Product Description

"There is not a human skill that was ever developed that is not still practiced somewhere on this planet." -- John Seymour. The Forgotten Arts & crafts brings together in a single absorbing volume two best-selling classics, The Forgotten Arts and Forgotten Household Crafts, written by the acknowledged "Father of Self-sufficiency" John Seymour. Taking the reader on an evocative journey through the worlds of traditional craftspeople -- from blacksmith to bee-keeper, wainwright to housewife -- Seymour celebrates their honest skills, many of which have disappeared beneath the tread of progress. With characteristic passion, Seymour demonstrates that these country arts and household crafts need never be forgotten. From woodland and building crafts to the tasks of the kitchen and laundry, he explores every aspect of traditional life. Materials and workshop tools are usefully annotated, and techniques evoked in engaging words and pictures. Over 1,700 detailed illustrations and photographs bring to life each craft and skill. In an affectionate and nostalgic account, John Seymour recalls a lifetime of encounters with working craftspeople in different parts of the world and describes the trades and household activities he saw practiced in the countryside of his youth. With a crusading vigor, he commends the joys of noble toil and makes a compelling plea for "virtuous craftsmanship," which may, without vigilance, vanish forever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149724 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-14
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Amazon.com
Originally published in two separate volumes (The Forgotten Arts and Forgotten Household Crafts), this book brings under one cover the wisdom of John Seymour, a well-known thinker on matters of self-sufficiency, traditional arts, and voluntary simplicity. Seymour is a utopian--he has a vision of a better world where people aren't alienated from their labors. In the introduction he writes, "Are we justified in using articles, no matter how convenient it may be for us to use them, that we know were produced in conditions which bored and even stultified the human beings who had to make them?" This question led Seymour to the research that forms the foundation of the book: rediscovering natural ways of making tools, shoes, furniture, and a variety of other items using methods that follow the grain of wood or the idiosyncrasies of a piece of stone. Seymour respects what he calls "the discipline of natural materials," and he longs for a world free of "mass produced rubbish." Chapters cover an astonishing range: from clog making to spinning to canning. Since this book is intended as a comprehensive survey, don't expect to be an expert on, say, forging metal by reading Seymour's descriptions. He doesn't go into great detail; rather, he gives the basic facts of each forgotten labor of love, and it's up to readers to decide if it's a labor they want to undertake. --Emily White

From Library Journal
Seymour, an expert in self-sufficiency, takes readers back to another age with this combination of the classic titles The Forgotten Arts (1984) and Forgotten Household Crafts (1987). There is something here for everyone: woodcrafts, basketry, soap making, food production, wool production, lace making, and more. As we have come to expect from DK, the illustrations are an attractive asset, featuring numerous period photographs and drawings. If the Y2K premonitions had come to pass, this book would have been worth its weight in gold (and it's a hefty tome). For most public libraries.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Country Home
John Seymour takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the worlds of traditional craftspeople...

Customer Reviews

Know the Facts Before Buying this Book
John Seymoure is one of my favorite authors to read. He is brilliant, witty, wise and sincere about a subject that is dear to my heart: self-sufficiency and homesteding. That being said, please read this review before purchasing this book.

This is an excellent book that explains to you how crafts were done before the industrial era. So, for ideas or nostalgic uses, this book is excellent. This book is not good, however, for those that are looking for a how-to book that explains how to perform these crafts.

Furthermore, I highly suggest foregoing this book altogether and purchasing John Seymour's "The Forgotten Arts & Crafts: Skills from Bygone Days", ISBN-13 9780789458476. The reason I say this is because you will get both 'feminine' forgotten household arts as well as 'masculine' forgotten arts, such as tanning, fence-making, felling, wheelwrighting, farrier work, etc, for roughly the same price.

Whatever you choose, though, you won't regret your expenditure. Another book of Seymours that I recommend is "Self Sufficiency and How to Live It."

forgotten crafts
This book is great for research . I bought it because it was (I thought) going to teach me how to do some more things. It did not. I would not buy this again. I'll get rid of my copy as soon as I can.

NOT USEFUL, but it does have nice sketches of stuff
Somehow I was under the impression that this book would be useful, but I was dead wrong. I see the book is tagged with terms like "permaculture, homesteading, organic farming, survival, country skills..." How terribly misleading!!! Who tagged this book with those terms?!?! I am way into Permaculture and it's myriad disciplines, so I bought this book thinking it might help me make something useful with my hands, but not at all. It has nice sketches of things, but ends about there. A great coffee table book for antique junkies and the likes, though. See the review by Ryan McNabb, I completely agree with him. As he said in his last paragraph,

"These books are a lovely diversion from the cares of modern life, but they won't take you there any more than a book about the space shuttle will put you in orbit. The simple life is attainable, but it will be the hardest thing you ever do, and this book won't help you one bit."

Wish I'd read his review before I bought it.