Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man

by Mark Kurlansky

Break out the TV dinners! From the author who gave us Cod, Salt, and other informative bestsellers, the first biography of Clarence Birdseye, the eccentric genius inventor whose fast-freezing process revolutionized the food industry and American agriculture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Food, Audiobook, Biography Memoir, Science

241 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Mark Kurlansky is an American journalist and author who has written a number of books of fiction and nonfiction. His 1997 book, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (1997), was an international bestseller and was translated into more than fifteen languages. His book Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea (2006) was the nonfiction winner of the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Reviews

[Kerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting biography. I have to say, prior to picking this up, I hadn't given much though to the evolution of frozen food, and the real pioneer behind the commercialization of it, Clarence Birdseye. This was an informative book that I really enjoyed, more than I expected to, to be honest. I really liked the authors writing style and will be reading more of his work.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man
by: Mark Kurlansky

I won this book from a Goodreads/First reads giveaway

I have to say I enjoyed reading about Clarence Birdseye. I grew up with his foods and never had any idea that he was an inventer with more than 200 patents. He was a hunter, a photographer and a "foodie" before his time.

Clarence Birdseye was very curious about everything and had a real zest for life. His curiosity was his drive to "figure things out" and the force behind Birdseye's success. He was always trying to make it better. This book goes through the history of frozen foods and even having to convince people that it was safe to eat. (that seems so funny compared to the amount of frozen foods we consume today).

This is a great book and I really enjoyed it. I highly recommend this book. I learned alot about how much Mr. Birdseye invented to make his frozen foods work. (several machines to make things work and easier). He was a treat to read aobut.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting combination of biography, and the history of frozen food. Clarence "Bob" "Bugs" Birdseye was a man ahead of his time, and lived a quite unique and adventurous life traveling, inventing, and photographing. He is the kind of guy you would want to have a long meal with and enjoy listening to his tales. This is another slam-dunk by the consistently good Kurlansky (although Salt is still my all-time favorite by him).

[Dead John Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a sucker for accessible non-fiction.

My top 3 writers being Simon Winchester, Jared Diamond and Mark Kurlansky.

If I was to make an air travel analogy, then Simon Winchester is first class, Jared Diamond is business class and Mark Kurlansky is economy. That is said not by way of judgement but by way of illustration.

For clarification Bill Bryson is bus travel.

What I adore about Mark Kurlansky's books is that they give context, and lots of it. So, in this book you get to find out a bit about Birdseye and a lot about what was going on around him so you can truly appreciate, not the greatness of what he did, but the impact of it, at the time, on normal people and all of us who came later.

By way of comparative illustration:
Mark Kurlansky tells us how have freezers full of edible food in our supermarkets today thanks to Clarence Birdseye.
Jared Diamond would be telling you about the historical and cultural development that got him there.
Simon Winchester would tell you not only the size of his underpants but also how ofter he washed them.
Bill Bryson would be on a bus to nowhere while his researchers wrote his latest book.

If you are interested in how the world we live in (as people) got here, then books like this are priceless
for turning the mundane invisible (and amazing) features of our culture into gripping yarns of human achievement that are not based on wealth, class or privilege.

If you haven't read Salt or Cod by this author then you should be sent back to Kansas.

[Andrea Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book for all the context that Kurlansky provides for understanding the era that produced men like Clarence Birdseye. There is more historical information than biographical details as Birdseye didn't leave lots to work from. Kurlansky skillfully paints a colorful image of the times. It's a charming work but not as deep as one would like for a biography. The work is a good reference source but not a deeply engaging biography. Birdseye was a weird character. I imagine he was a hard subject to write about. I received the book from the publisher and was happy to have had the chance to read it.

[Tom Brennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kurlansky is a rare author, and I'm one of those rare men who can appreciate him. This is my third or fourth Kurlansky book. Having said that, this is not his best work. Perhaps I am getting a little tired of his approach, but it seemed to me that the story to be told here - and there is one - is not the story he told or not the one he told well enough. The story here is/ought to be the dramatic rise of frozen foods, how that happened, how that changed the American public, the economy, the culture, etc. is what he attempts to tell, I think. But he spends too much time on rather obscure aspects of Birdseye's life, aspects that, frankly, were just not interesting.

