A Book About Blankets

That book about blankets arrived yesterday, and I've been lost, immersed in it. That book: The Blanket: An Illustrated History of the Hudson's Bay Point Blanket, by Harold Tichenor.

Of course I'm a fanatic about wool blankets in general, and the Hudson's Bay point blanket in particular: as we head into the chillier season, I've got two heavy wool blankets on my bed, one of them Hudson's Bay. This book is a wondrous history of that blanket which has been sold from Hudson's Bay Company trading posts, going back into the late 1700s.

The text of the book is slightly touched with that "race, class, prestige, economic status" bilge which is so popular in academia; but not unbearably so. Overall the text is engaging and informative. The many, many illustrations are a delight, and more than worth the price of the book ($15 cheap) all by themselves.

In fact, after reading this book, I had to resist the temptation to order immediately another Hudson's Bay point blanket, plus a pattern by which to cut it up and sew it together into a heavy hooded wool capote, such as they used to wear up there in the Great White North.