The Raven Steals the Light - Softcover

Bill Reid; Robert Bringhurst

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1550544810 ISBN 13: 9781550544817

Publisher: Douglas Mcintyre, 1996

Synopsis

An elegant reissue of a timeless collection of Haida myths, with a new preface by Claude Levi-Strauss.

Ten masterful, complex drawings by Bill Reid are accompanied by ten episodes from Haida mythology told by Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst. The result brings Haida art and mythology alive as never before in an English-speaking world. The collection includes, says Reid, "a good selection of bestiality, adultery, violence, thievery and assault, for those who like that sort of thing."

About this title

About the Author:

Bill Reid, one of the finest artists to work in the Native American tradition, has numerous books documenting and revering his visual art. He is also the author of Solitary Raven, Out of the Silence and, with Bill Holm, Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue on Craftsmanship and Aesthetics. Robert Bringhurst, one of Canada’s leading poets and book designers, worked and studied with Bill Reid throughout the 1980s. The fruits of this association include a much-loved book of stories, The Raven Steals the Light, as well as Bringhurst and Ulli Steltzer’s book The Black Canoe, a study of Reid’s masterly sculpture. He lives on Quadra Island, British Columbia.

Review:

"These are simply the best versions of Indian tales I have read: they are colloquial yet poetic, precise yet spilling outside their boundaries, accumulating and then blending into one another."―Canadian Literature

"The drawings are impressive; the stories are engaging. But the real value of the book lies in the ability of Reid and Bringhurst to recreate the voice of the storyteller and in their ability to capture the sensual qualities of Haida oral literature."―Folklore

"Two artists, in an unusual pairing of talens, have reshaped Haida myths into scenes of Haida prehistoric life that seem told by a modern-day reincarnation of Raven himself."―Western Folklore

About this edition

• Publisher: Douglas Mcintyre
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1550544810
• ISBN 13: 9781550544817
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 112
• Illustrator: Bill Reid