OPPOSITE CONTRARIES

UNKNOWN JOURNALS OF EMILY CARR AND OTHER WRITINGS

Emily Carr was an extraordinary writer and artist. Although primarily a painter, she first gained recognition as the author of seven popular, critically acclaimed books. Award-winning author Susan Crean has gathered here, for the first time in book form, previously unpublished writings from Emily Carr's journals, notebooks and correspondence. Included are 42,000 words expurgated from Carr's published journals, with passages about her friendship with Sophie Frank (a Squamish basket maker), details of Carr's spiritual quest, her dreams, and anguished thoughts about her sisters and family. Those who love Emily Carr's art will delight in reading the complete text of her groundbreaking 1913 "Lecture on Totems," her first writing on Native imagery and Native people. Crean also presents significant portions deleted from Carr's first book, Klee Wyck, after her death. New revelations include the full text of Carr's account of the famous and much debated "brutal telling" (when her father told her the facts of life), presented in one of the letters to her friend Ira Dilworth. And the original voice of Sophie Frank is acknowledged in three surviving letters to Emily Carr.

Susan Crean's introduction to Opposite Contraries and to each of the book's three sections provide an illuminating context, both historical and cultural, in the fascinating story of Emily Carr.

EDITOR'S NOTE

My book The Laughing One involved extensive archival research which left me with notes on the unpublished sections of Carr’s Journals. Having completed two-thirds of the job of transcribing the expurgated entries, it was an easy decision to publish them in this volume titled Opposite Contraries, along with a section in Klee Wyck that had been cut, the 1913 Talk on Totems and a series of letters between Carr and her Coast Salish friend Sophie Frank. It was also my great fortune to work with the late Saeko Usukawa, who originally suggested the project. She was and one of Canada’s truly great editors, and still much missed.

WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING

"...academics and researchers will hail Crean for her contribution to the extant published record on Carr."

"Rigorously annotated by a top-notch cultural critic, Opposite Contraries is a valuable addition to the vast bibliography pertaining to an important Canadian artist."

Marianne Ackerman

"Painstaking research by Crean has resulted in a coherent collection of materials that reveals as much about Carr's art, struggles with philosophical questions, and the culture that contributed to her world view as any other book about her."

Joan Taillon

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING

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Author: Emily Carr; Editor: Susan Crean
Pages: 258
Subjects Carr, Emily, 1871-1945. Carr, Emily, 1871-1945 Diaries. Painters Canada Biography. BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Artists, Architects, Photographers. ART History General. Painters. Biography. Non-fiction.

Publisher: Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.

Publication Year: 2006

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