Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr

by Emily Carr, Gerta Moray (Introduction)

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Memoir, Canada, Biography, Biography Memoir, Art History

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Emily Carr (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist and writer heavily inspired by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the first painters in Canada to adopt a post-impressionist painting style, Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until later in her life. As she matured, the subject matter of her painting shifted from aboriginal themes to landscapes, and, in particular, forest scenes. As a writer, Carr was one of the earliest chroniclers of life in British Columbia. The Canadian Encyclopedia describes her as a "Canadian icon".

Reviews

[Julienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have rarely encountered as beautiful a soul as the one Emily Carr lays bare in her personal writings. This book is remarkable in so many ways--it illuminates Carr's philosophies of art, her position in society and the artistic community of the day, and above all her continuous growth as an artist and as an individual. Brave and insightful, strong yet vulnerable, Carr kept both humility and a thirst for new understanding, new perspectives about the world, alive and thriving in an aging body right to the day she died. This book is beautiful and inspiring, the kind of book you hate to finish, but also the kind of book you treat like an old friend and keep nearby.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, more so than any of the other books I've read about or by Emily Carr because in this book she talks about her painting process and her intensely spiritual motivation when painting...she is also such an amazingly honest and forthright person, someone I would have loved to meet. As I read I look up the painting she is discussing at any given section so it is slow reading for me but very worthwhile. I wish I could afford to buy the illustrated version of this book.

[Nicola Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this not ten minutes ago and have already ordered another of her diaries, 'Opposite Contraries' so I think that speaks volumes (excuse pun!). I had never heard of Emily Carr until I read one of May Sarton's journals in which she was reading and enjoying this book. They had much in common, living alone with animals and flowers and feeling that they never quite made it big in the book and art world. They are both inspirational if only for the fact that they never allow their age to get in the way of work and crafting. Both are wonderfully honest in their journals though Carr strikes me as having to work that bit harder at maintaining her identity as as artist as most of the time it seems that people just didn't like her paintings

Thanks to May Sarton, I've ordered a few other journals written by female writers and artists. If I had to voice a quibble about Carr's journal, I would just say that I wished she had mentioned the books she was buying and reading. Also, I would have loved some photographs of her animals, caravan and the various houses and studios she inhabited. In any case, I highly recommend this for anyone who is interested in the toil and toll behind the 'bright lights' of being an artist and writer!

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

For decades, Emily Carr (1871-1945) has been recognized as one of Canada’s great painters. From 1941, she also published some prose of place, travel writing, and short fiction. This diary (starts in 1927) demonstrates her flare for expression & description.

In her life, art as a way of living proved challenging. This diary written, through years up to '41, is a place where — very enjoyably for a reader — she preserved her contemplations upon her art and her love of unpeopled, wild nature (and old Indigenous settlements), and where she discloses her struggle for recognition and sales. These pages share, as well, her spiritual life, and her ruminations on the relationship between mystical enlivenment and artistic vision & originality.

Carr needed solitary time to create & evolve. She was fairly hermit-like, and apart from other creative individuals, she didn’t suffer people well. She experienced a recurrent, severe aversion actually; yet, to make ends meet, she was obliged to take borders into her Victoria home! Though vexed, the drive to create was always there.

The intimate expressions in the diariy help one to understand the power of Carr’s paintings, and why there’s been such Canadian and international regard for her as a trailblazer.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this first edition hard cover in Toronto, I believe. I kind of shudder to myself to think that YES, I marked it up. Fortunately, I am not a book collector in that sense of the word.
Here is my review, again, written awhile ago, after I had just experienced the raw Emily...
This was her "private journal" and through reading it, it was like she was alive and I got to know her personally, I got to know things which made me ashamed to know at times ( I just had to think of my own journal and some of the shameful private thoughts I've written out). More than anything else, she wanted her paintings to move people. She wanted to capture the very essence of the landscape-"the God in them" as she put it. She wanted all the parts to move in one orchestrated whole. Oh, how she loved her country-the woods, mountains, space,sky, ocean. She would go on camping trips, alone except for her animal companions (dogs, a rat and monkey!!) to paint, write, look, smell, listen. She made me mourn my own failure to observe and appreciate nature

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found reading this book comforting because it relates to how I feel about the local environment growing up in BC. I would strongly recommend this book.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to prepare a sermon on Carr's painting, "Indian Church." Her work is controversial, of course, for its cultural appropriation of First Nations art and iconography. I get that. Still, her journals reveal a very human, very earnest, very likeable person. I've not read journals before--but this was very interesting.

