Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collections
Publication
Garden City, N.Y. : Anchor Press, 1972.
Description
Interviews and essays describe the way of life and crafts of pioneer America still surviving in the Appalachian region.
User reviews
LibraryThing member BookAddict
The log cabin building, basket weaving and animal skinning and cooking are fascinating but the home remedies are hilarious! Here's one for you....to cure a nose bleed place scissors, points up, on your neck LOL Yup, I can see when your getting stuck in the chin with scissor blades that you would
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draw so much blood that you wouldn't *notice* that your nose was bleeding!!!!!! LOOOOOOOOOOL Show Less
LibraryThing member smfmpls
The book, and the other Foxfire books that follow, was created in the 1960s and 70s by high schoolers in Appalachia for a school magazine. They interview elders and learn techniques for building stills, making rush baskets, building houses, etc., that were then and still are in danger of being
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lost. Excellent and highly recommended, for survivalists, back-to-the-landers, cooks, and interested folks alike. Show Less
LibraryThing member booknutzz
Loved the remedies. Have actually had some tried on me as a kid. Some worked.
LibraryThing member Willie3
This volume, the original anthology, celebrates the home life and creative history of Appalachia, featuring sections on hog dressing, log cabin building, soap making, basket weaving, planting by the signs, preserving foods, making butter, snake lore, hunting tales, faith healing, and moonshining.
LibraryThing member ElizabethBevins
This was a reread for me but once I started I couldn't put it down. My Grandmother lived in Rabun Gap. This had me reminiscing about the less industrial days. So many skills are already lost. I'm so glad someone thought to capture what is left.
LibraryThing member elizabeth.b.bevins
This was a reread for me but once I started I couldn't put it down. My Grandmother lived in Rabun Gap. This had me reminiscing about the less industrial days. So many skills are already lost. I'm so glad someone thought to capture what is left.
LibraryThing member raven2white
Awesome reading!
LibraryThing member renardkitsune
This series is so much more than a “how to” guide for people interested in homesteading or living off-grid. There are, of course the very interesting and useful step-by-step instructions—log cabin building, chair and basket making, and chimney building are all featured in the first volume,
But there are another set of “affairs of plain living” included in the book. Some of them are downright impractical. For instance, many of the home remedies include the direct application of turpentine, kerosene or a mix of the two on to the body. And please don’t follow the snakebite remedies. These sorts of things are included because the Foxfire books are much more about rejoicing in a culture that was much maligned in the first half of the 20th century as a poverty-stricken backwater. This book can appeal to a wider audience outside of the off-grid community because of these other aspects of Appalachian life that are included. Descriptions in firsthand accounts of planting by the signs and faith healing give depth and life to the people interviewed. It can be difficult to read some of the interviews that are not “translated”; it takes a little time to get used to the accents, but I think that the choice of the editors to leave it in dialect makes the books better. The Foxfire books are unconsciously part of a movement to rediscover and celebrate the positives of the Appalachian region old way of life, and in this goal they are successful.
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complete with diagrams and pictures. There is useful lore that has been collected, such as the use for different types of wood and different recipes. These are, to someone looking to add to their homesteading skills, practical guides.But there are another set of “affairs of plain living” included in the book. Some of them are downright impractical. For instance, many of the home remedies include the direct application of turpentine, kerosene or a mix of the two on to the body. And please don’t follow the snakebite remedies. These sorts of things are included because the Foxfire books are much more about rejoicing in a culture that was much maligned in the first half of the 20th century as a poverty-stricken backwater. This book can appeal to a wider audience outside of the off-grid community because of these other aspects of Appalachian life that are included. Descriptions in firsthand accounts of planting by the signs and faith healing give depth and life to the people interviewed. It can be difficult to read some of the interviews that are not “translated”; it takes a little time to get used to the accents, but I think that the choice of the editors to leave it in dialect makes the books better. The Foxfire books are unconsciously part of a movement to rediscover and celebrate the positives of the Appalachian region old way of life, and in this goal they are successful.
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LibraryThing member Brightman
Great insight into old crafts and trades of easy times for humans
Awards
Weatherford Award (1972)
Language
Original publication date
1972
Physical description
384 p.; 24 cm
ISBN
0385073534 / 9780385073530
Local notes
PKB
Other editions
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Foxfire 2: ghost stories, spring wild plant foods, spinning and weaving, midwifing, burial customs, corn shuckin's, wagon making and more affairs of plain living by Eliot Wigginton
Foxfire 3: animal care, banjos and dulcimers, hide tanning, summer and fall wild plant foods, butter churns, ginseng, and still more affairs of plain living by Eliot Wigginton
Foxfire 4: Fiddle Making, Spring Houses, Horse Trading, Sassafras Tea, Berry Buckets, Gardening by Eliot Wigginton
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