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The Founding Fish
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.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
79 people are currently reading
1256 people want to read
About the author
John McPhee
121 books1,875 followersJohn Angus McPhee is an American writer. He is considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. He is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category General Nonfiction, and he won that award on the fourth occasion in 1999 for Annals of the Former World (a collection of five books, including two of his previous Pulitzer finalists). In 2008, he received the George Polk Career Award for his "indelible mark on American journalism during his nearly half-century career". Since 1974, McPhee has been the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University.
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March 3, 2017
I am not a fisherman and, more specifically, I am not a shad fisherman. So, of course I would read this book about fishing for shad by John McPhee, because who better to tell me stories about something I know nothing about?
ON THE EXISTENTIAL NATURE OF SHAD FISHING
This reminds me of what I do all day (nothing). I sharpen imaginary pencils and look out real windows. The light of the computer screen seems far too bright to me. I kill hours, hoping for distraction, and complain bitterly when distraction occurs. Three, four, five P.M. Nothing whatever accomplished. The day coiling like a spring. Nothing is worse than a lost day. Panic rises, takes over, and I write until I go home at seven, thinking like a shad.
ON NOT TAKING THE BAIT
Shad are anadromous, I learned, meaning they are born in fresh water then swim to salt water. They stay there, frankly not doing much, until three or four years later when it's time to spawn. Then it's back to the stream or river from whence they originated, sometimes a very long journey. They don't eat when in spawning mode. This is a challenge for the angler. Or as McPhee says: We were sharing the river with half a million shad, whose interest in us was inverse to our interest in them. Or, as he also said: Whatever else might be made of it, to do that--to cast a 1/32-ounce dart into that scene--is to know what it is to be ignored.
ON WHAT IT MEANS 'TO DRINK LIKE A FISH'
This whole going back and forth from fresh water to salt water causes a fundamental shift in the shad's metabolism. In fresh water they lose ions and gain water; in sea water they gain ions and lose water. To make a long story short, the shad has to reverse what the gills do. Thirsty work. When swimming fast, even a little shad will take in ten quarts of water a minute.
ON THE NATURE OF HUSBANDS
If a shad does open its mouth at the right moment and gets hooked, it is not a simple matter to reel him in. The shad's mouth is such that if you yank too hard the hook will pull out and the shad is gone. So you have to kind of wait him out. McPhee tells this wonderful, personal story about shad fishing with a couple of very experienced anglers. Late in the day, McPhee felt a tug. He figured he had hooked a rather large roe shad. The fish did not go easily or quickly. Folks on the shore stopped and watched, left and went to dinner, and returned to see McPhee still at it. Night fell. McPhee and the shad struggled for two hours and forty-five minutes. Eventually a cop showed up and asked McPhee and his friends if one of them owned a green Jeep. Well, Ed Cervone told the cop he did. Seems Ed's wife, Marian, had called the police, asking them to find him. McPhee explains that it wasn't really Marian Cervone who was worried, her husband being too unpredictable to worry about. No, it was McPhee's wife who was worried, and she called Marian because, she said, McPhee's absence was 'out of character'. In my favorite line in the book, McPhee wrote: Marian must have marvelled that someone could seriously use a phrase like that about a husband.
ON WHY I DON'T FISH
I was going to actually. Once anyhow. A cousin was going to take my brother and me fishing. To that end, one or more of my parents bought us fishing rods and reels. We were on our front porch, with no river or ocean in sight, showing off to some neighbor friend. He was explaining about how a rod will bend when a fish is fighting. It was important he said. So we were testing how much our rods would bend. My brother's bent more than mine, his still bending while mine already snapped. So, I got to watch my brother and cousin fish. You would think that there was a life- lesson there and that I would know thereafter not to be goofy and break things. I am, instead, a recidivist.
ON THE SHAD'S ROLE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
McPhee named this book 'The Founding Fish' because of its alleged role in saving the American force at Valley Forge. Like all good apocrypha, there is some basis for this legend. The Delaware was then, and is now, prime shad spawning water. And George Washington was, among many other things, a commercial shad fisherman. He would have known what to do when the river turned silver. Yet, the anecdotal and fossil evidence is simply non-existent. True, quite a few books and articles note that Nathan Hale asserted that an uncommonly early run of shad in the spring of 1778 saved Washington and his troops from starvation. Which would be fine, had not Hale died in September of 1776.
ON THOREAU....
....who had this to say: I have not yet met with the philosopher who could in a quite conclusive undoubtful way show me the . . . difference, between man and a fish.
ON BONES
Shad got them. Lots. Shad are described herein as an inverted porcupine.
ON THE SHAD'S CULINARY APPEAL
McPhee makes a compelling case that shad is the tastiest fish you can eat. Succulent. He includes plenty of testimonials. I wouldn't know because, as far as I can recall, I have never eaten shad. I don't even remember ever seeing shad for sale, not in grocery nor restaurant. Perhaps I've just overlooked it. Of course now it's a mission.
ON THE EXISTENTIAL NATURE OF SHAD FISHING
This reminds me of what I do all day (nothing). I sharpen imaginary pencils and look out real windows. The light of the computer screen seems far too bright to me. I kill hours, hoping for distraction, and complain bitterly when distraction occurs. Three, four, five P.M. Nothing whatever accomplished. The day coiling like a spring. Nothing is worse than a lost day. Panic rises, takes over, and I write until I go home at seven, thinking like a shad.
