1911 child labor photo All are oyster-shuckers in

OYSTERS ARE SEXY. LET’S AGREE ON THAT RIGHT AWAY.But there’s much more to the oyster than simply its legendary power as an aphrodisiac. And that’s what you’ll find inside this charming field guide to oysters by oyster purveyor and champion shucker Patrick McMurray. Rich in history and lore, CONSIDER THE OYSTER weaves together anecdotes from the author’s experiences as a restaurateur and competitive shucker with practical information on everything from opening oysters with finesse (and a minimum of personal injury!) to planning an oyster party, finding the best oyster bars and ordering hard-to-get bivalves on the Internet.You’ll also meet the people who grow and export oysters — from the coast of Ireland to the shores of Cape Cod and everywhere in between — and you’ll find yourself longing to taste some of the more than fifty varieties that McMurray details with loving enthusiasm. Wellfleets, Malpeques, Irish Flats, Fines de Claires, Royal Courtesans... They’re all here, just waiting to be discovered and savored as never before.

Release Date: May 15, 2009

OYSTERS ARE SEXY. LET’S AGREE ON THAT RIGHT AWAY.But there’s much more to the oyster than simply its legendary power as an aphrodisiac. And that’s what you’ll find inside this charming field guide to oysters by oyster purveyor and champion shucker Patrick McMurray. Rich in history and lore, CONSIDER THE OYSTER weaves together anecdotes from the author’s experiences as a restaurateur and competitive shucker with practical information on everything from opening oysters with finesse (and a minimum of personal injury!) to planning an oyster party, finding the best oyster bars and ordering hard-to-get bivalves on the Internet.You’ll also meet the people who grow and export oysters — from the coast of Ireland to the shores of Cape Cod and everywhere in between — and you’ll find yourself longing to taste some of the more than fifty varieties that McMurray details with loving enthusiasm. Wellfleets, Malpeques, Irish Flats, Fines de Claires, Royal Courtesans... They’re all here, just waiting to be discovered and savored as never before.

The enigmatic stories in this haunting collection deal with individuals striving to live outside the dominant American culture—people who do not want to be incorporated, appropriated, or consumed. Their battles are waged on interior and external landscapes, pitting clarity against confusion, faith against fear, the marginalized against the powerful, the passive against the aggressive. In one story, a Mennonite mother leaves her alcoholic husband and moves with her three children into an abandoned house and back to a life of faith, though a new faith, one of her own making. In another story, a teenage living in the darkness of a failing rust-belt city holds before her the only light she sees, her child, to guide the way as she moves across the border and beyond. A young artist in New York City pursues a simple life, a passive life, the yielding life of a Mennonite, even as she immerses herself in the gritty urban culture of the East Village. Another woman, given a short time to live, sets up ant farms on her stoop in Alphabet City and is determined to discover how worlds are made by watching the ants and only the ants. A Vietnam veteran finds meaning as a dishwasher at the Catholic Worker, where he circles on his stump of a leg, aware that the thing that is missing, that cannot be seen, is most present. Many of these stories experiment with the form of writing itself. They reflect the vision of an artist who remains separate— in the world, but not of the world—and whose goal is not to dazzle or entertain, but simply, humbly to be present for each word.

Children have always worked to help their families, on farms and in the home. With the growth of factory labor and increasing numbers of immigrants arriving in the U.S., children began working more and more. Accounts from children and their bosses, the development of new labor laws, and the efforts of labor reformers tell the story of child labor from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the reform era.

Although numerous international treaties and organizations work tirelessly to improve conditions for children, there are still 320 million children under the age of sixteen working around the world—150 million of those in the most harmful industries, such as prostitution and forced military service. This is their story, in words and photographs.Physician and photographer David L. Parker takes us beyond the headlines and into the textile factories, stone quarries, and garbage dumps where children are forced—by unscrupulous adults or by lack of any other economic opportunity—into the desperate cycle of child labor. His haunting and sensitive portrayal of these children preserves their dignity and humanity while exposing their often tragic circumstances. The hazards of harsh working conditions are visited exponentially on still-growing bodies and minds, whether they are cleaning elephant stables in India, picking cotton in Turkey, or extracting gold from Nicaraguan mines. Mercury used in mining causes brain damage; stone dust destroys young lungs; circus contortions cause serious muscular harm. But even beyond the disastrous physical consequences of child labor, simply having to work means that children are deprived of the education, nurturing, and socialization that are the necessary foundations of lasting health, development, and progress. Dr. Parker's riveting portraits of children continues in the brave documentary tradition of Lewis Hine, Milton Rogovin, and Sebastião Salgado, who have contributed to the legal and humanitarian advances of previous generations. We can only hope, as Hine said in the early twentieth century, that one day soon heartbreaking images like these will simply be "records of the past." Until then, Before Their Time is an essential call to action. 135 duotone photographs

The enigmatic stories in this haunting collection deal with individuals striving to live outside the dominant American culture—people who do not want to be incorporated, appropriated, or consumed. Their battles are waged on interior and external landscapes, pitting clarity against confusion, faith against fear, the marginalized against the powerful, the passive against the aggressive. In one story, a Mennonite mother leaves her alcoholic husband and moves with her three children into an abandoned house and back to a life of faith, though a new faith, one of her own making. In another story, a teenage living in the darkness of a failing rust-belt city holds before her the only light she sees, her child, to guide the way as she moves across the border and beyond. A young artist in New York City pursues a simple life, a passive life, the yielding life of a Mennonite, even as she immerses herself in the gritty urban culture of the East Village. Another woman, given a short time to live, sets up ant farms on her stoop in Alphabet City and is determined to discover how worlds are made by watching the ants and only the ants. A Vietnam veteran finds meaning as a dishwasher at the Catholic Worker, where he circles on his stump of a leg, aware that the thing that is missing, that cannot be seen, is most present. Many of these stories experiment with the form of writing itself. They reflect the vision of an artist who remains separate— in the world, but not of the world—and whose goal is not to dazzle or entertain, but simply, humbly to be present for each word.

Although numerous international treaties and organizations work tirelessly to improve conditions for children, there are still 320 million children under the age of sixteen working around the world—150 million of those in the most harmful industries, such as prostitution and forced military service. This is their story, in words and photographs.Physician and photographer David L. Parker takes us beyond the headlines and into the textile factories, stone quarries, and garbage dumps where children are forced—by unscrupulous adults or by lack of any other economic opportunity—into the desperate cycle of child labor. His haunting and sensitive portrayal of these children preserves their dignity and humanity while exposing their often tragic circumstances. The hazards of harsh working conditions are visited exponentially on still-growing bodies and minds, whether they are cleaning elephant stables in India, picking cotton in Turkey, or extracting gold from Nicaraguan mines. Mercury used in mining causes brain damage; stone dust destroys young lungs; circus contortions cause serious muscular harm. But even beyond the disastrous physical consequences of child labor, simply having to work means that children are deprived of the education, nurturing, and socialization that are the necessary foundations of lasting health, development, and progress. Dr. Parker's riveting portraits of children continues in the brave documentary tradition of Lewis Hine, Milton Rogovin, and Sebastião Salgado, who have contributed to the legal and humanitarian advances of previous generations. We can only hope, as Hine said in the early twentieth century, that one day soon heartbreaking images like these will simply be "records of the past." Until then, Before Their Time is an essential call to action. 135 duotone photographs