W. W. Norton & Company
The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
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A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
One of The Christian Science Monitor's 10 best books of June 2025
The riveting saga of the Seabrook Family, by one of The New Yorker’s most acclaimed storytellers.
“Having left this material for his writer son, my father must have wanted the story told, even if he couldn’t bear to tell it himself.” So begins the story of a forgotten American dynasty, a farming family from the bean fields of southern New Jersey who became as wealthy and powerful as aristocrats―only to implode in a storm of lies.
The patriarch, C. F. Seabrook, was hailed as the “Henry Ford of Agriculture.” His son Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life called “the biggest vegetable factory on earth.” But the carefully cultivated facade―glamorous outings by horse-drawn carriage, hidden wine cellars, and movie star girlfriends―hid dark secrets that led to the implosion of the family business.
At the heart of the narrative is a multi-generational succession battle. It’s a tale of family secrets and Swiss bank accounts, of half-truths, of hatred and passion―and lots and lots of liquor. The Seabrooks’ colorful legal and moral failings took place amid the trappings of extraordinary privilege. But the story of where that money came from is not so pretty
They say behind every great fortune there is a great crime. At Seabrook Farms, the troubling American histories of race, immigration, and exploitation arise like weeds from the soil. Great Migration Black laborers struck against the company for better wages in the 1930s, and Japanese Americans helped found a “global village” on the farm after World War II. Revealing both C. F. and Jack Seabrook’s corruption, The Spinach King undermines the “great man” theory of industrial progress. It also shows how American farms evolved from Jeffersonian smallholdings to gigantic agribusinesses, and what such enormous firms do to the families whose fate is bound up in the land.
A compulsively readable story of class and privilege, betrayal and revenge―three decades in the making―The Spinach King explores the author’s complicated family legacy and the dark corners of the American Dream.
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Book Details
ISBN:
9781324003526
EAN:
1324003529
Binding:
Hardcover
Pages:
368
Authors:
John Seabrook
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
Published Date: 2025-03-06
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Great
A very interesting story, I enjoyed the period descriptions of the clothes and social interactions over several decades. They lived a decadent lifestyle and in the end, greed and jealousy took it all. The narration was superb.
Fascinating story
John Seabrook’s memoir is a story of family legacy with the weight of inheritance in all its forms: emotional, material, and generational.The Spinach King, refers to his eccentric father, who once built a frozen spinach empire, before mental illness and time unraveled his grip on both his business and his family. Seabrook sifts through old documents, letters, and memories to reconstruct not just his father's unraveling, but also the complex web of class, greed, ambition, and denial that shaped his family’s American dream.I found it interesting to read about Seabrook Farms because I grew up nearby and was familiar with the towns and the geography of South Jersey, along with the corrupt politicians people talked about. I even remember the packaging of the Seabrook Farms frozen creamed spinach we bought at the local grocery store.The narrative is introspective, balancing journalistic precision with raw emotional honesty. Seabrook, best known for his work in The New Yorker, brings a journalist’s curiosity to his own family’s past—treating it like a case study in privilege, dysfunction, and fading aristocracy. He captures the racist and class prejudices of his father, the quiet resilience of his mother, and his own place as a son caught between admiration and resentment.Also included are minute details about crops: the growth rates, planting dates, etc. which can be a little dry. However, the excellent narrator, Dion Graham, made it easy to listen to. He made it seem as if John Seabrook was talking directly to the reader / listener.The Spinach King succeeds as both a personal memoir and a subtle critique of the American elite’s contradictions: its love of order and appearances, its silence around mental health, and its unspoken rules of legacy. It’s a slow burn—but one that leaves a lasting impression.
Very interesting nonfiction book about the rise and fall of the Seabrook family from New Jersey that created a frozen vegetable empire.. The narrator did a great job as well.
