Life Writing and Biographical Plays: Emily Carr.

Emily Carr (1871-1945) as a writer drew on her life experiences for her works: Klee Wyck (1941), The Book of Small (1942), and The House of All Sorts (1944) are like Modernist collages in verbal form, guiding the reader through reflections of widely differing lengths about personal experiences, birds, and meeting people. The posthumously published autobiography Growing Pains (1946) and journals Hundreds and Thousands (1966) add to her palette of "life writing." Whichever genre she was writing in, it is most evident that Art was Carr's greatest priority, implying also several moments of self-doubt, questioning the value or quality of her paintings or writings. Her artistic achievement integrates her ideas about nature, Native people, Art, the dichotomy of "Primitivism" and "Modernism," as well as a striving for simplicity in expression. Carr's extraordinary character invited several artists to make her a mythic figure of Canadian culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]