ON NOT TAKING THE BAIT
Shad are anadromous, I learned, meaning they are born in fresh water then swim to salt water. They stay there, frankly not doing much, until three or four years later when it's time to spawn. Then it's back to the stream or river from whence they originated, sometimes a very long journey. They don't eat when in spawning mode. This is a challenge for the angler. Or as McPhee says: We were sharing the river with half a million shad, whose interest in us was inverse to our interest in them. Or, as he also said: Whatever else might be made of it, to do that--to cast a 1/32-ounce dart into that scene--is to know what it is to be ignored.
ON WHAT IT MEANS 'TO DRINK LIKE A FISH'
This whole going back and forth from fresh water to salt water causes a fundamental shift in the shad's metabolism. In fresh water they lose ions and gain water; in sea water they gain ions and lose water. To make a long story short, the shad has to reverse what the gills do. Thirsty work. When swimming fast, even a little shad will take in ten quarts of water a minute.
ON THE NATURE OF HUSBANDS
If a shad does open its mouth at the right moment and gets hooked, it is not a simple matter to reel him in. The shad's mouth is such that if you yank too hard the hook will pull out and the shad is gone. So you have to kind of wait him out. McPhee tells this wonderful, personal story about shad fishing with a couple of very experienced anglers. Late in the day, McPhee felt a tug. He figured he had hooked a rather large roe shad. The fish did not go easily or quickly. Folks on the shore stopped and watched, left and went to dinner, and returned to see McPhee still at it. Night fell. McPhee and the shad struggled for two hours and forty-five minutes. Eventually a cop showed up and asked McPhee and his friends if one of them owned a green Jeep. Well, Ed Cervone told the cop he did. Seems Ed's wife, Marian, had called the police, asking them to find him. McPhee explains that it wasn't really Marian Cervone who was worried, her husband being too unpredictable to worry about. No, it was McPhee's wife who was worried, and she called Marian because, she said, McPhee's absence was 'out of character'. In my favorite line in the book, McPhee wrote: Marian must have marvelled that someone could seriously use a phrase like that about a husband.
ON WHY I DON'T FISH
I was going to actually. Once anyhow. A cousin was going to take my brother and me fishing. To that end, one or more of my parents bought us fishing rods and reels. We were on our front porch, with no river or ocean in sight, showing off to some neighbor friend. He was explaining about how a rod will bend when a fish is fighting. It was important he said. So we were testing how much our rods would bend. My brother's bent more than mine, his still bending while mine already snapped. So, I got to watch my brother and cousin fish. You would think that there was a life- lesson there and that I would know thereafter not to be goofy and break things. I am, instead, a recidivist.
ON THE SHAD'S ROLE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
McPhee named this book 'The Founding Fish' because of its alleged role in saving the American force at Valley Forge. Like all good apocrypha, there is some basis for this legend. The Delaware was then, and is now, prime shad spawning water. And George Washington was, among many other things, a commercial shad fisherman. He would have known what to do when the river turned silver. Yet, the anecdotal and fossil evidence is simply non-existent. True, quite a few books and articles note that Nathan Hale asserted that an uncommonly early run of shad in the spring of 1778 saved Washington and his troops from starvation. Which would be fine, had not Hale died in September of 1776.
ON THOREAU....
....who had this to say: I have not yet met with the philosopher who could in a quite conclusive undoubtful way show me the . . . difference, between man and a fish.
ON BONES
Shad got them. Lots. Shad are described herein as an inverted porcupine.
ON THE SHAD'S CULINARY APPEAL
McPhee makes a compelling case that shad is the tastiest fish you can eat. Succulent. He includes plenty of testimonials. I wouldn't know because, as far as I can recall, I have never eaten shad. I don't even remember ever seeing shad for sale, not in grocery nor restaurant. Perhaps I've just overlooked it. Of course now it's a mission.
November 22, 2015
'Poor shad! where is thy redress?'
When Nature gave thee instinct, gave she thee the heart to bear thy fate? Still wandering the sea in thy scaly armor to inquire humbly at the mouths of rivers if man has perchance left them free for thee to enter. By countless shoals loitering uncertain meanwhile, merely stemming the tide there, in danger from sea foes in spite of thy bright armor, awaiting new instructions, until the sands, until the water itself, tell thee if it be so or not. Thus by whole migrating nations, full of instinct, which is thy faith, in this backward spring, turned adrift, and perchance knowest not where men do not dwell, where there are not factories, in these days. Armed with no sword, no electric shock, but mere Shad, armed only with innocence and a just cause, with tender dumb mouth only forward, and scales easy to be detached.
-- Henry Thoreau, Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Reading McPhee is like watching a brilliant tennis player you've followed for years. I know his moves. I can even predict most of his methods, but I keep coming back to watch him put it all together. He is masterful. He makes the incredibly difficult work of narrative nonfiction seem effortless. Beautiful prose swims right up to McPhee and jumps into his net or flops right into the pages of his book.
Once again McPhee matches a microhistory (the American Shad) with great characters (biologists, fishermen, sportsmen, presidents, even his wife) present and past, amazing locations and takes you completely through the subject. You emerge from tail of the book knowing the history, the biology, the life, the death, the taste and the debate surrounding America's founding fish. He shows you every single bone in a boney fish. Read and released.
___________________
- Robert Farwell / Edward Jones library / Mesa, AZ 2014
When Nature gave thee instinct, gave she thee the heart to bear thy fate? Still wandering the sea in thy scaly armor to inquire humbly at the mouths of rivers if man has perchance left them free for thee to enter. By countless shoals loitering uncertain meanwhile, merely stemming the tide there, in danger from sea foes in spite of thy bright armor, awaiting new instructions, until the sands, until the water itself, tell thee if it be so or not. Thus by whole migrating nations, full of instinct, which is thy faith, in this backward spring, turned adrift, and perchance knowest not where men do not dwell, where there are not factories, in these days. Armed with no sword, no electric shock, but mere Shad, armed only with innocence and a just cause, with tender dumb mouth only forward, and scales easy to be detached.
