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 Award-winning author Susan Crean has gathered here, for the first time in book form, previously unpublished writings from Emily Carr's journals, notebooks and correspondence.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.