He's not Chuck Davis quite yet, but Vancouver blogger Lani Russwurm is making a name for himself by contributing stories and archival photos about his city to the Vancouver Is Awesome website, resulting in a "pre-gentrification"; pictorial history also called Vancouver Is Awesome (Arsenal $24.95) with 175 images ranging from vaudeville to punk. Russwurm, who has SFU degrees in political science and history, has been reviving Vancouver's history for a new generation since 2008, "from Rudyard Kipling to Mr. Peanut."; Mr. Peanut ran for mayor; Kipling was a racist who bought property in Vancouver, only to learn years later he had been swindled. 978-1-55152-525-9

BOOKS:

Vancouver Was Awesome: A Curious Pictorial History (2nd printing Arsenal 2014) $24.95 978-1-55152-525-9

[BCBW 2014]

Reviews of the author's work by BC Studies:
Vancouver Was Awesome: A Curious Pictorial History