Book Description
The title of artist, writer, and rebel Emily Carr's first book means "Laughing One," the nickname given her by the Native people of Canada's west coast. She returned the favor with Klee Wyck, a collection of 21 "word portraits" of their lives and ways. The memoir describes in witty, vivid detail Carr's visits and travels as she painted their totem poles and villages and got to know a people whose "quiet strength healed my heart." The book is reissued here with restored text and features the original introduction by Ira Dilworth and a new introduction by Carr scholar Kathryn Bridge.
Klee Wyck FROM THE PUBLISHER
The legendary Emily Carr was primarily a painter, but she first gained recognition as a writer. Her first book, published in 1941, was titled Klee Wyck ("Laughing One"), in honour of the name that the Native people of the west coast gave her as an intrepid young woman. The book was a hit with both critics and the public, won the prestigious Governor General's Award and has remained in print ever since. Emily Carr wrote these twenty-one word sketches after visiting and living with Native people, painting their totem poles and villages, many of them in wild and remote areas. She tells her stories with beauty, pathos and a vivid awareness of the comedy of people and situations. And though Carr wrote Klee Wyck decades after these visits, she said, "The lovely places were as fresh in my mind as they were then, because while I painted I had lived them deep."
A few years after Carr's death, significant deletions were made to the book for an educational edition. This new, beautifully designed keepsake volume restores Klee Wyck to its original published version, making the complete work available for the first time in more than fifty years. Included are full-colour reproductions of the four paintings by Emily Carr that appeared in the first edition of Klee Wyck. Also included are the two original forewords by Carr's friend, Ira Dilworth, to the first edition as well as to the educational edition, that offer insights into Carr's life and writing. And in an intriguing introduction, archivist Kathryn Bridge puts Klee Wyck into the context of Emily Carr's life and reveals the results of her research into the story behind the expurgations.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
One of Canada's most talented artists, Emily Carr (1872-1945) painted her country's native people and the magnificent totem poles they built before civilization completely changed their way of life. To do so, she traveled the rugged coastal islands of British Columbia. Sometimes she explored abandoned villages; other times she found warm hospitality in so-called hostile villages. Always she lamented the mistreatment of natives by the Canadian government and by misguided missionaries, a controversial viewpoint at that time. In her sixties, when her doctor forbade her to paint owing to ill health, she turned to writing, using old journals as material for a series of new sketches. This collection of 21 stories, first published in 1941, re-creates her past adventures and accords the natives the dignity they deserve. Carr writes with an unpretentious, economical clarity, much in the way she painted. Klee Wyck means "Laughing One," a name the natives gave to Carr when she painted among them as a young woman. Enthusiastically recommended for public and academic libraries.-Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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