A unique study examines the history and sociology of housework, using research, countless interviews, and analysis of characters from television, literature, and advertising to explore how, why, and who does the cleaning. 10,000 first printing.

Biting the Dust: The Joys of Housework

Politics & Social Sciences

Horsfield, Margaret

Social Sciences

St.Martin's Press

In this witty look at our obsession with cleaning, Margaret Horsfield confronts her own dirt demons and scours the social, historical, literary and psychological nooks and crannies of the world of household chores. Through historical research, countless interviews with people and an analysis of characters from novels and advertising, Horsfield presents such memorable personalities as the woman who sends her small daughter to walk around other people's houses in white tights to check for dirt and the mother who, upon her son's suicide, sheds not a tear but stays up all night frantically polishing her already gleaming hardwood floors. From demented television housewives to the redoubtable Mrs. Beeton, Biting the Dust runs the gamut of ideas and emotions.

History

Historical Study & Educational Resources

St. Martin's: Griffin

Book by Horsfield, Margaret, Horsfield, Peter

Beyond Bethlehem

Horsfield, Peter

Literature & Fiction

House of Anansi Pr

Cougar Annie’s Garden tells the haunting tale of a five-acre garden in the wilderness of Vancouver Island’s West Coast. Surrounded by rainforest and mountains, inaccessible and remote, this garden has endured for over eighty years. It is powerful with story, rich with legend and history, and Margaret Horsfield’s book brings all these elements together in her critically-acclaimed book. Cougar Annie's Garden has been widely acclaimed in Canada since its publication. 
In 1915 Ada Annie Rae-Arthur came to this part of the coast as a pioneer settler. She set to work clearing the land. What emerged was no ordinary stump farm out in the bush, it was a vision, a dream and a passion. Slowly, over the years, a garden of strange, mesmerising beauty took shape in its clearing in the deep forest, featuring hundreds of varieties of imported shrubs and trees and perennials. 
Wily and stubborn , Ada Annie operated a mail-order nursery garden; she also ran a general store and a post office from her home. She bore eight of her eleven children here, and she outlived and outworked four husbands. A crack shot and a skilled trapper, she became a cougar bounty hunter, killing over seventy of the big cats. She became known as Cougar Annie. Until she was in her mid-nineties, she remained in her beloved garden, 
Many types of West coast lore, many strands of history combine in this book to weave together Cougar Annie’s story. Many tales are told of the grim courage, blind hope and bitter losses that have shaped history here. 
Time plays ironic tricks on this isolated part of the coast. Failed enterprises lie rotting in the bush. The population has diminished. Settlements and homesteads have been abandoned. The ver landscape has been radically altered because of the logging in this part of Clayoquot Sound. People have left and dreams have died, all around here. 
Cougar Annie’s Garden tells of a dream that has survived, and lives on. Against all odds, this remarkable garden has outlived its equally remarkable owner. Although it was radically overgrown at the time of her death in 1985, it has now been completely restored, and now enters a new era. Thriving with fresh energy and beauty, the garden stands sentinel on this part of the coast, an indomitable survivor. 
The non-profit Boat Basin Foundation is taking over ownership and administration of the garden, its aim being to preserve the garden and to establish a site for botanical field study in Clayoquot Sound. Construction on study cabins has now begun and the first group of students, from San Francisco, has already spent time at the garden on a study trip. 
This is Margaret Horsfield’s fourth book. It features art work by Takao Tanabe and Briony Penn and a foreword by Peter C. Newman. In the spring of 2000 this book received the Roderick Haig-Brown award for best book about British Columbia during the past year; it was also shortlisted for the Hubert Evans non-fiction prize and it was runner-up for the Lieutenant-Governor’s medal for historical writing about British Columbia. 
The book is a full colour production, with over 100 colour pictures and 50 black and whites.

Cougar Annie's Garden

Americas

Salal Books

pp. xvii 365.b/w illustrations .heavy book additional postage may apply. SIGNED by the author on title page.

Voices from the Sound : Chronicles of Clayoquot Sound and Tofino, 1899-1929

Clayoquot Sound, on the West Coast of Vancouver Island is not only a place of extraordinary raw beauty, but also a region with a rich heritage and fascinating past. 
Tofino and Clayoquot Sound delves into all facets of the region's history, bringing to life the chronicle that started with the dramatic upheavals of geological formation and continues to the present day. The book tours through the history of the Hesquiaht, Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht as well as other nations that inhabited the area in earlier times. It documents the arrival of Spanish, British and American traders on the coast and their avid greed for sea otter pelts. It follows the development of the huge fur seal industry and its profound impact on the coast. It tracks the establishment of reserve lands and two residential schools. The coming of World War II is discussed, as is the installation of a large Air Force base near Tofino, which changed the town and area dramatically. From here the story spirals into the post-road period. With gravel and asphalt came tourism, newcomers, the counter-culture of the 1960s, the establishment of Pacific Rim National Park and, of course, surfing. The book also addresses logging--which became the main industry in the area--and its questionable practices, going into detail about the "War in the Woods"--the world-famous conflict and largest mass arrest in Canadian history. 
A place is shaped by its people, and Horsfield and Kennedy highlight notable figures of past and present: the merchants, the missionaries, the sealers and the settlers; the eternally optimistic prospectors; the Japanese fishermen and their families; the hippies; the storm- and whale-watchers; the First Nations elders and leaders. 
Offering an overall survey of the history of the area, Tofino and Clayoquot Sound is extensively researched and illustrated with historic photos and maps; it evokes the spirit and culture of the area and illuminates how the past has shaped the present.

Tofino and Clayoquot Sound: A History

Kennedy, Ian

Harbour Publishing

In this witty look at our obsession with cleaning, Horsfield confronts her own dirt demons &amp; scours the social, historical, literary, &amp; psychological nooks &amp; crannies of the world of household chores. Through historical research, countless interviews &amp; an analysis of characters from novels &amp; advertising, she presents such memorable personalities as the woman who sends her small daughter to walk around other people s houses in white tights. From demented television housewives to the redoubtable Mrs. Beeton, this book runs the gamut of ideas &amp; emotions &amp; throws light on a subject that is rich, strange &amp;, oddly enough, highly entertaining.

BITING THE DUST the Joys of Housework

Women's Studies

Fourth Estate, Limited

Biting the Dust : Joys of Housework

Business & Money

Business Culture

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Horsfield, Margaret. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Horsfield, Margaret

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Horsfield, Margaret. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Biting the Dust: The Joys of Housework

Biting the Dust: The Joys of Housework

Beyond Bethlehem

Cougar Annie's Garden

Voices from the Sound : Chronicles of Clayoquot Sound and Tofino, 1899-1929

Tofino and Clayoquot Sound: A History

BITING THE DUST the Joys of Housework

Biting the Dust : Joys of Housework

Tofino and Clayoquot Sound: A History