Woo, the Monkey Who Inspired Emily Carr: A Biography by Grant Hayter-Menzies (PDF)

Description

Although Emily Carr is now considered a Canadian legend, the most enduring image is that of her pushing a beat-up old pram into downtown Victoria, loaded with dogs, cats, birds―and a monkey. Woo, a Javanese macaque whom Carr adopted in 1923, has become inextricably linked with Carr in the popular imagination. But more than that, in her short lifetime Woo became equally connected to Carr’s life and art.Born to a strictly religious family, Carr was never able to reconcile her wild and passionate nature with the stifling mores of the well-to-do Victorian society in which she was raised. Over the years, she increasingly turned to the company of animals to find the love and trust missing from her human relationships. Across the world in an Indonesian jungle lagoon, Woo (like Carr) was parted from her mother at a young age. The tiny ape with a “greeny-brown” pelt and penetrating golden eyes was then shipped across the world. When Carr spotted Woo in a pet store, she recognized a kindred spirit and took her home.Woo was many things to Carr―a surrogate daughter, a reflection of herself, a piece of the wild inside her downtown Victoria boarding house. Welcoming the mischievous Woo into her life, Carr also welcomed a freedom that allowed a full blooming of artistic expression and gave Canada and the world great art unlike any other before or since. However, despite Carr’s clear love for Woo, her chaotic life did not always allow Carr to properly care for her. Tragically, after Carr was hospitalized due to heart failure, she arranged for Woo to be sent to the Stanley Park Zoo. Bereft of Carr, Woo died alone in her cage only a year later.Hayter-Menzies approaches his subject from a contemporary perspective on bringing wild animals into captivity while remaining empathetic to the unique relationship between artist and monkey.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Truthful and tender, a meticulously researched and fine reflection on the connection between art and animals.”“Grant Hayter-Menzies is an accomplished historian and writer, and Woo, the Monkey Who Inspired Emily Carr brings a unique perspective to the wide shelf of books regarding Emily Carr… The author’s profound sympathy for all animals leads him to careful research into zoos, the trade in animals, animal behaviour and the long relationship between the legendary Canadian artist and the ‘human-imprinted primate’ who shared fifteen years with her. At once serious and fanciful, this is art history with a difference.”“What animates this tale with force and purpose is the author’s profound respect for animals. Carr’s relationship with Woo is impeccably researched by Hayter-Menzies, but he goes a step further. He deepens his understanding of the bond between these two primates by visiting a present-day monkey sanctuary. I found this book enlightening, heartwarming, and distressing. Casting its shadow over Carr’s devotion to Woo is the question the author pursues throughout the book: how could the artist have given up her animal companion to languish in a cage at the Stanley Park Zoo? In trying to find an answer, readers too are brought face to face with what it means to be a human guardian to an animal, wild or domesticated, and how tragically such a loving relationship can end.”“This is an extraordinary, profound, poignant and true story, brilliantly and fascinatingly told. Human and animal relationships are complex and, when they involve captive wild animals, troubling to say the least. Even when, as we find here, there is deep mutual affection. In such an unnatural situation there can rarely be a ‘happy ending.’ I have almost never read a book which I longed to read again, as soon as I had turned the last page. Such is the subtlety, sensitivity and skill of Grant Hayter-Menzies’ storytelling.”“Meticulously researched but also indulging an unapologetic and compelling stream of authorial speculation, this imaginative biography depicts two figures from two different species whose relationship, if imperfect, was fascinating and consummately intimate. Woo, the Monkey Who Inspired Emily Carr will certainly provoke reflections about our own animal companions: how we live with them, how they live with us.” About the Author Grant Hayter-Menzies has specialized in biographies of extraordinary women for over a decade, publishing the first full-length accounts of the lives of Charlotte Greenwood and Billie Burke, Princess Der Ling, Sarah Pike Conger, Pauline Benton, Lillian Carter and, most recently, Dorothy Brooke. He lives in Victoria, BC. He is donating 40% of his royalties from the sales of Woo, the Monkey Who Inspired Emily Carr to Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Sunderland, ON.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This book is for all those who love and are fascinated by the complex emotional connections that exist between humans and animals. It is engaging, easy to read, and though sad in part, it leaves us with important questions: “What does it mean be a human guardian to a wild animal? and what happens when that relationship ends, often tragically?”To answer those questions, the author gives us a detailed narrative of the subtle interactions that evolved over time between Canadian artist Emily Carr and her unintentional muse, a monkey named Woo. Woo essentially went from being an entertaining household pet that Emily dressed like a child and carted around in a baby carriage, to an artistic inspiration, to a terrible loss with which she had to cope when, due to failing health, she was forced to give the animal up to the care of a zoo. Likewise, Woo’s co-dependence with Emily, the only “mother” she had ever known, made it impossible for her to live happily among the other monkeys with whom she was confined at the zoo, such that she quickly lingered, apparently heartbroken, and died.To Woo’s story, the author has added his experiences visiting a present-day primate sanctuary in Canada and meeting a fascinating resident artist, “Pockets Warhol”. Though Woo and Pockets came from different circumstances into their care by humans, their respective stories reinforce a key message, spoken by one of the caregivers at the sanctuary, in response to the author’s concerns for the plight of Woo and any wild animal held in captivity by well-meaning but misguided humans: “Should we be judging Emily? Don’t you think she wanted love and safety for Woo?” The author’s visit to what was once Emily’s home, in the poignant final chapter, “Apple Tree”, helps answer that question for those of us who may struggle to understand.I have never understood the reason that people feel the need to keep wild animals in their homes, conspiring in the process of taking them from their natural homes, whether to fulfill fantasies, to feel as if there are somehow “saving” them, or to exert control over another creature when their own lives lack that power in their relationships with humans. (I have lived with and loved domesticated cats all my life, creatures who chase imaginary prey, chatter at birds outside their window perches, climb trees, flex their claws on scratching posts, and swish their tails when upset, and those manifestations of that side of their nature are more than enough “wild” for me.) Although I still believe that wild animals are not meant to be kept by humans as household pets, the author’s compelling storytelling has given me a better understanding of the unexpected connections that can touch the deepest emotions within both.

⭐This is a surprising and highly satisfying exploration of Emily Carr’s eccentric personality, her unique life, and most importantly, her relationship with her monkey, Woo.I learned a great deal about the environment that shaped the Artist, and her attitudes towards both animals and humans. This book was carefully researched, and written in a warm but uncompromising style. It tackles difficult issues of keeping wild animals in captivity with a true understanding of what is the motivation to do so, and the consequences of such a decision.This is a compelling journey, both for the author and the reader. I felt I lived in her life, briefly, and got to know Woo for the first time. Clearly a central figure in the complex genius that was Emily Carr.This is an excellent book. Highly recommended.

⭐Not found.

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