M.F.K. Fisher, whom John Updike has called our "poet of the appetites," here pays tribute to that most delicate and enigmatic of foods---the oyster. As she tells of oysters found in stews, in soups, roasted, baked, fried, prepared à la Rockefeller or au naturel--and of the pearls sometimes found therein--Fisher describes her mother's joy at encountering oyster loaf in a girls' dorm in he 1890's, recalls her own initiation into the "strange cold succulence" of raw oysters as a young woman in Marseille and Dijon, and explores both the bivalve's famed aphrodisiac properties and its equally notorious gut-wrenching powers. Plumbing the "dreadful but exciting" life of the oyster, Fisher invites readers to share in the comforts and delights that this delicate edible evokes, and enchants us along the way with her characteristically wise and witty prose.

M.F.K. 费雪（Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher ，1908-1992）

美国饮食文学界的指路明灯。其身后诸多饮食书写者追随着她的脚步，却从未超出她的高度。

1937年，费雪年仅十九岁，即出版《Serve it Forth》，轰动文坛，因其文笔老练，全无小女人散文虚矫之气，以至于众多文评家都误以为此书为一男子所作，成为一时笑谈。她一生写作了20几本书，涵盖历史、文化、自然、哲学等多个方面，而最受人推崇的，还是她的饮食文学写作。她的饮食文章，不仅告诉读者如何烹饪，更糅合了个人经验和时代背景，充溢着生命哲理和激情。深刻影响了一代美国人的生活观念。

1978年，费雪因在饮食文学方面的成就和影响力被授予杰出女性成就奖（the Grande Dame Award）；1992年，以她的名字命名的文学奖项“费雪奖”（M.F.K. Fisher Award）设立，用以嘉奖在饮食、家居、营养学等方面成就卓越的女性作家。