In the tradition of Cod, the story of the rise and fall of the
natural ice industry in nineteenth-century North America Success of
Hardcover -- The hardcover edition of The Frozen-Water Trade,
published in January 2003, was selected as a Barnes and Nobles
Discover New Writers and a Booksense 76 pick. New York Times
bestselling author Linda Greenlaw called it a "thrilling work of
history that kept me riveted, " and David Hays (My Old Man and the
Sea) wrote "it is a book for anyone who loves tales of seafaring,
history, and biography - all in one." Review attention was
tremendous: "a funny, rollicking human adventure" (Publishers
Weekly), "fascinating" (Kirkus), more reviews TK (National
Geographic Advenure). Bestselling Comparisons -- This kind of
popular, up-market historical/adventure/quirky narrative
non-fiction is in great demand today. First Book of its Kind -
There has never before been a book for a mass audience about the
frozen-water trade. It history has literally melted into obscurity;
and, in the absence of any notable monuments to recall it, the
whole of the extraordinary saga survives only in the records left
in libraries and museums. The Frozen-Water Trade sets the record
straight. Compelling Narrative - The author tells the story of the
frozen-water trade through the remarkable life of Frederick Tudor,
the wealthy Boston "Ice King" who had a crucial role in
establishing this booming industry. His Tudor Ice Company continued
to trade profitably until the last decade of the nineteenth
century. Great American Story - The demand for, and the supply of,
natural ice in nineteenth-century America touches on many aspects
of the nation's food, industry, medicine, and domestic life.And the
export trade illustrates the manner in which what could be called
"the American way of life" had a profound and lasting influence on
the rest of the world. In the nineteenth century, ice became, in
the popular imagination, something quintessentially American. What
were sometimes called "Crystal blocks of Yankee coldness" were, for
a time, almost as internationally renowned as Coca Cola! Great New
England Story - The center of "production" of frozen water was
along the eastern seabord of New England, and this book has
particular appeal to readers in Maine, Massachusetts, and other New
England states. It is worth mentioning, too, that many stories set
in that region of the U.S. have found a large audience (for
example, The Perfect Storm or the novels of John Irving).
Fascinating Subject - Ice is now so ubiquitous that we take for
granted the myriad ways in which we use it on a daily basis. The
Frozen-Water Trade offers fascinating descriptions of historical
uses of ice - for example, the birth of ice cream and the varieties
of ice houses in the stately homes of New England. On February 13,
1806, the brig Favorite left Boston harbor bound for the Caribbean
island of Martinique, with a cargo that few imagined would survive
the monthlong voyage. Packed in hay in the hold were large chunks
of ice cut from a frozen Massachusetts lake. This was the first
venture of a young Boston entrepreneur, Frederic Tudor, who
believed he could make a fortune selling ice to people in the
tropics. Ridiculed from the outset by fellow merchants, Tudor
endured years of hardship before he was to fulfill his dream. Over
thirty years, he and his rivals extended the "frozen-water trade"
to Cuba, Charleston,New Orleans, New York, London, and finally to
Calcutta, when in 1833 more than one hundred tons of ice survived a
four-month journey of 16,000 miles with two crossings of the
equator. For the next fifty years, Calcutta, Bomba, and Madras
eagerly awaited their regular supplies of New England ice. Tudor
not only made a fortune, he founded a huge industry that employed
thousands of men and horses to "harvest" millions of tons of ice
each winter. Thanks to his astonishing enterprise, iced drinks,
chilled beer, and homemade ice cream became an essential part of
our way of life, and cooled the brows of American city dwellers and
colonial communities throughout the world long before artifical
refrigeration became available - after which the frozen-water trade
melted away, leaving little to show that it had ever existed. In
this fascinating book, Gavin Weightman reveals the forgotten story
of America's vast natural ice trade, which revolutionized domestic
life for millions of people.
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