“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 that became as wealthy, glamorous and powerful as Gilded Age aristocrats. But the carefully cultivated façade hid dark secrets that led to the implosion of the family business. In a compulsively readable story of class and privilege, betrayal and revenge, John Seabrook explores his complicated family legacy and dark corners of the American Dream.

"John Seabrook wryly details the rise and fall—and Oedipal struggles—of his family’s farming empire… This is a tremendous tale" -- John Gapper - Financial Times
"This tale of the quarrelsome family, the devious father, the advances in food production and the ultimate disintegration of a business that had lasted for a century is told with the clarity and verve one would expect of a professional journalist." -- Frances Cairncross - Literary Review
"Keen, sophisticated and appealing... It’s a shocking but juicy story, one he tells by harnessing his gift for quietly observing details that lesser writers would miss and then deploying them with the energy of a man who has skin in the game... Captivating reading." -- The New York Times Book Review
"A The New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice"
"A The New York Times 'Notable Book of 2025'"

John Seabrook has been a staff writer at The New Yorker for more than three decades. The Spinach King is his fifth book. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.