Emily Carr

Kathryn Bridge

The legendary Emily Carr was primarily a painter, but she first gained recognition as a writer. Her first book, published in 1941, was titled Klee Wyck ("Laughing One"), in honour of the name that the Native people fo the west coast gave her as an intrepid young woman. The book was a hit with both critics and the public, won the prestigious Governor Generals' Award and has been in print ever since. Emily Carr wrote these twenty-one word sketches after visiting and living with Native people, painting their totem poles and villages, many of them in wild and remote areas. She tells her stories with beauty, pathos and a vivid awareness of the comedy of people and situations. A few years after Carr's death, signifcant deletions were made to her book for an educational edition. This new, beautifully designed keepsake volume restores Klee Wyck to its original published verison, making the complete work available for th e first tim in more than fifty years. In her intriguing introduction, archivist and writer Kathryn Bridge puts Klee Wyck into the context of Emily Carr's life and reveals the story behind the expurgations.

Klee Wyck

In vibrant prose and revealing detail, Emily Carr records delightful and insightful moments and encounters from her own life history.

Autobiographical Sketches by Emily Carr

Unvarnished

Thc Emily Carr Omnibus includes all her major published works. Here are her much-loved early stories, ranging for the gentle recollections of Klee Wyck and The Book of Small, to the acerbic The House of All Sorts, as well as the lesser-known Pause and The Heart of a Peacock. Here also are more personal works: Growing Pains, her autobiography, and her collected journals, Hundreds and Thousands.

The Emily Carr Omnibus

Sarah Milroy

James Hart

Matthew Teitelbaum

Ian Dejardin

Peter Doig

Charles Hill

Gerta Moray

Jessica Stockholder

Karen Duffek

Robert Storrie

Marianne Nicolson

Corrine Hunt

Ian Thom

Published in conjunction with the exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery on November 1, 2014-March 8, 2015 and Art Gallery of Ontario on April 11-July 12, 2015.

Emily Carr in British Columbia

From the Forest to the Sea

Anne Newlands

Recounts the life and career of an early twentieth-century Canadian painter noted for her depictions of the landscape of the Pacific Coast, many of which featured totem poles and other Native elements, and discusses her paintings

An Introduction to Her Life and Art

Emily Carr was primarily a painter, but she first gained recognition as an author for her seven books about her journeys to remote Native communities and stories about life as an artist, as a small child in Victoria at the turn of the last century—and as a reluctant landlady. Before winning recognition for her painting and writing, Carr built a small apartment building with four suites (she lived in one of them) that she hoped would earn her a living. But things turned out worse than expected, and in her forties, the gifted artist found herself shoveling coal and cleaning up after people for 23 years. The House of All Sorts is a collection of 41 stories of those hard-working days and the parade of tenants- young couples, widows, sad bachelors and rent evaders— all the tears and travails of being a landlady confronted with the startling foibles of humanity. Carr is at her most acerbic and rueful, but filled with energy and inextinguishable hope. Carr’s writing is vital and direct, aware and poignant, and as well regarded today as when The House of All Sorts was first published in 1944 to critical and popular acclaim. The book has been in print ever since.

The House of All Sorts

Wild Flowers is a collection of Emily Carr's delightfully evocative impressions of native flowers and shrubs. She wrote these short pieces later in life and they rekindled in her strong childhood memories and associations. She delights in the brightness of buttercups that "let Spring's secret out", muses over the hardiness of stonecrop ("How any plant can grow on bare rock and be so fleshy leafed and fat is a marvel.") and declares that "botanical science has un-skunked the skunk cabbage". Carr's playful words often bring a smile to readers. About catnip, she writes: "I did think it was kind of God to make a special flower for cats." In a brief Foreword and Afterword, archivist and historian Kathryn Bridge gives context to Wild Flowers within the body of Carr's previously published writings. Wild Flowers is illustrated with beautiful watercolours of wild plants by Emily Henrietta Woods, one of Carr's childhood drawing teachers in Victoria. The originals of Carr's manuscript and Woods' botanical illustrations reside in collections of the BC Archives; neither have been published until now. "Woods' paintings fit so well with Carr's text. It's serendipity that Woods taught Carr and that we have her art and Carr's manuscript in the Archives' collection, and that neither have been published before now." - Kathryn Bridge