There's a good book in this subject. I don't think this is it.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Mark Kurlansky wrote it, it's worth reading. This is his narrowest work in that he focuses on just one man--although the one man had many interests and lived several interesting lives. The first surprise is that Clarence Birdseye was a real person, not just a brand name. His life growing up, his life in the west, his life in Canadian maritimes, and his life as a pioneer of the food industry would each be worth the telling, but combined, Kurlansky gives us another fascinating portrait of history through a well-defined lens.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor biography. Redeeming quality is that it gives hope to the would-be biographer who finds himself short on primary source material. This book ably demonstrates that this absence of insightful material should not be seen as an impediment to producing a biography. Rather, the author of this slim volume shows the reader how to fill pages with interesting but largely irrelevant esoterica. We are left with an incomplete portrait of an interesting character.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoops! Forgot I plowed through this one in a couple of days over vacation.

Kurlansky produces yet another top-notch but accessible food history in Birdseye. I liked the combination of explorer, inventor, and businessman in Mr. Birdseye, so the story was a great one to tell. Also a nice triumph of marketing in addition to science.

[Seth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of books about random subjects but I've never understood the fuss about Kurlansky. His books are well-researched and the prose is fine but I've never actually been remotely entertained. Same thoughts about this one.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book as a first edition signed copy as a reward from my libraries reading challenge last year. I know I had to read it before this years reading challenge was done!
This was a super interesting biography on the life of Clarence Birdseye, The author did a great job outlining Birdseye's life but also so much of the second industrial revolution in the US.
Jon Van Ness was a wonderful narrator and I could certainly listen to many more books with his timbre!

[AnnaG · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating biography of the man behind the commercialisation of frozen food. Written straight-forwardly looking into the various topics that interested Birdseye at various point (tick borne illness in Montana etc..), I really enjoyed reading about how the business emerged and where my food actually comes from!

[Budd Margolis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real American inventing hero. Fascinating and revealing about someone who lives a full life and had an amazing mind. Must of how food retail works, and the progress of the industrial age, is revealed here. I really enjoyed this book and could not put it down!

[Leah K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Birdseye: The Adventure of a Curious Man by Mark Kurlansky

★★★

Want to read the biography of a man who reinvented the frozen food industry? Clarence Birdseye would invent a technique of flash freezing that is still used today. Without him, your frozen food aisles at your grocery store would be much different. Ok….so this book isn’t for everyone but it was interesting! This man invented many products, patenting many products but flash freezing would be his main triumph. But even before the inventions was an adventurous man who traveled the world.

Mark Kurlansky has written many books on the history of subjects such as salt, cod, and oysters so it was no surprise he tackled this eccentric man next. Unfortunately I felt that this book fell a little short. I don’t think this was because of the author but just because there doesn’t seem to be enough information on Birdseye. It was short biography that swept through his younger life since mostly all we know about that period was he was born and he traveled (most info was glimpsed from his journal). I feel like the author tried to make for these short-comings by making lengthy info on other people in Birdseye’s life and while that was interesting, it took away from the main attraction. I enjoyed the information there was on the man and his inventions and time but it makes sense why a biography has never been done on him before, there just isn’t enough information to properly done one in my opinion.

[jersey9000 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Mr. Kurlansky. I have found his books to be both interesting, well written, and incredibly informative. I like reading history books that take one subject and view the course of human events through that specific prism (like 59 in 84 did so well) and that is something this author does on a consistent basis. Anyone who read Salt, Cod, or The Last Oyster will get a similar vibe from this one, author it is more like a biography than a sweeping historical tome.

Following the life and times of the founder/inventor behind Birds Eye frozen foods, this books has a chosen a great subject. The man behind the awesome frozen peas is tireless, diligent, and supremely curious about the world around him, even as he gets older. He never stops tinkering, thinking, and dreaming. While his opinion of industrialization and ecology seem either dated or outright offensive now, it makes sense in the context of his day (to a degree, anyways) and his quest to figure out how the world works, one piece at a time, should be emulated by everyone. I think it would make the world a much better place if we all had even just a bit of this man's zest for understanding.

And, seriously, this guy did so many different things, it sounds almost like a mediocre author invented the character. Fascinating stuff.

[Redbird · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should've paid attn to Joseph's review; he was clearly on target. I'll be brief with my two cents.

Audiobook review: The narrator did the author a great disservice with his grandfatherly reading, pausing too often and often midthought, struggling through the pronunciation of non-English words, and keeping a fairly bland cadence like most of us regular folks do.

The book itself was much more about the era of invention and industry during Birdseye's lifetime, including the culture and people that influenced him and were influenced by him. The story of his life starts slowly, and I found him hard to like. He was a great exaggerator (which I read as "liar", but I'm in that whole truthiness thing) and busybody; certainly he was creative, though.