-- Henry Thoreau, Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Reading McPhee is like watching a brilliant tennis player you've followed for years. I know his moves. I can even predict most of his methods, but I keep coming back to watch him put it all together. He is masterful. He makes the incredibly difficult work of narrative nonfiction seem effortless. Beautiful prose swims right up to McPhee and jumps into his net or flops right into the pages of his book.
Once again McPhee matches a microhistory (the American Shad) with great characters (biologists, fishermen, sportsmen, presidents, even his wife) present and past, amazing locations and takes you completely through the subject. You emerge from tail of the book knowing the history, the biology, the life, the death, the taste and the debate surrounding America's founding fish. He shows you every single bone in a boney fish. Read and released.
___________________
- Robert Farwell / Edward Jones library / Mesa, AZ 2014
November 1, 2008
Read anything (and there's a LOT!) by John McPhee. My selection as the best American word/sentence craftsman. About every 10 pages he comes up with a sentence that just stuns. The best of the founders of New Journalism - and that's saying something!
Just pick a topic you'd like to learn about. Better, pick a topic you have no desire to learn about. How about "Founding Fish", a whole book about the role of SHAD in American life! (Shad is the smaller, East Coast version of salmon, that saved the American Revolution. No kidding. Oranges? The Swiss Army? Geography of the American West? How to build a bark canoe? The best book about Alaska? Just read his book titles--they are art in themselves. "A Sense of Where You Are" about (Senator) Bill Bradley's basketball career at Princeton--and much more.
Start with "Table of Contents," his Best-of-McPhee, and you'll be hooked.
How this old guy writes and how he does his research is a marvel. With love for subject. A GOOD way to BE. One of the best pure observers of life, who happens to be an artist. Rare.
Hero.
Just pick a topic you'd like to learn about. Better, pick a topic you have no desire to learn about. How about "Founding Fish", a whole book about the role of SHAD in American life! (Shad is the smaller, East Coast version of salmon, that saved the American Revolution. No kidding. Oranges? The Swiss Army? Geography of the American West? How to build a bark canoe? The best book about Alaska? Just read his book titles--they are art in themselves. "A Sense of Where You Are" about (Senator) Bill Bradley's basketball career at Princeton--and much more.
Start with "Table of Contents," his Best-of-McPhee, and you'll be hooked.
How this old guy writes and how he does his research is a marvel. With love for subject. A GOOD way to BE. One of the best pure observers of life, who happens to be an artist. Rare.
Hero.
October 27, 2008
fascinating, but like any mcphee book, i'll give you $10 if you can finish.
October 1, 2025
A bit more of a collection of personal reflections than I may have liked, but certainly interesting for its information about shad - natural history, historical uses etc - as I intended. Interesting to see the juxtaposition and similarities between shad and alewives, two species with nearly similar life histories. Contains one of the better chapters on the ethics of catch and release that I’ve ever read.
December 31, 2019
Last book of the year; last book of the 2010s. Despite not being categorized as erotica, John McPhee's The Founding Fish does contain the following sentences:
"Rising from the boat, the rods were throbbing."
"The fishers were all men and their stiff rods were pulsating at the tips."
"I've seen the sperm so thick it was like looking in a milk jug."
Reader, judge for thyself.
"Rising from the boat, the rods were throbbing."
"The fishers were all men and their stiff rods were pulsating at the tips."
"I've seen the sperm so thick it was like looking in a milk jug."
Reader, judge for thyself.
May 21, 2023
Note: the book itself is 5 stars. The narration needs a sound engineer. It might be better read in paper or ebook.
I really enjoyed this book and generally enjoyed the author reading it, but what is going on in the studio afterwards? They did nothing to get rid of noises made by McPhee while reading. The 3 stars for performance is on the audiobook producer!
I loved the book. I knew nothing about shad and gave never eaten any. No shad come up the river near where I live - it has been dammed since the 1630s. The dam itself is historic.
McPhee is a genius at making what could be a boring subject interesting. He weaves his experiences, science, environmental concerns, history, and the fishing experiences of others into this book. He talks about George Washington's troops, fish brought out west, the roe of the female shad, fish hatcheries, and more. Sometimes there is a little humor that comes in a McPhee book.
After listening to the book I'd like to try eating shad, but not roe. He's got recipes at the end for anyone who wants to try cooking.
If you can handle the lack of audio engineering, listen a little faster for better results, then enjoy the book.
I really enjoyed this book and generally enjoyed the author reading it, but what is going on in the studio afterwards? They did nothing to get rid of noises made by McPhee while reading. The 3 stars for performance is on the audiobook producer!
I loved the book. I knew nothing about shad and gave never eaten any. No shad come up the river near where I live - it has been dammed since the 1630s. The dam itself is historic.
McPhee is a genius at making what could be a boring subject interesting. He weaves his experiences, science, environmental concerns, history, and the fishing experiences of others into this book. He talks about George Washington's troops, fish brought out west, the roe of the female shad, fish hatcheries, and more. Sometimes there is a little humor that comes in a McPhee book.
After listening to the book I'd like to try eating shad, but not roe. He's got recipes at the end for anyone who wants to try cooking.
If you can handle the lack of audio engineering, listen a little faster for better results, then enjoy the book.
March 2, 2017
I really didn’t have any idea what The Founding Fish was about before getting into it. Little did I know it was all about the American Shad.
Shad are a small silvery fish that typically weigh between 3-8 pounds. They feed primarily on plankton in the ocean, but swim up rivers to spawn (like salmon, they are anadromous).