Wild Flowers

Once available and appreciated only by researchers, these stories remained buried in the British Columbia Archives until 2007. Finally, readers are given a new glimpse into Emily Carr's life with this collection.. Carr began to write these stories in the last two years of her life. She wrote of the project: ... they are too small each to be taken singly, but each, complete in itself, serves to ornament life which would be a drab affair without the little things we do not even notice or think of at the time but which old age memory magnifies. This collection illuminates her life and is available to all in This and That: The Lost Stories of Emily Carr. Enter Emily's world with stories like Father's Temper, The First Snow and Smoking with the Cow, stories in which she reveals details of her family life, school days, her fascination with nature, animals she loved and how she learned to smoke.

The Lost Stories of Emily Carr

This and That

David Silcox

A resurrected seminal work by the forefront 20th-century Canadian artist whimsically documents her life-changing journey with her sister to Skidegate, Juneau, and offers insight into the influence of post-impressionist masters on Carr's work.

Sister and I in Alaska

While studying art in London, Emily Carr seriously undermined her health and was sent to a sanatorium for a complete rest cure. Bridling at the hospital’s rules, which prohibited excitement of any kind, the always rebellious Carr proceeded to make friends, raise birds, and cause trouble. In words and enchanting sketches, Carr presents a funny, poignant account of her 18-month convalescence.

An Emily Carr Sketch Book

Pause

Emily Carr's whimsical account of her trip across Canada, written and illustrated in her own hand, directly from her original notebook.

Sister and I from Victoria to London

Doris Shadbolt

Emily Carr (1871-1945) traveled to remote regions for inspiration for her art, vibrantly chronicling the rich culture of Northwest indigenous people and the dense forest of the West Coast. Carr's spiritually infused work was controversial in its day; today she is considered a master of the style. This book reflects more than a decade of meticulous research and includes reproductions of over 200 paintings, charcoals, and drawings, as well as extensive quotes from the artist, who was also a writer.

The Art of Emily Carr

"Fresh Seeing" by Emily Carr. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Fresh Seeing

A collection of short stories about people and animals by the legendary Emily Carr that mingle the sad and the joyous, the cruel and the tender, in her unique style. The Heart of a Peacock is a collection of 51 short stories by the legendary writer and painter Emily Carr. The stories are arranged in themes such as her experiences with Native people, her adventures with various beloved creatures (particularly birds), her love of nature, and a whole section of stories about her mischievous pet monkey Woo. Together, they underline Emily Carr’s place as a writer with the sharp yet tender eye of an artist, with a deep feeling for the tragedies of life and with a rich sense of the comic. The Heart of a Peacock has been in print ever since its publication in 1953, and, like her other books, has been read and loved by a couple of generations. The book is enhanced by seven of Carr’s own line drawings of scenes from nature. Carr’s first book, published in 1941, was titled Klee Wyck, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction. Her writing is vital and direct, aware and poignant, as well regarded today as when first published.

The Heart of a Peacock

Emily Carr’s journals from 1927 to 1941 portray the happy, productive period when she was able to resume painting after dismal years of raising dogs and renting out rooms to pay the bills. These revealing entries convey her passionate connection with nature, her struggle to find her voice as a writer, and her vision and philosophy as a painter.

The Journals of Emily Carr

Hundreds and Thousands

The Complete Writings of Emily Carr

The Emily Carr Collection

"Klee Wyck" by Emily Carr. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

"The Book of Small" by Emily Carr. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

The Book of Small

Nan Cheney

Humphrey N. W. Toms

This collection includes 150 letters Emily Carr wrote to her friends Nan Cheney and Humphrey Toms, and 100 other letters relating mainly to Emily Carr. The letters date from 1930 to 1945, the most prolific period in Carr's career as both painter and writer. In them she writes in colourful detail about her everyday activities, and discusses her painting - "the biggest thing in my life." There are outbursts of exasperation and anger as well as many indications of her caring, her warmth, her wisdom and her wit, and of her impatience with critics and poseurs, and they give insights into her various relationships with, among others, Lawren Harris, Ira Dilworth, Jack Shadbolt, Garnett Sedgewick, Dorothy Livesay, A.Y. Jackson, and Arthur Lismer.

Emily Carr

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