Summary of Rich Cohen's The Fish That Ate the Whale

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Sam Zemurray, the man who created the banana, was born in 1877 in the region of western Russia known as Bessarabia. He grew up on a wheat farm in a flat country ringed by hills. He went to America in 1892 to establish himself and send for his family.

#2 Sam was extremely ambitious, and he knew exactly how to get ahead. He believed in staying close to the action, and in learning from those who had already made it. He was simple, earthy, and he loved Selma, Alabama.

#3 When they had saved some money, many of these men opened stores, which meant moving all that merchandise under a roof in a town along their route. They were careful to only open one store per town, as they worried about attracting the wrong kind of attention.

#4 Sam Zemurray, the man who would become the richest man in the world, was a tin merchant. He was employed by a peddler who was less tin merchant than peddler, sharing a piece of chocolate with the boy. He then decided to travel to Mobile and buy a supply of bananas to bring back to Selma.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822544307

IRB Media

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Insights on Rich Cohen's The Fish That Ate the Whale

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Sam Zemurray, the man who created the banana, was born in 1877 in the region of western Russia known as Bessarabia. He grew up on a wheat farm in a flat country ringed by hills. He went to America in 1892 to establish himself and send for his family.

#2

Sam was extremely ambitious, and he knew exactly how to get ahead. He believed in staying close to the action, and in learning from those who had already made it. He was simple, earthy, and he loved Selma, Alabama.

#3

When they had saved some money, many of these men opened stores, which meant moving all that merchandise under a roof in a town along their route. They were careful to only open one store per town, as they worried about attracting the wrong kind of attention.

#4

Sam Zemurray, the man who would become the richest man in the world, was a tin merchant. He was employed by a peddler who was less tin merchant than peddler, sharing a piece of chocolate with the boy. He then decided to travel to Mobile and buy a supply of bananas to bring back to Selma.

#5

Sam Zemurray, the man who would later become the richest man in the world, went to Mobile, a seedy industrial port, to try and make his fortune. He was a bit of everything: shrewd, but also naïve. He was greedy for information, and he took a room in a seamen’s hotel.

#6

The banana trade was a huge deal in the 1800s, and Sam wanted to learn everything about it. He watched as the workers formed lines that snaked from the deck of the ship down a ramp, and across the pier to the waiting boxcars. Each boxcar was loaded with bananas, and if they passed inspection, they were sent to market.

#7

Sam grew fixated on ripes, recognizing a product where others saw only trash. He was the son of a Russian farmer, and he saw food as something to be valued under a different name.

#8

Zemurray became known as Sam the Banana Man, as he was a salesman of a perishable product. He was a gambler