Mischief in Fez (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781481865081)

Eleanor Hoffmann graduated from Radcliffe College the same year the country entered WWI. She did her part for the war by becoming a "farmerette" in Massachusetts for the Women's Land Army, running a diary for a farmer enlisted in the war. When he returned, she spent a year teaching High School Latin and French in Chapel Hill, NC. After studying Botany at the University of North Carolina, she traveled the State overseeing landscaping projects that introduced native plants around high schools. Today, native plants are recognized as a useful conservation practice, but it was a concept still in its infancy in the early 1920s. The next three years she spent teaching Botany, Latin, and French at the Hampton Institute in Virginia, one of the first black colleges in America. Eleanor began her world travels in 1924, supporting herself by buying Moroccan tribal rugs for customers in the United States. She was a pioneer doing business as a single woman in a traditional Islamic culture. Eleanor developed a crippling form of arthritis in 1932, and returned to her family in Santa Barbara, California. During the next 21 years, she wrote 16 books for children. Her themes included ancient Morocco, Bedouin life, and adventure stories involving animals.