McPhee loves him some shad, and his book is a peon to all things shad … their description, life-cycle, physiology, how to catch them, how to cook them, shad reproduction, shad’s role in history (particularly in the War for Independence). Shad, shad and more shad. How they taste, their anatomy, shad fisherman, fish ladders for shad, the shad environment, the effect of dams on shad reproduction, and fish stories galore. Galore I say!
If there is nothing about shad that doesn’t send you into paroxysms of excitement and delight, then this book is for you. In fact, if there was such a thing as a shad-gasm, then you better prepare yourself to have one. For others, whose relationship to the fish is somewhat more tepid, you might expect that your enjoyment of the book will be correspondingly muted … or non-existent.
This is the 4th book by McPhee that I’ve read, and I have to say, I find his writing to be a rather bland and uninteresting affair. I understand that he won the Pulitzer Prize, and I can appreciate his approach of remaining at a distance, aloof from the story, letting the characters speak for themselves, but that doesn’t change the fact that his books are dull.
As a final note … McPhee propagates the nonsense that water rotates down the drain in a certain direction due to the Coriolis effect (clockwise in the northern hemisphere, counterclockwise in the southern). It does not, and a simple glance at the drains in your home will verify that this is the case. Water rotates in a certain direction simply based on the shape of your sink.
Shad are a small silvery fish that typically weigh between 3-8 pounds. They feed primarily on plankton in the ocean, but swim up rivers to spawn (like salmon, they are anadromous).
McPhee loves him some shad, and his book is a peon to all things shad … their description, life-cycle, physiology, how to catch them, how to cook them, shad reproduction, shad’s role in history (particularly in the War for Independence). Shad, shad and more shad. How they taste, their anatomy, shad fisherman, fish ladders for shad, the shad environment, the effect of dams on shad reproduction, and fish stories galore. Galore I say!
If there is nothing about shad that doesn’t send you into paroxysms of excitement and delight, then this book is for you. In fact, if there was such a thing as a shad-gasm, then you better prepare yourself to have one. For others, whose relationship to the fish is somewhat more tepid, you might expect that your enjoyment of the book will be correspondingly muted … or non-existent.
This is the 4th book by McPhee that I’ve read, and I have to say, I find his writing to be a rather bland and uninteresting affair. I understand that he won the Pulitzer Prize, and I can appreciate his approach of remaining at a distance, aloof from the story, letting the characters speak for themselves, but that doesn’t change the fact that his books are dull.
As a final note … McPhee propagates the nonsense that water rotates down the drain in a certain direction due to the Coriolis effect (clockwise in the northern hemisphere, counterclockwise in the southern). It does not, and a simple glance at the drains in your home will verify that this is the case. Water rotates in a certain direction simply based on the shape of your sink.
August 3, 2007
I've found I can pretty much count on a New Yorker contributer and/or a Pulitzer Prize winner to provide an enjoyable read and McPhee is no exception. Admittedly his I found Geology series (his Pulitzer series) to be tedious, but this one, although certainly not his best is another of his good ones.
I didn't expect to like it.
The way McPhees weaves interviews and personal antecdotes into his non-fiction brings it to life.
I didn't expect to like it.
The way McPhees weaves interviews and personal antecdotes into his non-fiction brings it to life.
March 23, 2021
I'm not certain how I ended up reading this book. I don't fish. I don't know anything about fishing and I don't really have an opinion either way about fishing. So, I'm not the target audience for this book. I think I read it because I wanted to read something by McPhee and landed on this one. McPhee is an excellent writer. His writing is very inviting and pleasant. It's like he is talking to you one-on-one. I just don't think I have that much to think or say about fish and fishing. The book is part personal memoir on fishing and part history/scientific investigation about shad and other fish. I'll probably check out one of his other books but if you are into fishing you will probably enjoy this one.
April 11, 2023
I learned a lot from this book--about shad, the history of shad fishing and eating, the damming of East Coast rivers, and more. But this is not McPhee's best, or maybe the fact that I do not fish and eat fish very rarely (usually in a tuna salad sandwich) just made this less interesting to me. I did not much enjoy the endless stories about him fishing--it was just like listening to a co-worker tell his longwinded fishing stories and just no thank you LOL. I did find the last chapter, Catch and Release, very interesting, but I have long thought that catch and release can't be good for the fish, and that fishing for fun and fight is cruel to the fish (as is laying them out to suffocate when keeping the fish).
April 12, 2009
I have to admit to being a huge John McPhee fan. His books and essays are always interesting and Founding Fish about the American shad is no exception. McPhee always does his homework, seeking out the knowledgeable and then going further to double-check even their information. For example, one little tidbit is the myth surrounding the role of shad in saving the Revolutionary Army at Valley Forge. The prevailing wisdom, cited in numerous sources is that the shad run was early that winter and without the abundance of fish the army would have starved. Often cited as a source is a letter purportedly by Nathan Hale who, McPhee, points out had died in September of 1776, and so could have had little knowledge of Valley Forge events. (I was pleased to see that the Valley Forge Historical Society does not perpetuate the myth(http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/....)
The idea that early settlers also feasted on fish appears doubtful even though they were plentiful. Archaeological studies reveal few fish bones except among slave diets. It appears that, coming from beef loving England, they were eager to have a beef laden diet in the colonies as well. Washington caught thousands of shad at Mount Vernon, but used them mostly as fertilizer and slave food. It's a bony fish, and like the lobster, took many decades to be accepted as "upscale" in restaurants.
Like salmon, the shad is anadromous (running upstream,) but differs in that while the salmon dies after spawning at the end of its run, the shad can make the trip up and back to the ocean several times.
Only McPhee could take such an arcane subject and weave culture, history, physiology, and natural science so ably together.
