海角大神

John Seabrook鈥檚 鈥淭he Spinach King鈥� is a great American tragedy 鈥� about his own family. In this thoughtful, cautionary tale, the longtime New Yorker magazine staff writer reports on how three generations of his forebears, beginning with his great-grandfather, revolutionized vegetable farming and the frozen food business in southwestern New Jersey. And how, in the process, they amassed a fortune but fractured their family.

As in most tragedies, the Seabrooks鈥� rise and fall are driven by hubris. This saga of greens to greenbacks and the wilting American dream involves a battle for control and succession, with shades of Shakespeare鈥檚 鈥淜ing Lear.鈥�

鈥淭he Spinach King鈥� encompasses ambition, ingenuity, hard work, and vision, but also exploitation, greed, corruption, racism, antisemitism, and a lust for power. The author, who first wrote about Seabrook Farms for The New Yorker in 1994, grappled with the fraught, complicated, and deeply personal story for 30 years before finishing the book.

Charles Franklin Seabrook, known as C.F., 鈥渢he Henry Ford of agriculture,鈥� is, in his grandson鈥檚 telling, the family鈥檚 villain in chief. With only an eighth-grade education, he was the principal force behind the creation of the multifaceted business empire. At its peak in 1955, Seabrook Farms sprawled over 50,000 acres, employed some 8,000 people, and 鈥済rew and packed about a third of the nation鈥檚 frozen vegetables,鈥� the author writes.

In 1912, C.F. had hoodwinked his father, Arthur Seabrook, into selling for a fraction of its value his share of the lucrative farming business they had built together. (Their early adoption of overhead irrigation had been a game-changer.) Decades later, an increasingly erratic and incapacitated C.F. railed against his three sons鈥� attempts to take over Seabrook Farms. Rather than cede control, C.F. sold the business to outsiders in 1959, the year the author was born, for far less than it was worth. He also disinherited his sons.

The author鈥檚 father, John 鈥淛ack鈥� Seabrook 鈥� dubbed the Spinach King for his role in developing the company鈥檚 flash-frozen vegetable business, including its wildly popular creamed spinach in boilable pouches 鈥� had to find another job and home at age 42.

While Seabrook praises his father鈥檚 financial and marketing acumen, his overall portrait is hardly a hagiography. He describes Jack鈥檚 lavish lifestyle, including his collection of horse-drawn antique carriages, extensive wine cellar, large house staff, and celebrity girlfriends between his two marriages, Eva Gabor among them. The author devotes an entire chapter to his father鈥檚 wardrobe, including a collection of Savile Row suits so vast it was stored on a motorized dry cleaner鈥檚 rack.

Jack met his second wife 鈥� the author鈥檚 mother, Elizabeth Toomey, a hardworking journalist from South Dakota 鈥� on board a ship headed to Monaco for Grace Kelly鈥檚 wedding to Prince Rainier in 1956: Jack was a guest, and Liz was a reporter covering the star-studded event.

In addition to the book鈥檚 chronicles of excess and succession 鈥� informed in part by Jack鈥檚 meticulous diaries and the paper trails left in the wake of the family鈥檚 many lawsuits 鈥� 鈥淭he Spinach King鈥� offers a critical account of labor conditions faced by the company鈥檚 thousands of worker-tenants. Most were displaced persons who were overworked and underpaid. These included Italians, Eastern Europeans, Black people who migrated from the Deep South in the 1920s, and Japanese Americans confined during World War II in detention camps. (The latter were relocated from camps in the Western U.S. in 1944 to address labor shortages.) At Seabrook Farms, workers and their families lived in segregated villages of houses and barracks, for which they were charged rent even during the unpaid offseason months. Black laborers were allotted the worst housing, often in broken-down sheds that lacked basic utilities.

Seabrook confronts his family鈥檚 most shameful chapter, in which a labor strike in 1934 was broken up by vigilantes, mobsters, and uniformed 鈥渟pecial officers鈥� hired by Seabrook鈥檚 grandfather. A group of Black and white workers was protesting unfair wages and conditions. Mayhem erupted when the strikers were attacked with tear gas and billy clubs. Black families were also terrorized by the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, called the White Legion.

The irony is that Seabrook Farms was heralded in the press as a model of racial harmony and modernity. C.F. was looked upon by the community, and many of his workers, as a benevolent employer. C.F.鈥檚 descendants knew nothing of his strike-breaking tactics.

Late in 鈥淭he Spinach King,鈥� Seabrook recalls meeting his grandfather in 1963, a year before C.F.鈥橲 death. Seabrook, at age 4, was frightened and intimidated. As an adult, recalling that moment, Seabrook writes: 鈥淗e stared at me balefully, this boy who would grow up to investigate and expose him for who he really was, seeking transgenerational revenge for the harm he had inflicted on my father鈥檚 soul.鈥�

It would be doing the book a disservice to refer to its impetus as a quest for revenge. Readers can be assured that Seabrook鈥檚 journalistic instincts take over in this riveting, well-researched reckoning with his family鈥檚 history. Although the author dishes plenty of dirt, he also proudly highlights the Seabrook family鈥檚 many agricultural innovations, which helped feed a growing nation. The result is a book that covers plenty of fertile ground.