Carr's 'Klee Wyck' being republished
Published: May 05. 2004 4:00AM PST
Emily Carr was a visual artist, so it's not surprising that "Klee Wyck" is a collection of 21 word sketches about the native people of the Pacific Northwest.
Originally published in 1941, "Klee Wyck" (Laughing One) came from the author's visits to the region where she painted totem poles and villages.
"I looked through the blindless windows of the Indian houses," she writes in one of the sketches, "Greenville." "Half-eaten meals littered the tables. Because the tide had been right to go, bedding had been stripped from the springs, food left about, water left unemptied to rust the tables. Indians slip in and out of their places like animals. Tides and seasons are the things that rule their lives: domestic arrangements are mere incidentals."
Carr, who hailed from British Columbia, studied art in San Francisco, London and Paris. Ira Dilworth writes in the book's foreword, " ... Emily Carr was a great painter, certainly one of the greatest women painters of any time."
Her writing also garnered raves.
According to the New York Times Book Review, "She saw, and catches in a few words, the characteristics and atmosphere of lonely islands and wilderness settlements. And she writes with a brisk and sensitive originality."
Today, nearly 60 years after her death, Carr's works are being published by Douglas & McIntyre. "Klee Wyck" is the first of the series.
Available in hardcover ($19.95) and a paperback edition ($8.95), the book runs 152 pages.
Contact: www.douglas-mcintyre.com.
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