The idea that early settlers also feasted on fish appears doubtful even though they were plentiful. Archaeological studies reveal few fish bones except among slave diets. It appears that, coming from beef loving England, they were eager to have a beef laden diet in the colonies as well. Washington caught thousands of shad at Mount Vernon, but used them mostly as fertilizer and slave food. It's a bony fish, and like the lobster, took many decades to be accepted as "upscale" in restaurants.
Like salmon, the shad is anadromous (running upstream,) but differs in that while the salmon dies after spawning at the end of its run, the shad can make the trip up and back to the ocean several times.
Only McPhee could take such an arcane subject and weave culture, history, physiology, and natural science so ably together.
August 14, 2011
Just when you’re convinced the writing has become too ponderous, McPhee rewards you with a unique image. Here’s one about a fishing map: “Refining things further, he made a series of small X’s in spots where shad are sometimes only a little less dense than they would be in the hold of a canning ship. Or so I imagined Sam was imagining.” This one will rock you to the bones, about the mysteriously gutted shad McPhee removed from the stringer hooked to his waders: “Suddenly, a picture formed, and as it did I think I might have cried out – a picture of an eel going into the shad on the stringer. Had I looked down while fishing, I would have seen at least two feet of the eel protruding from the mouth of the live fish while the eel’s head was inside the cavity eating the roe and intestines and licking the plate clean. I didn’t see that happen. I probably would have slipped a disk if I had.”
The star of the book is the shad, in its encounter with Americans sometimes abundant and sometimes endangered. If you savor each chapter, you’ll learn about the shad’s anatomy, physiology, habits, ecosystem, and range. You’ll examine American history from the perspective of an ichthyologist, and learn about lure making, fishing equipment, filleting, and cooking. You’ll even learn the truth about whether Washington’s Army was saved from starvation by the spring run of shad.
The star of the book is the shad, in its encounter with Americans sometimes abundant and sometimes endangered. If you savor each chapter, you’ll learn about the shad’s anatomy, physiology, habits, ecosystem, and range. You’ll examine American history from the perspective of an ichthyologist, and learn about lure making, fishing equipment, filleting, and cooking. You’ll even learn the truth about whether Washington’s Army was saved from starvation by the spring run of shad.
August 5, 2016
I love this newish genre of commodity history or micro-history. The game is dominated by Michael Pollan and Mark Kurlansky, but now owned by the duo as this McPhee title shows. John brings to bear a love of history and fishing to talk about 17th and 18th Century America and the ways and impact of the shiny shad.
Admittedly, this is much more fishing than history...
Terribyly narrated buy the author while he eats and drinks.
Admittedly, this is much more fishing than history...
Terribyly narrated buy the author while he eats and drinks.
March 2, 2010
this is in the h w wilson catalog for a significant addition to knowledge. but i didn't learn that much. haha. mcphee is a great writer,but this one didn't hit that mark of great natural history, like say "On the run :an angler's journey down the striper coast" by David DiBenedetto.
September 3, 2025
Wow I know a lot about shad now
April 23, 2019
I must admit that I never thought that I would read a book of more than 300 pages that was mostly devoted to various essays about shad. Nor did I think that I would enjoy it as much as I did, which is largely due to the author's skill as a writer in a subject I am barely interested in (namely that of fish) and his way of making this subject personally interesting and relevant to me by showing the importance of shad to history, where it must be noted, for example, that shad was a key component in the food given to American soldiers in the Revolution although not, it appears, at Valley Forge as has commonly (and apparently mistakenly) been reported and that the Battle of Five Forks was lost disastrously for the Confederacy in large part because of a shad bake where Picket and Fitzhugh Lee ate while their troops were being slaughtered by Sheridan's forces. Even more to the point, though, the author made his subject interesting by discussing the fascinating field of fish psychology, of which I have some interest, and where the fate of a being that is both highly tenacious and extremely anxious and nerve-shot is not something that can escape my own empathy.
This book is made up of a variety of essays written by the author, most of which deal with shad and the context of the fish within history and politics and other fields. The author begins with a discussion of shad fishermen in Connecticut trying to wrestle with the fierce fish pointing out that they are in the river. He then moves to a discussion of the selective advantage that shad have because of their slippery behavior and to the way that shad from the east coast were transferred to rivers and gradually expanded in the west as well thanks to the interests of sport fishermen. The author notes the effects of hydroelectric dams on fish levels and the gradual decommissioning of many dams by those who favored the interests of sport fishermen. There are essays on the spawning and outmigration of shad from the Bay of Fundy near Nova Scotia as far away as the St. John's River in Florida, where apparently all the fish who go there die. There are essays about the author's trip to Canada to fish for shad there as well as the way that shad are occasionally absent without leave from their normal home rivers, and essays about the historical controversy of shad in the American Revolution and its history. The author even manages to discuss shad in recipes, what is inside the shad's body cavity, including various egg packs, and the question of the morality or lack thereof of catch and release rather than catching only what one wants to consume.
I must admit that I was quite surprised that there was so much of personal relevance and interest of shad to me, as someone who has no great interest in fishing as a personal hobby and little knowledge about fish in general. Shad are a genuinely interesting fish, although it is fascinating that they have long been on the outskirts of eating, being eaten regularly by American slaves in the Atlantic world but not being eaten to any great degree by plantation owners who preferred beef and mutton. (Admittedly, I prefer beef and mutton to fish myself.) The author notes that shad has been involved in various historical incidents, is a tenacious fish that reminds the author of a small tarpon in terms of its ferocity and its refusal to give up and die, and to the immense stress of fasting during its egg-laying runs (rather like salmon that way) and to the stress it endures by being a hypervigilant and rather fierce little fish. The author did enough work that I must admit that after reading this book I can add the shad to my list of animals whose tenacity and small size have earned it a great deal of respect in my book, however obscure it may be to all but a polite set of fishermen who enjoy a good fight for their fish.
