Friday, Jul 01, 2011 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM

The beginning of summer seems the right time to celebrate the lobster with a First Friday tribute. Join us Friday, July 1st as we celebrate the history, the politics, and the social conventions of homarus americanus. The lobster-themed evening will include a book reading, an exhibit of photographs and the public exhibit of the first fine press edition of a work by contemporary literary giant David Foster Wallace.

Elisabeth Townsend will read from her first book, Lobster, A Global History (Reaktion Books) and sign copies that will be available for sale. Jasper White recently reviewed Lobster in the Wall Street Journal, calling it "a journey through lobster's prehistoric and recorded history, exploring scientific, environmental and culinary matters..." Townsend specializes in food, wine, and travel writing. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, and other newspapers and magazines including the Boston Phoenix, Portland Monthly Magazine, and the Quarterly Review of Wines, and she is a member of the Culinary Historians of Boston.

The event will also celebrate the first-ever offering of a limited fine press edition of Consider the Lobster, from Ascensius Press. Consider the Lobster was originally written by David Foster Wallace for Gourmet magazine about the Maine Lobster Festival in 2004. Publication of the article, a deeply researched, detailed and footnoted examination of the modern dilemma of eating lobster, was strongly contentious, but Gourmet's Ruth Reichl considered it one of her proudest moments at the magazine. Limited to 26 deluxe copies, the book has been produced in Maine using the finest materials. Set in metal type and printed by Scott Vile of Ascensius Press, the book is illustrated with photographs of the 2010 Maine Lobster Festival by Matthew Robbins. Only a tiny number of the books remain available for sale, and will be on display during the event.

On the walls will be a show of the photographs by Matthew Robbins, commissioned for the book, of the 2010 Maine Lobster Festival.