[Nancy Thormann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to struggle to get through this book. There's only so much you can read about rain, mud, and camping before you get bored stiff. It's true that Emily Carr had to struggle as an artist - most artists do. It gets a bit tedious reading about the struggles on page after page after page. I enjoyed her other books much better.

[Mel Luna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into this. She drove me nuts. I stopped after page 67.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading Emily Carr's journals about finding God in nature and learning to express that in paint. Motion in nature is expressed in colour and curves. She makes trees sing and dance. Much of her art is in Native territory in BC where she travelled, did portraits, painted totems and nature. She lived very frugally as a single woman and suffered gender bias in the art world. Lauren Harris was an early admirer of her work. She was disappointed when he stopped writing to her and he did not save her letters. She saved his and they are in archives. He did get her solo shows and some recognition. But her recognition was almost 100% from her own efforts sending her work to shows at great expense and not getting them back. for a year or years, sometimes some sold at the shows. People, strangers, came to see her and buy her work out of her studio, a task she found very hard. Most of them were ignorant of art and tedious to her. She sure was a cantankerous woman. She ran a boarding house, then lived in a caravan in the woods in the summer, then gave up the boarding house and got a cottage. She had dogs, a monkey, etc. In thunder storms they were all in her bed. Fun read, but repetitive about expressing God. I liked the book called Small better.

[Rosalie Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to read more of Emily Carr's writing...

... As well as see more of her paintings. She writes as she paints, with honesty, compassion and a deep respect for both the human and the natural world. Also with humour, humility, a deep love of her homeland (British Columbia) and its forests, shorelines and skies. And the art and culture of its First Nations people. She paints wonderful old cedar trees, young dancing pines. She writes about her daily life - difficult sisters, affectionate pets, demanding tenants - and her struggles to capture in paint the environment she adores. Her writing is unpretentious, her word use inventive - the effect is warm, welcoming, inspirational. An unforgettable experience, reading her journal. I recommend you read it too.

[Liz Newlands · Rating 2 out of 5]

Emily Carr is a great writer. Her descriptions are beautiful. I loved reading about how she struggled as an artist, trying to create paintings that spoke to others. It was interesting to read about her time spent with other artists, especially Lawren Harris. I wish there was more of this in the journals, but this was a diary of her everyday life. She didn’t expect it to be published, so it rambled on and on. After the first 100 pages I skimmed through the rest. If I owned a copy I would have continued reading it, picking it up occasionally, and probably would have enjoyed it more.

[Lilianne Milgrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a woman

I can't remember the last time I read something as honest, true and raw as this intimate journal. Emily Carr was a woman whose love affair with the natural world I can never hope to attain and whose clear-eyed view of the world and her place in it are humbling.

[Tarah Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s something for the artist in everyone’s life and the process of getting things done her way on her terms

[Madelyn Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I savoured this book, enjoying every precious moment witnessed through Emily's eyes.

[Mary Dayhoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are an artist this is a must have. You can open it any place and read to connect with the artist in you.

[Terry P · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astounding woman, artist and author revealed. Her amazing struggle to pursue her art and vision is so engrossing and inspiring. Working away in a stultifying vacuum of lack of appreciation and total lack of understanding of her vision and modern art. An honest account of her self doubt and journey. Please make a movie of Emily Carr's life. We need to share this amazing woman's story to new generations. Also her books.Emily Carr

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply wonderful.

[Lydia Knox · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it it was a wonderful journey into the life process and work of one of my heroes. Recommend it to any artist!