This book is made up of a variety of essays written by the author, most of which deal with shad and the context of the fish within history and politics and other fields. The author begins with a discussion of shad fishermen in Connecticut trying to wrestle with the fierce fish pointing out that they are in the river. He then moves to a discussion of the selective advantage that shad have because of their slippery behavior and to the way that shad from the east coast were transferred to rivers and gradually expanded in the west as well thanks to the interests of sport fishermen. The author notes the effects of hydroelectric dams on fish levels and the gradual decommissioning of many dams by those who favored the interests of sport fishermen. There are essays on the spawning and outmigration of shad from the Bay of Fundy near Nova Scotia as far away as the St. John's River in Florida, where apparently all the fish who go there die. There are essays about the author's trip to Canada to fish for shad there as well as the way that shad are occasionally absent without leave from their normal home rivers, and essays about the historical controversy of shad in the American Revolution and its history. The author even manages to discuss shad in recipes, what is inside the shad's body cavity, including various egg packs, and the question of the morality or lack thereof of catch and release rather than catching only what one wants to consume.
I must admit that I was quite surprised that there was so much of personal relevance and interest of shad to me, as someone who has no great interest in fishing as a personal hobby and little knowledge about fish in general. Shad are a genuinely interesting fish, although it is fascinating that they have long been on the outskirts of eating, being eaten regularly by American slaves in the Atlantic world but not being eaten to any great degree by plantation owners who preferred beef and mutton. (Admittedly, I prefer beef and mutton to fish myself.) The author notes that shad has been involved in various historical incidents, is a tenacious fish that reminds the author of a small tarpon in terms of its ferocity and its refusal to give up and die, and to the immense stress of fasting during its egg-laying runs (rather like salmon that way) and to the stress it endures by being a hypervigilant and rather fierce little fish. The author did enough work that I must admit that after reading this book I can add the shad to my list of animals whose tenacity and small size have earned it a great deal of respect in my book, however obscure it may be to all but a polite set of fishermen who enjoy a good fight for their fish.
June 10, 2017
The subject fish of ‘The Founding Fish” is the shad, which lives most of its life in salt water, but swims up rivers to spawn. Most of the book describes the activity of this fish and those who pursue it on the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada. Human pursuers covered in the book include fishermen, ichthyologists, U.S. Presidents, fishmongers, and piscivores. Mr. McPhee’s story looks at shad from a wide variety of perspectives, and a new perspective often involves a new character with a unique story. As one example, McPhee does a brief review of the movie ‘Caught’ which he describes as a ‘megametaphorical’ tale of the fate of shad and the fate of the fishmonger’s wife and the hired help, who are caught in an illicit relationship and meet their megametaphorical ending. “…. They spawned in the kitchen. They spawned in a shower stall. They spawned in the closet like Warren Harding …..”, Harding being one of the four Presidents mentioned in the book. Other U.S. Presidents covered (Washington, Jefferson and Cleveland) have a more conventional relationship to shad. McPhee is a very creative wordsmith and storyteller which made the book an enjoyable read even though I find little interest in fishing.
August 3, 2017
My major complaint about this book is that it isn't for the non-fisherperson. The absence of any illustrations/photos/diagrams or even a glossary left me floundering (pun intended...) and while I can figure out the difference between darts and flies etc. (at least enough to proceed with reading) I really have no idea what a shad looks like after over 300 pages of clearly well-researched information. (I mean, I get it's a fish....)
While there is some interesting information here, the book is essentially one long fish tale that will leave the layperson cold. The most interesting chapter deals with the trouble of "history" (specifically here, how in 1778 Washington's army was "saved from famine" by an early shad-run) which brings to light a lot of the issues surrounding passed-down stories and helps clarify the reality of situations based on hard evidence.
I do wish there had been some more discussion regarding the breeding/restocking programs and how they are/are not disrupting natural Darwinian adaptations and what that ripple effect looks like on an entire ecosystem. But maybe that's another book.
Long story short: I can't recommend this book except to fisherfolk - who I think will enjoy it immensely.
While there is some interesting information here, the book is essentially one long fish tale that will leave the layperson cold. The most interesting chapter deals with the trouble of "history" (specifically here, how in 1778 Washington's army was "saved from famine" by an early shad-run) which brings to light a lot of the issues surrounding passed-down stories and helps clarify the reality of situations based on hard evidence.
I do wish there had been some more discussion regarding the breeding/restocking programs and how they are/are not disrupting natural Darwinian adaptations and what that ripple effect looks like on an entire ecosystem. But maybe that's another book.
Long story short: I can't recommend this book except to fisherfolk - who I think will enjoy it immensely.
March 20, 2024
Based on the title, I was expecting this book to be a description of the role of shad fishing in colonial America. That constitutes easily less than 20% of the content. Covered in much more detail is the author’s play-by-play shad fishing escapades. Tell us again how you can’t catch jack when your friends are cleaning up, and how your knots are so bad your lures frequently fly off the line.
Lots of interesting information here otherwise, but a significant fraction of it isn’t even specific to shad.
I did like the discussion of the ethics of fishing, although it seemed written more to be inflammatory than to present an arm’s-length presentation of the arguments. His superiority about catching fish to eat them being the middle ground between catch-and-release and not fishing at all struck me as misguided, since he essentially admits he wouldn’t fish if it was just pulling them out of the water and that catch and release is at least marginally less unpleasant to the fish. This presents a situation where it seems like the best option for his priorities would be to catch-and-release when fishing, and then just eat aquacultured or net-caught fish. Kind of silly, but so are his parameters.
