Talk of the Town

The Unknown Journals of Emily Carr

Wed. Oct.29th, 7:30-9:00 pm

With: Susan Crean, Author Of Opposite Contraries, Douglas & Mcintyre, 2003.

Emily Carr is one of Canada’s best-known artists. Her images of the British Columbian rainforest and First Nations villages are instantly recognizable and evoke the essential spirit of the landscape. She published seven books of her own and is the subject of three biographies. Yet the story of her life continues to take on different shapes and meanings. Now, Susan Crean has discovered unpublished writings of Emily Carr that provide new insights into her life and character. Opposite Contraries gathers together entries from her notebooks, correspondence and 42,000 words that were expurgated from her published journals. As Ms. Crean notes in her introduction:

“This completes the personal record as Carr herself bequeathed it. …this publication, together with Carr’s already published books, represents the voice of the artist narrating her own life. That voice spans thirty-two years of her career in this volume, from her public debut as an independent artist in 1913 to the last weeks of her life in 1945.”

The discussion will take place at UBC’s Robson Square campus. Attendance is free of charge, but please pre-register at info.talkofthetown@ubc.ca or phone 604-822-1700.

You can find out more about the books at the Douglas & McIntyre (http://www.douglas-mcintyre.com/book_details.asp?b=851) and HarperCollins (http://www.harpercanada.com/catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0002000628) web sites.

From Marianne Ackerman’s review of Opposite Contraries in The Globe & Mail:

“Rigorously annotated by a top-notch cultural critic, Opposite Contraries is a valuable addition to the vast bibliography pertaining to an important Canadian artist. It also offers fascinating reading to the non-specialist. Carr’s words leap off the page with uncensored honesty. To the extent that they were the very words her respectful editors chose to cut from the first published edition of her diaries, they may well be the most important words, being impressions and outbursts she was compelled by strong emotion to unburden in her diary, a life-long friend.”

This is what the Governor General’s Awards jury had to say about The Laughing One:

“In The Laughing One, Susan Crean has provided something far greater than a brilliant biography of the enigmatic Emily Carr. The journey is both physical and metaphysical. In a seamless dialogue constructed of Carr’s writings, the words of her commentators, fictionalized accounts of Carr’s life and Crean’s own descriptions and observations on the process of researching a life, The Laughing One offers an exploration of the heart and soul of Canada. The result is a rich, layered and vivid work that celebrates the sanity of connection: of past to present, of people to place, of human community”

About The Author

Susan Crean is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. The Laughing One: A Journey to Emily Carr, was shortlisted for the 2001 Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction, the 2001 Pearson Canada Readers’ Choice Award and the 2001 Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize. It won the B.C. Book Prize for Non-Fiction in 2002. She has written and spoken extensively on culture, art and women’s issues and has contributed to The Vancouver Sun, Geist, This magazine and many other publications. A resident of the West Coast for many years, Crean is now based in Toronto and spends part of the year on Gabriola Island.

Bibliography

• Opposite Contraries: The Unknown Journals of Emily Carr, Douglas & McIntyre, 2003
• The Laughing One, A Journey to Emily Carr, HarperFlamingo, 2001
• Grace Hartman: A Woman for Her Time, New Star Books, 1995.
• Twist and Shout: A Decade of Feminist Writing in This Magazine, Second Story Press, 1992.
• In the Name of the Fathers, Second Story Press, 1988.
• Newsworthy: The Lives of Media Women, Stoddart Publishing, 1985.
• Two Nations, James Lorimer & Company, 1983.
• Who's Afraid of Canadian Culture, General Publishing, 1976.

Links & Readings

Links

Emily Carr At Home and Work

This site is a compendium of the life and work of Emily Carr and includes excerpts of her writing and an on-line gallery of her art (with a link to the Vancouver Art Gallery’s permanent Carr collection).

Emily Carr and the House of All Sorts

You can take a virtual tour of the house Emily Carr lived in from 1913 until 1936.

Vancouver Art Gallery

The Vancouver Art Gallery has the most significant holdings of works by Emily Carr in the world.

Emily Carr Online

This Artcyclopedia site has links to galleries across Canada that have digital images of Carr’s work.

Readings

Emily Carr, Doris Shadbolt, Douglas & McIntyre, 1990

Emily Carr, A Biography, Maria Tippett, Oxford University Press, 1979

The Life of Emily Carr, Paula Blanchard, Douglas & McIntyre, 1987

Illustration courtesy of Canadian Art Connections (http://www.cac1.com/carr.html)