The Heroic Present: Life among the Gypsies

by Jan Yoors, Ian Hancock (Introduction)

As a boy of twelve, Jan Yoors fulfilled many an adventurous youth's fantasy when he left his comfortable Belgian home to live and travel with a tribe, or kumpania, of Gypsies. Adopted into the extended family of Pulika, Yoors passed his days with the patriarch's sons and nephews, learning the traditions and participating in the rituals of the Gypsies, or Romani. As the years passed, he divided his life between the world of his birth, where he became a noted tapestry artist, filmmaker, and war hero, and the world of the Romani, where he returned regularly for more than five decades.

Yoors was also a gifted writer and photographer: his memoir, The Gypsies, is a riveting account of his life with the Romani; his many hundreds of images -- most of them never before published -- document the personalities and daily existence of his kumpania. The Heroic Present: Life Among the Gypsies brings together Yoors's photographs and excerpts from his memoir. The nuanced portrait details the rhythms of life among the Romani; the exceptional occurrences of birth, marriage, and death; and the highly codified system of conduct of the Gypsies. Roadside caravans, evening meals, multifamily feasts, village fairs, convocations of the kris (the Romani tribunal of justice), and wedding celebrations: all are powerfully evoked in both word and image. Comprehensive and vivid, expressive and lyrical, this volume is testimony to the author's remarkable facility with language -- both written and visual -- and an unequalled portrait of daily life among the Gypsies.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2004

About the author

Jan Yoors was born to a cultured, liberal family of artists, but at the age of twelve he ran off with a Gypsy tribe and lived with the kumpania on and off for the next ten years. During World War II, Yoors worked with the Allies to help the Gypsies who were being systematically exterminated. He was captured twice and imprisoned until the end of the war.

In 1950 Yoors settled in New York City, where he set up a studio and constructed a 15-foot vertical loom. His wife Marianne and her sister Annebert joined him in 1951; they were to collaborate with Yoors in the weaving of all his work. His work brought him international acclaim.

In the 1960s Yoors deepened his interest in photography. He returned to Europe to reestablish contact with those Gypsies who had survived the Holocaust. The pictures he took on this journey became an exhibition at the National Museum of Science in New York City and now illustrate the paperback edition of "The Gypsies".

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book a number of years ago, and its sequel as well. It is a fair, honest and sensitive portrayal of these unique people told from one who lived among them. How his parents allowed him to go off and join the gypsies when so very young, and in what manner he was able to cause the Rom to accept him as one of their own is remarkable. I shall not forget his descriptions of the ways in which they lived in such communion with nature, and the portrayal of the sights and sounds of gypsy life in the evening, when they camped out for the night. The author was so accepted by this notoriously closed clan that an arranged marriage was in the works at the time that he saw he must leave. If you are of a mind to read an accounting of a way of life that is no more (in its purest form), search no further.

Mr. Yoors, who died in 1971, was also an artist, photographer, painter, and sculptor.

[Jessi Waugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This appears to be an abridged version of Yoors' original work, with more photos but less of his writing. I wish it were all of the writing plus all of the photos. As it is, I'll buy a copy of this one for its readability - I think Yoors conducted priceless research, though it wasn't his intent, and his accounts are even more valuable as they came through the eyes of a child.

"To the (gypsies) a candle is not made of wax, but is all flame”

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

The words alone painted a picture strong enough that I, a reader, felt present in a campania in the 1930s somewhere in no-wheres-ville Europe somewhere. An excellent tour guide and an unforgettable tour.

[Ann Klefstad · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful version of Yoors' "Gypsies," an account of his life with the Rom. He left home, on a whim, really, at age 12 with a Romany caravan and lived with them off and on until the advent of the Nazis. He spent large parts of the rest of his life finding and documenting Romany life all over Europe and into India and in America.

and he was a wonderful observer. What I hadn't known is that he also took photographs--this version takes key excerpts from "Gypsies" and pairs them with Yoors' photos. Many of the people in the photos did not survive the death camps. Somehow, in the way of Barthes' illuminations on the relation of death and photography's meanings, this lends them a terrible power.

It's a tender and beautiful book, and the small press that produced it has done a lovely job.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

SO GREAT TO SEE PICTURES OF ALL THESE PEOPLE YOU COME TO KNOW IN HIS BOOKS.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A valuable resource and an un-romanticized perspective on an often misunderstood cutlure. The photographs are very revealing.