From Publishers Weekly
In his newest (after Annals), McPhee leads readers out to the river-pole and lures in hand-to angle for American shad. McPhee knows where the fish are running, so to speak, and he opens with a tall tale about his long vigil with a giant roe shad on the line. Night falls, a crowd gathers on a nearby bridge to watch and still the fish refuses to roll over; however embellished, it's a comic story. He then probes the natural history of the shad, known as Alosa sapidissima and traces the fish's storied place in American history and economics. The shad manages to turn up, at least in legend, at George Washington's camp at Valley Forge; it waylaid Confederate General Pickett in the defense of Richmond and hastened the end of the Civil War; it even played a minor role in John Wilkes Booth's murder of Lincoln. McPhee consults specialists like a fish behaviorist, an anatomist of fishes and a zooarcheologist who studies 18th-century trash pits to see whether Washington indeed ate shad at Mount Vernon. The author studies under a master shad dart maker and in an appendix gives recipes, too. McPhee reaffirms his stature as a bold American original. His prose is rugged, straightforward and unassuming, and can be just as witty. This book sings like anglers' lines cast on the water. It runs with the wisdom of ocean-going shad.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Alosa sapidissima, the American shad, is considered an early teleost one of the most primitive fish, hence the title. As in his other award-winning works, McPhee (Annals of the Former World) writes with an engaging style that keeps the reader turning page after page. Here he ruminates on the fish's role in nature and American history it was a founding fish in more ways than one. McPhee waxes poetically about fishing in the Delaware River, making shad darts (excerpted in The New Yorker), and cooking shad and shad roe. He handles common anthropomorphic writing tendencies with flair and wit: "[the shad] can't be said to be cocky, of course, but he suggests cockiness and pretension." Although this shad is native to the Atlantic coast and naturalized on the Pacific coast, the book may be of more interest to readers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, where place names in the book will more likely be recognized. Still, there are a lot of McPhee fans out there, so it is recommended for large public library collections and where his books circulate well. Mary J. Nickum, Lakewood, COCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
In his latest, Pulitzer Prize winner McPhee shares his deep pleasure in shad fishing in spite of his modest catches, wittily complains about his most despised fishing competitor, shares his awe over champion shad-catchers, and profiles intrepid fish biologists he accompanies both in the lab and out in the field. But being a scholarly sort, he not only pursues shad with dart and pole but also stalks them in the annals of history in a far-reaching chronicle similar to Mark Kurlansky's popular Cod (1997). At the heart of this enlightening portrait of a fish that also won the admiration of Thomas Jefferson and Henry David Thoreau is McPhee's gleeful dissection of the belief that the humble shad--a migrating fish that once turned East Coast rivers turgid with spawning runs so enormous fishermen could drive them into nets like cattle into corrals--helped George Washington win the revolution by feeding his starving troops. McPhee is in great form here, as informative as always but also funny, unusually self-revealing, and quite passionate in his discussions of the dire effects dams have had on shad and rivers alike, and the troubling realization that catch-and-release fishing "may be cruelty masquerading as political correctness." Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


From Book News, Inc.
Even those who don't think they're interested in fish will find McPhee's latest a compelling read. The subject is shad, prized from colonial times. McPhee describes the history of American fishing for shad, recent studies and research on the fish, and his observations on fishing and cooking shad and its roe.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Review
"The Founding Fish is . . . far more than a fishing book. It is a mini-encyclopedia, a highly informative and entertaining amalgam of natural and personal history, a work in a class by itself." --Robert H. Boyle, The New York Times Book Review

"A blue-chip tour of the American shad." --Kirkus Reviews

"Under McPhee's close eye, everything about this fish is fascinating." --William Moody, The Christian Science Monitor

"A fishing classic"--The Economist



Review
"The Founding Fish is . . . far more than a fishing book. It is a mini-encyclopedia, a highly informative and entertaining amalgam of natural and personal history, a work in a class by itself." --Robert H. Boyle, The New York Times Book Review

"A blue-chip tour of the American shad." --Kirkus Reviews

"Under McPhee's close eye, everything about this fish is fascinating." --William Moody, The Christian Science Monitor

"A fishing classic"--The Economist



Book Description
John McPhee's twenty-sixth book is a braid of personal history, natural history, and American history, in descending order of volume. Each spring, American shad-Alosa sapidissima-leave the ocean in hundreds of thousands and run heroic distances upriver to spawn.