Despite all the bits and pieces about him, I never felt I got a sense of who he really was as a person - or why I should have wanted to read this book about him. That was most disappointing: give me something inspirational as a takeaway. I got nothing. Just a bunch of steampunk factoids.

Don't read this unless you work in the food mfg industry or are a trivia nut. Thaw out some yummy frozen veggies instead and get your servings of legumes and veggies. Better for you all around.

[Danny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a tough time paying attention to history, so I'm glad when someone has both the interest and the inclination to weave together a story like this. Though it's light on biographical detail, the author ably puts Birdseye within historical context. Illuminating the world at the time from the perspectives of science, government, economics, the food industry, and the spirit of invention.

I especially liked how we learned about the un-PC aspects of Birdseye's life and philosophies, because those parts greatly inform the world we live in today. Birdseye, it is posited, would be perplexed at our concern about species depopulation and eating locally instead of shipping food around the world. The world moves on, and it's good to know where we came from when we consider where we'd like to go.

If you've ever eaten frozen food, or even strolled down the freezer aisle at your local supermarket, then this book should interest you.

[Sherrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of info on the inventor of the freezing process of food. Which I didn't know that Birdseye discovered this. Clarence(Bob) Birdseye was a well traveled man. Coming up with lots of ways to make living easier and more economical. He was also one of the people that helped find the cure for Tick Fever. The author did a remarkable job weaving this man's history together, considering he didn't have a lot of information that was accurate. He took a lot of info from Birdseye's Jounal's.

[Pancha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have really liked Kurlansky's books in the past, but I found this one a little boring. His other books have been broader history, and not biographies, so maybe that's where my problem lies. I much preferred Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold, which covers a lot of the same ground as this book, and more.

[Sugarpuss O'Shea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book fit right in to my quirky reading list. You can tell that there wasn't much information for Mr Kurlansky to go on, but I am glad he took the time to bring Mr Birdseye to life. He's a fascinating man who has (almost) singlehandedly changed the way the world eats. Makes you wonder how much more he would've done if he didn't die at 69..... This is an easy read with some fascinating tidbits that will impress your friends.

[Ang · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a strange little book.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kurlansky always delivers grand tales about easily unthought about subjects; this book was no exception.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating!

[V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clarence "Bob" "Bugs" Birdseye loved killing animals. As a boy and young man, he had various hustles collecting and selling live animals as well as pelts and boasted that he killed 1000 animals (probably closer to 700) in a season of collecting ticks for research on Rocky Mountain spotted fever. His report on the project recommended the eradication of all manner of rodents, not just to control disease but because they were agricultural pests. After reading this material, I was not disposed to like Birdseye and deeply regretted that this casually murderous individual should have achieved such great success. (As a related aside, I had not expected to encounter any discussion of the history of disease in a book about a guy known for frozen foods and I am disappointed to report that Kurlansky does not seem to have an understanding of the definitions of the related terms arthropod, insect, arachnid, and tick. Also, "ecological biologist"? The author's shortcomings in this department made the Rocky Mountain animal massacre chapter even more irritating.)

Attempting to set aside my personal distaste for Birdseye's passion for killing and monetizing animals not intended for consumption (difficult to do, as Birdseye's later activities included harpooning dozens of sharks, whales and porpoises for sport--yeah, he did eat them but this was no subsistence hunting), I still found this book somewhat lacking. Perhaps this was because there was a dearth of primary materials to draw from--Birdseye's letter-writing and journal-keeping slowed after his marriage and then ceased and did not provide a lot of personal details, anyway. He may have come to the project too late, after the deaths of most of the people who had known Birdseye; it seemed as if a lot of his informants had been kids in Birdseye's neighborhood. The book read as if Kurlansky couldn't decide whether to write a bio of Birdseye or a history of frozen foods and tried to do both, accomplishing neither especially well.

Nevertheless, as far as it went, this book was interesting.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another audiobook review.

I was expecting a more traditional biography than what was presented. Birdseye seems to be the jumping off point to many of the tangents in the book. Although the tangents present useful information and a historical background, it distracts from the biography to the point of being filler material. Much of the book, in fact, seems to be a historical background with Clarence Birdseye making an appearance. For example, there is a great deal of information on Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever because Birdseye was part of the government study of the disease.

Birdseye, himself seems to be quite a character. He was a naturalist, which meant the shooting, stuffing, and eating as many and as many types of animals he could find. His desire to eat odd animals (field mice and starlings are two I recall) reminded me of a carnivorous Euell Gibbons parody. Birdseye was curious and that curiosity lead him through life. He lived in the American Southwest, Labrador, and South America looking at ways to improve industry.

