 2021
The Importance of Not Being Ernest: My Life with the Uninvited Hemingway, by Mark Kurlansky. Books & Books Press, 2022
Big Lies: From Socrates to Social Media, by Mark Kurlansky, illustrated by Eric Zelz. Tilbury House Publishers, 2022
The Core of an Onion: Peeling the Rarest Common Food – Featuring More Than 100 Historical Recipes, by Mark Kurlansky. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023
The Boston Way: Radicals against Slavery & The Civil War, by Mark Kurlansky. Godine, 2025
Lobsters, by Mark Kurlansky. Bloomsbury, 2026 (forthcoming)

Awards

2024 People Magazine selected Salt as one of the fifteen best books of the 21st century
2021 National Outdoor Book Awards THE UNREASONABLE VIRTUE OF FLY FISHING is the Award Winner in the Outdoor Literary Category
Three awards for Salmon: 2020 Andre Simon food and drink awards, The John Avery Award and the IBPA Ben Franklin Gold Award for Nature nd Environment writing and the 2021 British Guild of Food Writer Awards “highly recommended” in the “Investigative Food Writing” category
2017 Havana named one of top seven travel books of the year by Smithsonian magazine
2015 Junior Library Guild Selection for Frozen In Time
2012 Robert Laxalt Distinguished Writer award from Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno
2011 National Parenting Publications Awards– gold award for World Without Fish
2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonviolence
2007 Doctor of Letters, Butler University
2006 Bon Appetit Magazine’s Food Writer of the Year
2005 ALA Notable Book Council Award for 1968: The Year That Rocked The World
2001 Basque Hall of Fame
2001 Honorary ambassadorship from the Basque government
Cod received the 1999 James Beard Award for Food Writing and the 1999 Glenfiddich Award
The children’s book, The Cod’s Tale, received the Orbis Pictus award from the National Council of Teachers of English
The children’s book, The Story of Salt, received the ALA Notable Book Award
A Continent of Islands and Cod both received The New York Public Library Best Books of the Year Award
Salt received the Pluma Plata award from the Bilbao Book Fair and was a finalist for the LA Times Science Writing Award and the James Beard food writing award.
1968 received the ALA Notable Book Award
Cod, Salt, 1968, and Food of a Younger Land were all New York Times Best Sellers and along with The Basque History of the World were international best sellers.

Extent

22.19 Leaves (17 boxes +3 oversize boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection contains the unprocessed papers of author and journalist Mark Kurlansky, spanning from approximately 1970 to 2018.

Arrangement

This is an unprocessed collection. Any arrangement reflects either a pre-existing order from the records’ creator, sorting or selection made by the records’ donors prior to or upon donation (e.g. a University department where the materials originated), or organization completed by the Department of Special Collections, Rare Books, and University Archives in order to make the collection more accessible to researchers.

We anticipate more materials will be added to this collection.