McPhee--a shad fisherman himself--recounts the shad's cameo role in the lives of George Washington and Henry David Thoreau. He fishes with and visits the laboratories of famous ichthyologists; he takes instruction in the making of shad darts from a master of the art; and he cooks shad in a variety of ways, delectably explained at the end of the book. Mostly, though, he goes fishing for shad in various North American rivers, and he "fishes the same way he writes books, avidly and intensely. He wants to know everything about the fish he's after--its history, its habits, its place in the cosmos" (Bill Pride, The Denver Post). His adventures in pursuit of shad occasion the kind of writing--expert and ardent--at which he has no equal.



Download Description
McPhee presents his obsession with shad fishing in bold and spirited prose, laced with humor. His adventures in pursuit of shad occasion the kind of writing--expert and ardent--at which he has no equal.


About the Author
John McPhee is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His previous book, Annals of the Former World, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1999.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
What Mark Kurlansky did for Cod, Pulitzer Prize winner John McPhee does for the great American shad in an account that's part history, part natural history, and one long engaging fish story. By his own reckoning, McPhee has "personally spent nine hundred and twenty-two hours" fishing for shad in the Delaware River, and in The Founding Fish he plunges us into his story as the shad begin to run. Recounting his battle with a roe shad that takes nearly three hours to land, McPhee then traces the history of the American obsession with this celebrated fish, which emerged in the Cretaceous and is now threatened by environmental degradation. From the Columbia River Gorge to the inlets of Maine, McPhee encounters enthusiasts like himself -- fish anatomists, ecologists, anglers, and an expert dart maker -- and even manages to involve Washington, Jefferson, Daniel Boone, and Pocahontas in his tale. Full of the kind of close observation and precise description for which McPhee is known, the book concludes with an anecdotal compendium of recipes for shad. Like any fishing trip with a seasoned angler, The Founding Fish is by turns leisurely and eventful, companionable and informed -- it's is a sure thing for McPhee's many fans. Deirdre Mullane

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Few fish are as beloved -- or as obsessed over -- as the American shad. Although shad spend most of their lives in salt water, they enter rivers by the hundreds of thousands in the spring and swim upstream heroic distances in order to spawn, then return to the ocean.

John McPhee is a shad fisherman, and his passion for the annual shad run has led him, over the years, to learn much of what there is to know about the fish known as Alosa sapidissima, or "most savory." In The Founding Fish McPhee makes of his obsession a work of literary art. In characteristically bold and spirited prose -- inflected, here and there, with wry humor -- McPhee places the fish within natural history and American history. He explores the fish's cameo role in the lives of William Penn, Washington, Jefferson, Thoreau, Lincoln, and John Wilkes Booth. He travels with various ichthyologists, including a fish behaviorist and an anatomist of fishes; takes instruction in the making of shad darts from a master of the art; and cooks shad and shad roe a variety of ways (delectably explained at the end of the book). Mostly, though, McPhee goes fishing for shad -- standing for hours in the Delaware River in stocking waders and cleated boots, or gently bumping over rapids in a chocolate-colored Kevlar canoe. His adventures in the pursuit of shad occasion the kind of writing, at once expert and ardent, in which he has no equal.

John McPhee is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of twenty-six books, including Annals of the Former World, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1999.

SYNOPSIS

John McPhee is a shad fisherman. He waits all year for the short spring season when American shad -- Alosa sapidissima -- leave the ocean and run up rivers to spawn. He has a catch-and-eat philosophy. After all, their name means "most savory.

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine

There are many descriptions one might give to the writing of Pulitzer Prize winner McPhee￯﾿ﾽentertaining, wry, surprising, inventive￯﾿ﾽbut the quality most prominently on display in his newest work is uncompromising thoroughness. The book recounts the complete history of the delicious fish known as the shad￯﾿ﾽnot just of hunting, cleaning and eating the fish, but of the famous men who caught it (William Penn, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln among them), the writers who penned heartfelt tributes to it, the biologists and ichthyologists who try to uncover its secrets and the animal activists who fight on its behalf. It is likely that no one will ever write another book quite like this one, a book that manages to relate every possible snippet of shad lore while at the same time offering up humorous tales of the author's own fishing expeditions. The book will no doubt emerge as a must-read for those already enamored of shad. For the rest of us, it serves as an example of nonfiction writing at its finest￯﾿ﾽintimate and suggestive, authoritative and convincing. Author￯﾿ﾽBeth Kephart