Lots of interesting information here otherwise, but a significant fraction of it isn’t even specific to shad.
I did like the discussion of the ethics of fishing, although it seemed written more to be inflammatory than to present an arm’s-length presentation of the arguments. His superiority about catching fish to eat them being the middle ground between catch-and-release and not fishing at all struck me as misguided, since he essentially admits he wouldn’t fish if it was just pulling them out of the water and that catch and release is at least marginally less unpleasant to the fish. This presents a situation where it seems like the best option for his priorities would be to catch-and-release when fishing, and then just eat aquacultured or net-caught fish. Kind of silly, but so are his parameters.
October 7, 2023
A good read on the Shad in many facets. From their habits to their hit rate to their anatomy (and the anatomy of fish from the Gulf of Mexico too). It's part fishing memoir, part science book, part history book, it's eclectic if nothing else. There's even technically a cookbook chapter that finishes the work.
The history parts were interesting and insightful though if you come to the book looking for mostly that based on the title and don't connect with the other parts you'll leave disappointed. The fishing memoir bits are very good, I've admittedly not read many hunting or fishing memoirs at this point but I hope the others on my TBR are like this.
If I had to do a negative it would be two points. Firstly, sometimes it feels it struggles to hold a cohesive thread between and even in chapters. Secondly, the last official chapter feels preachy as hell. A bit of bad taste in the mouth preachy rather than the feel something growing inside you preachy.
But that's minor gripes, I highly recommend this work if for it's interesting takes on North American fishing culture and sport and it's interesting and rare historical look if nothing else.
The history parts were interesting and insightful though if you come to the book looking for mostly that based on the title and don't connect with the other parts you'll leave disappointed. The fishing memoir bits are very good, I've admittedly not read many hunting or fishing memoirs at this point but I hope the others on my TBR are like this.
If I had to do a negative it would be two points. Firstly, sometimes it feels it struggles to hold a cohesive thread between and even in chapters. Secondly, the last official chapter feels preachy as hell. A bit of bad taste in the mouth preachy rather than the feel something growing inside you preachy.
But that's minor gripes, I highly recommend this work if for it's interesting takes on North American fishing culture and sport and it's interesting and rare historical look if nothing else.
March 8, 2025
This is a tough one to rate. How many stars would you give your least favorite book from your favorite author?
If you are curious about John McPhee (you should be), then I would recommend trying the collection Irons in The Fire. I have, indeed, recommended and given several copies of that book. It covers several matters of subject. This book covers one. One. The American Shad. 300 pages of Shad. A fish I'd probably never heard of before. In typical McPhee fashion, there are several great character sketches of icthyologists and fish experts. Also depictions of women with little attention spared toward their looks and manner of dress. There are even-keeled discussions of dams, conservation and PETA.
I was floundering (ahem) a bit about how much I was liking the book, but then found the ultimate chapter "Catch and Release" deeply satisfying. It's great to learn the ins and outs of a subject so thoroughly then wade (cough) into a discussion of the cruelties of American fishing.
If nothing else, I will try to keep "Anadromous" tucked into my brain as a fun word.
Would recommend for McPhee fanatics and fishing fanatics.
If you are curious about John McPhee (you should be), then I would recommend trying the collection Irons in The Fire. I have, indeed, recommended and given several copies of that book. It covers several matters of subject. This book covers one. One. The American Shad. 300 pages of Shad. A fish I'd probably never heard of before. In typical McPhee fashion, there are several great character sketches of icthyologists and fish experts. Also depictions of women with little attention spared toward their looks and manner of dress. There are even-keeled discussions of dams, conservation and PETA.
I was floundering (ahem) a bit about how much I was liking the book, but then found the ultimate chapter "Catch and Release" deeply satisfying. It's great to learn the ins and outs of a subject so thoroughly then wade (cough) into a discussion of the cruelties of American fishing.
If nothing else, I will try to keep "Anadromous" tucked into my brain as a fun word.
Would recommend for McPhee fanatics and fishing fanatics.
February 7, 2018
It seems fitting that I began the new year with a John McPhee book, as the last book I read in 2017 was also by McPhee. This one was all about shad, and was just as engrossing as any other McPhee book despite the fact that I am not a fisherperson nor am I a fish biologist (my brother is both, and loved this book). There is a lot about McPhee's days on the river trying to catch shad, but there is also some fascinating history of this important food source and its role in early American history. One of the best chapters is all about McPhee debunking the myth that Washington's troops were saved from starvation at Valley Forge by an early shad run. I especially enjoyed this part having grown up right next to Valley Forge. The chapter on the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo was equally fascinating, and McPhee's indictment of catch-and-release and the harm it can do to certain fish species was eye-opening and convincing. Anyway, like all the McPhee books I've read so far, this one is highly recommended for anyone who loves fish and fishing, or just wants to learn something about it.
June 1, 2017
One of the problems with books like this is that, because they consist primarily of story-telling, they are especially difficult to skim. This makes the too much information they provide harder to deal with by means of selectively reading what interests one.
Another way to put this is that a storyteller (and his or her publisher) has a greater obligation to edit a book, since readers cannot easily edit the book themselves as they read. Thus, even though I have a reasonably serious interest in shad, I found myself bouncing quickly through the later chapters, far faster than I would ordinarily skim.
The other problem with this book is that the transitions are few and the chapters are almost free-standing. The only thing that holds them together, other than shad (and sometimes scarcely them), is McPhee’s experiences and interests. In this book, there’s a fascinating book about a fascinating American fish.
