On This Day: 365 Days of History, Mystery, and More

by Dale Jarvis

The Newfoundland and Labrador of yesterday was more colourful than you might remember, and no one is more qualified to be your guide through the strange terrain of local history than folklorist and storyteller Dale Jarvis. In this book, you will come face to face with remarkable phenomena, mysterious objects, swarms of grubs, promiscuous spitting, whale milk, and raisins as large as figs. You will look for strange sights in the sky, draw up the mysteries of the deep, and foretell the future using only the bumps on your head or an egg in a glass. Along the way, you will meet jail-breakers, broom makers, contortionists, swindlers on the run, the legendary Fanny Goff, and Miss Toronto herself.

On This Day is a day-by-day record of the wonderful and extraordinary in everyday life. Drawn from old newspaper clippings, diaries, and historical accounts, this volume celebrates the strange and shines a light on the half-forgotten headlines of the past.

265 pages, Paperback

Published August 5, 2020

About the author

Dale Gilbert Jarvis is a folklorist, researcher, writer and storyteller living and working in St. John’s. He holds a B.Sc. (honours) in anthropology from Trent University and an MA in folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the Executive Director of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. By night, Dale is the proprietor of the St. John’s Haunted Hike ghost tour and raconteur of local tales. Author of several books on Newfoundland and Labrador ghost stories and folklore, he is a tireless promoter of local culture.

Reviews

[Taylor Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a good solid read
Great stories ALOT of history to take in
But again the author Dale Jarvis makes it a very good peice of literature!
Dale has written quite a few books and I enjoyed them all !
If you love Newfoundland history old or newish
This one’s for you

Read while at work on Tanker Damia Deganges ⚓️

[Sara Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick read. Interesting tidbits of NL informations

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're like me and can't get enough Newfoundland trivia, this is for you. Dale Jarvis has combed archived newspapers to get weird stories for almost every day of the year -- and for the dates that don't combine to bizarre weather or animal behaviour, he has an anniversary date.

Almost my favourite part is the Monty Python-esque cover. (Not shown yet in GoodReads, but it is there for the Kindle edition.)

[Noelle Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dale Jarvis has another excellent book in On This Day! I found it really hard to put down (and I know I say that about all his books) because I found it so interesting! Though some days were obvious slow news days, there was something interesting for everyone.