Book Magazine - Beth Kephart

There are many descriptions one might give to the writing of Pulitzer Prize winner McPhee—entertaining, wry, surprising, inventive—but the quality most prominently on display in his newest work is uncompromising thoroughness. The book recounts the complete history of the delicious fish known as the shad—not just of hunting, cleaning and eating the fish, but of the famous men who caught it (William Penn, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln among them), the writers who penned heartfelt tributes to it, the biologists and ichthyologists who try to uncover its secrets and the animal activists who fight on its behalf. It is likely that no one will ever write another book quite like this one, a book that manages to relate every possible snippet of shad lore while at the same time offering up humorous tales of the author's own fishing expeditions. The book will no doubt emerge as a must-read for those already enamored of shad. For the rest of us, it serves as an example of nonfiction writing at its finest—intimate and suggestive, authoritative and convincing.

Publishers Weekly

In his newest (after Annals), McPhee leads readers out to the river-pole and lures in hand-to angle for American shad. McPhee knows where the fish are running, so to speak, and he opens with a tall tale about his long vigil with a giant roe shad on the line. Night falls, a crowd gathers on a nearby bridge to watch and still the fish refuses to roll over; however embellished, it's a comic story. He then probes the natural history of the shad, known as Alosa sapidissima and traces the fish's storied place in American history and economics. The shad manages to turn up, at least in legend, at George Washington's camp at Valley Forge; it waylaid Confederate General Pickett in the defense of Richmond and hastened the end of the Civil War; it even played a minor role in John Wilkes Booth's murder of Lincoln. McPhee consults specialists like a fish behaviorist, an anatomist of fishes and a zooarcheologist who studies 18th-century trash pits to see whether Washington indeed ate shad at Mount Vernon. The author studies under a master shad dart maker and in an appendix gives recipes, too. McPhee reaffirms his stature as a bold American original. His prose is rugged, straightforward and unassuming, and can be just as witty. This book sings like anglers' lines cast on the water. It runs with the wisdom of ocean-going shad. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Alosa sapidissima, the American shad, is considered an early teleost one of the most primitive fish, hence the title. As in his other award-winning works, McPhee (Annals of the Former World) writes with an engaging style that keeps the reader turning page after page. Here he ruminates on the fish's role in nature and American history it was a founding fish in more ways than one. McPhee waxes poetically about fishing in the Delaware River, making shad darts (excerpted in The New Yorker), and cooking shad and shad roe. He handles common anthropomorphic writing tendencies with flair and wit: "[the shad] can't be said to be cocky, of course, but he suggests cockiness and pretension." Although this shad is native to the Atlantic coast and naturalized on the Pacific coast, the book may be of more interest to readers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, where place names in the book will more likely be recognized. Still, there are a lot of McPhee fans out there, so it is recommended for large public library collections and where his books circulate well. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/02.] Mary J. Nickum, Lakewood, CO Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A blue-chip tour of the American shad from McPhee (Annals of the Former World, 1998, etc.), maestro of the extended essay, if not the fly rod.

Suitably, and lucky for readers, there isn￯﾿ﾽt a dry patch in this story of a fish and its homewaters. It￯﾿ﾽs owlish, reflective, full of sustaining information you had no idea you wanted to know, but also warm and full of McPhee, a shad fisherman, with rod and dart and fly, of long standing. Still, he likes to have his companions along for the exploration (fish biologists and behaviorists, commercial fishermen, fishing friends and acquaintances who were born with the touch, shad and river historians), for they feed him all the colloidal material that glues the story￯﾿ﾽepisodes of McPhee￯﾿ﾽs encounters with the fish￯﾿ﾽtogether. Readers tending toward hard science will be pleased with the clear-minded ichthyological material, while those whose slant is more in the direction of humanities will graze enjoyably on the historical and anecdotal parts. In one approach, we get to climb right into the fish￯﾿ﾽs skin, and in the other we get to climb into McPhee, which is a surprise and a pleasure in a writer known more for his shadowy presence than for stepping into the spotlight. The cargo of stories here￯﾿ﾽmany bright with humor; there is even a chapter devoted to losing fish￯﾿ﾽis weighty enough to have required many days on many rivers (how did he find time to write all those other books?), yet McPhee￯﾿ﾽs ability to convey the wonder of it all is unfailing and inviting: You￯﾿ﾽre allowed to discover all the information, partake in all the anecdotes, right by his side.