There are many fallacies of Birdseye's life brought out in the book. He did not invent frozen food. Frozen food was around before he was born, but it was low quality and far worse than canned food. Birdseye did make frozen food commercially viable and changed the way America bought food. That is the real story of Birdseye. His other inventions that made him more money are also covered. He was a curious man who saw something and immediately asked questions and began thinking on how it could be improved. It's a good story, but the audiobook did seem choppy. I am not sure if this was because of the reader or the writing.

[Les · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no particular interest in frozen foods or Clarence Birdseye when I picked up this book, so I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed reading this as much as I did. Mark Kurlansky did an excellent job of making Birdseye and his many endeavors real and interesting while not shying away from covering Birdseye's shortcomings as well. The man certainly WAS curious, and led an active and interesting life, most of it accompanied by his bright, adventurous, hard-working, and very supportive wife.

Mark Kurlansky obviously did a lot of research on the process of freezing foods, so was able to explain in layman's terms much of Birdseye's struggles, which made the book that much more interesting. He also gave a lot of historical and regional context that helped explain the public reaction - or lack there of - to Birdseye's many endeavors. I may choose to read other non-fiction books by Kurlansky (such as the history of salt or oysters or codfish, or the year 1968) simply because I now know that he writes well and includes enough background and detail to make potentially dull subjects come alive.

It did take me many months to get through this book. I would read a few chapters, grow a bit tired of the subject matter and move on to another book for a while. But I always came back to this book, and was always glad when I did.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarence Birdseye, who went by Bob most of his life, is mostly remembered for developing the machinery and processes for frozen food, starting with fish - then moving on to vegetables, and just about any other kind of food. What is less well known about him is that he spent his young years collecting ticks off animals in Montana (to solve the medical cause of Rocky Mountain Spotted fever), then moved on to live in Labrador (where he raised foxes and first got his ideas about freezing food) to Gloucester, MA where he built his frozen food company. He sold his company to General Foods, but continued to work for General Foods in developing and marketing other frozen food. Even in retirement, he took up gardening - then developed a process of making paper out of the stalks of sugar cane in Peru and Puerto Rico. Along the way, he and his wife had a pet fox, penguin, parrot, etc. He died at age 69 still inventing things. He had thousands of patents - a most interesting little man.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kurlansky has basically developed his own form of biography--short, to the point, hyperfocused on one concept and carefully linked to all his other biographies. Reading his books is like falling down a wikihole, but with fewer distractions.

On to the subject matter: Clarence Birdseye was an absolute mutant, and I mean that in the most complimentary way--perhaps the most American to have ever lived. Implicitly trustful of industry and possessing an inherent belief that all nature should be made to serve man (and human efforts should be commercialized), one would expect this to be a gray portrait of a gray man. Instead he's fond of adventure, infinitely curious, a huge fan of food (and an absolute killing machine, he hunts quite a bit of what he eats throughout his life) and possessing an uncanny knack for salesmanship. I was delighted and politely appalled at nearly every turn. An excellent read.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very well written biography. I learned a lot about Birdseye’s life, family and numerous inventions. The author also showed us how the various inventions were developed and how they operated. He showed us Historical events and what competitors were doing meanwhile. This gives readers a clear perspective of just how cutting-edge Birdseye’s inventions were and how important they were to consumers at that time (and they still benefit us today!).

If you enjoy this book, check out The Foods That Made America, a series that was presented by The History Channel. Mark Kurlansky is interviewed in the show. You’ll also meet other innovators who were active in Birdseye’s day. It’s fascinating.

I learned much from this book that led to great conversations with family and friends. It was an enjoyable read, too.

[Jan Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A number of years ago, I learned that Birdseye was a real man and not ust a product name. It is interesting to learn the history behind the process and the product. Clarence "Bob" Birdseye was a interesting individual. The author follows his life starting from the time he was a young boy interested in hunting and nature. He had to drop out of college due to financial hardship in the family. Birdseye worked in the Rocky mountains investigating outbreaks of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. From there, he went to Labrador where he tried to make a living as a fur trader. It was during this time that Birdseye began to wonder why food frozen Labrador was so much better than food frozen in the United States. Birdseye is a man much more than frozen foods. He truly was a man with a curious mind. Mark Kurlansky wrote a good book detailing the life of Clarence Birdseye and his inventions.