The Peddlers is the story of the leading roles some Nova Scotians played in the North American door-to-door sales profession in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It starts with the life of Nova Scotia-born Alfred C. Fuller, the Fuller Brush Man, whose humble upbringing in the Annapolis Valley laid the foundation for what became one of the biggest businesses of its type in the world.

It also follows the career of Yarmouth County's Frank Stanley Beveridge, who co-founded the highly successful Stanley Home Products company. From the tough times of the 1920s and 1930s, the story showcases the Lebanese immigrant backpack peddler Herman Rofihe who established a quality men's wear store that served three generations.

The Peddlers takes you on a door-to-door tour of the origins of household brands like Minard's and Sloan's Liniment, JR Watkins and Rawleigh Products, Fraser's Liniment, Gates Little Gem Pills, Buckley Cough Syrups, Muskol, and other medicinal enterprises founded by peddlers, many of them Nova Scotians. It also chronicles a century-old Hants County murder case involving two young peddlers — one the victim, the other the perpetrator.

Filled with these fascinating stories of Nova Scotia's history in the door-to-door trade, The Peddlers is a tribute to the men and women of a bygone era in merchandising, the likes of which will never be seen again.

Blain Henshaw has been a writer since publishing his own penny newspaper in Grade Three at age nine. His professional writing career began at CKBW radio in Bridgewater in 1966 where he wrote news and covered courts, municipal council, and community events. In the 1970s and 80s while working for the Atlantic Television System (now CTV Atlantic) he won a number of radio and television awards for his documentary work, including an Atlantic Journalism award. His first book was published in 2016 and since then there have been three more, including the 2021 regional bestseller Madam of the Maritimes: The Life and Times of Ada MacCallum. He is also a prolific songwriter, having composed more that 100 songs and recording four CDs of original material. In 2017 he was inducted into the Nova Scotia Country Music Hall of Fame.

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