Another way to put this is that a storyteller (and his or her publisher) has a greater obligation to edit a book, since readers cannot easily edit the book themselves as they read. Thus, even though I have a reasonably serious interest in shad, I found myself bouncing quickly through the later chapters, far faster than I would ordinarily skim.
The other problem with this book is that the transitions are few and the chapters are almost free-standing. The only thing that holds them together, other than shad (and sometimes scarcely them), is McPhee’s experiences and interests. In this book, there’s a fascinating book about a fascinating American fish.
August 25, 2019
In spite of the fact that I have little to no interest in fish or fishing, I found The Founding Fish by John McPhee to be a work of art. At its core, the book is about a fish, the American Shad, which is not a particularly exciting species, like tarpon; or dangerous, like sharks; or romantic, like rainbow trout caught on a fly rod in the clear crystal streams of the American west; or a favorite on everyone's table, like salmon. Yet McPhee manages to make its history the history of America's rivers, fluctuating between endangered, as our waterways are dammed, polluted, and commercialized, and abundant, as the dams are removed and waters clear. The stories McPhee recounts from his personal experiences, friendly fishermen and women, ichthyologist, and rod and lure craftsmen, guided me painlessly through the detailed descriptions of the fish's anatomy, physiology, and habits, and left me determined to hire a guide, buy a pole and go catch me some shad to plank.
January 23, 2024
I worked in the menhaden (pogy) industry for a few years. Products were fish meal and fish oil.
It was what was left of George HW Bush's Zapata Corporation that he had to relinquish for politics (and we are all the worse for it).
I still think it is really curious that he named it Zapata. Also, that anybody would be inspired by a movie where Brando plays Zapata. Steinbeck wrote that screenplay BTW.
Zapata-Omega Protein was a massive purse seine operation in the Gulf and Atlantic. Still is, but the Canadiens have it now. It stayed Zapata so long because it couldn't be sold to foreigners like Offshore and other divisions. I guess Canada being with us and Mexico in NAFTA overruled this?
Seems I have this McPhee book, I have close to a half dozen of his books.
I need to find it and at least skim it.
I am not familiar with this shad biz that is mentioned here. I think the Indians gave the Puritans menhaden for fertilizer.
It was what was left of George HW Bush's Zapata Corporation that he had to relinquish for politics (and we are all the worse for it).
I still think it is really curious that he named it Zapata. Also, that anybody would be inspired by a movie where Brando plays Zapata. Steinbeck wrote that screenplay BTW.
Zapata-Omega Protein was a massive purse seine operation in the Gulf and Atlantic. Still is, but the Canadiens have it now. It stayed Zapata so long because it couldn't be sold to foreigners like Offshore and other divisions. I guess Canada being with us and Mexico in NAFTA overruled this?
Seems I have this McPhee book, I have close to a half dozen of his books.
I need to find it and at least skim it.
I am not familiar with this shad biz that is mentioned here. I think the Indians gave the Puritans menhaden for fertilizer.
April 3, 2018
From my favorite non-fiction author comes another worthy read. Leave it to John McPhee to write an engaging and informative book on a subject that I would never have read by any other author. It helps that he, himself, is a shad fisherman.
I grew up on the east coast, but I can never remember eating shad. I only remember my mother telling stories about her father/my grandfather going herring (shad?) fishing.
I enjoyed the title chapter and the debate on whether the shad run saved (or, more likely didn't save) the troops at Valley Forge. From Florida to the Bay of Fundy it's an enjoyable read through the history, physiology and behavior of this fish and those who pursue it for science, sport and dinner.
Great recipes at the end, too.
I grew up on the east coast, but I can never remember eating shad. I only remember my mother telling stories about her father/my grandfather going herring (shad?) fishing.
I enjoyed the title chapter and the debate on whether the shad run saved (or, more likely didn't save) the troops at Valley Forge. From Florida to the Bay of Fundy it's an enjoyable read through the history, physiology and behavior of this fish and those who pursue it for science, sport and dinner.
Great recipes at the end, too.
June 26, 2024
An adequate meandering through the ecosystem of shad fisherman.
I here are my two bits. One, McPhee writes of a fisherman, “He appears to have been indoors on scattered occasions in the past.” Not quite a garden path sentence, the successive modifiers making more remote the idea of the fisherman having been indoors is playfully clever. Two, McPhee explains that the bone structure of the fish is rigid at the shoulders and head but loose at the pelvis, in contrast to the human whose bones are rigid at the hips and loose at the shoulders and head. This is one of those rare retroactively obvious philosophical sentences that slice deep into the true nature of a thing, like the observation that the legality of a forward pass separates American football from other footballs.
I here are my two bits. One, McPhee writes of a fisherman, “He appears to have been indoors on scattered occasions in the past.” Not quite a garden path sentence, the successive modifiers making more remote the idea of the fisherman having been indoors is playfully clever. Two, McPhee explains that the bone structure of the fish is rigid at the shoulders and head but loose at the pelvis, in contrast to the human whose bones are rigid at the hips and loose at the shoulders and head. This is one of those rare retroactively obvious philosophical sentences that slice deep into the true nature of a thing, like the observation that the legality of a forward pass separates American football from other footballs.
March 8, 2025
McPhee's gift for transforming a single subject into a fascinating book never fails to impress. This time, a fish. Not a brilliantly colored fish, nor an anatomically bizarre one. Not poisonous, not venomous. Just a fish — a shad. A species most people will never think about, let alone know in great detail. Yet McPhee crafts a compelling narrative around the American shad, blending natural history with his own experiences fishing for and studying the species. With characteristic precision, he explores its anatomy, behavior, and life cycle, while also tracing its notable role in American history. I'm confident in predicting that if you like McPhee or fishing, you'll like this book.
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