Product 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #394246 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781553650256
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review

I did not write Klee Wyck, as the reviewers said, long ago when I went to the West Coast Villages painting. I was too busy then painting from dawn till dusk. I wrote Klee Wyck...in hospital. They said I would not be able to go about painting here and there any more, lugging and tramping. I was sore about it, so, as I lay there, I relived the villages of Klee Wyck. It was easy for my mind to go back to the lovely places. After fifty years they were as fresh in my mind as they were then, because while I painted I had lived them deep. I could sail out of hospital and forget about everything."

When asked to write about the "struggle story" of her work out West in collaboration with a biographer, Emily replied:

--- "Nobody could write my hodge-podge life but me. Biographers can only write up big, important people who have done great deeds to which the public can attach dates. I could not be bothered with collaborators, nor would they be bothered with the little drab nothings that have made up my life."
--

Her first book, Klee Wyck won a Governor General's award for general literature, the year that it was published.

About the Author
Emily Carr is a Fitzhenry and Whiteside author.

Customer Reviews

Beautifully written and visualized
this book by Emily Carr gives a very wonderful and descriptive account of the Pacific Northwest along British Columbia's shores. Emily Carr was a very unique woman who defied her times in her interactions with Native Peoples and her adventurous independance. This book details her explorations among the Queen Charlotte Islands. It is so descriptive it makes one feel that they are actually on the west coast.

Spirit of Place
If you are interested in the environment which generated the powerful West Coast Native art, the artist, Emily Carr, conjures it up in this original book. Her travels to their coastal villages are translated into these atmospheric essays.