Before your next lobster, learn the lure and the lore

July 27, 2011|By Jane Dornbusch, Globe Correspondent

If you want to learn more - a lot more - about lobsters, you’re in luck this season. London-based Reaktion books has published two volumes on the topic, both titled “Lobster,’’ both by New England authors. As each explores the history, culture, and lore of the cherished crustacean, there’s invariably a bit of overlap.

Both authors are accidental lobster scholars. “When I took up the topic, I didn’t know much about other lobsters around the world,’’ says Richard J. King, a lecturer on literature of the sea in the Maritime Studies Program of Williams College and Mystic Seaport, and author of the volume that’s part of Reaktion’s “Animal’’ series. Says Elisabeth Townsend, Concord-based author of the “Edible’’ series lobster book, “I had no idea there was so much to learn.’’

Most readers would probably have a similar reaction upon glancing through either book. Each starts with a chapter entitled “What is a lobster?’’ Might seem like an easy question, until you start perusing Townsend’s lengthy survey of the world’s clawed and clawless lobsters or King’s erudite (but not esoteric) answer, which quotes John Steinbeck and Aristotle, among others.

Both small but informative books are lavishly illustrated, with photos, charts, and things like 19th-century Japanese woodcuts depicting lobsters and Dutch Renaissance still lifes prominently displaying, well, lobster. Neither volume is particularly aimed at the cook, though Townsend’s includes some historical recipes. King’s may be the more elegantly written of the two, but both are likely to expand a reader’s knowledge of the topic, and perhaps his or her affection for it, too.

That was certainly Townsend’s experience. Before writing the book, she says, “I did not expect to fall in love with lobster.’’ Now, she says, “I am knocked out by them.’’

Jane Dornbusch can be reached at jdornbusch@verizon.net

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