The Clan of Munes
The Clan of Munes is a fantasy - novel and children's book of the American painter and illustrator Frederick Judd Waugh . The self-illustrated book was published in 1916 and remained the only literary work of the well-known marine painter .
action
The story is told from the perspective of a first-person narrator .
A huge gas-filled bubble explodes under the earth's crust where the sea depth is 50 nautical fathoms . The force of the explosion caused rock and sand to come to the surface. Birds drop seeds in it, which sprout in the seagrass and grow into huge spruce forests . One day an Native American wizard arrives from the north who aspires to be a powerful Tlingit or Haida- style magician . He gathers up some spruce wood lying around, puts them together into figures and brings them to life by pouring a magic potion over them and burying them in the deep snow. Gradually he gives the Munes properties created in this way to his taste and makes them immune to fire, for example. Soon, however, his spells reach their limits and he has to recognize that his creation develops a life of its own. After a period of lethargy, he gets rid of a usurper and regains control of the tribe. He creates cows, whose milk the Munes feed on until they get fat, and a monstrous ant that gnaws the fat off their bodies again. After all, the wood people have had enough of the wizard and his magic, destroy his house and his possessions and chase him away in order to finally be able to lead a self-determined life.
Illustrations
- Illustrations for The Clan of Munes (1914–1916)
The magician prepares the summoning of the Munes
Munes with dog in various forms
The magician overhears a group of Munes from his canoe
The Munes chase away the wizard and his totems
background
Frederick Judd Waugh first visited the Monhegan Island artists' colony around 1911. In the years that followed, he spent a lot of time on the small island twelve miles off the mainland of Maine , taking a break from painting and sketching. On the rocky coast he collected gnarled roots and branches from spruce trees, which he transformed into the central characters of a fairy tale for his family. Within four years the artist, inspired by the Indian peoples of the Haida and Tlingit in the Pacific Northwest , created a text including illustrations, which finally appeared in novel form in November 1916 by Charles Scribner's Sons . Despite positive reviews, the 56-page book remained a slow seller and Waugh bought the remaining copies back from the publisher. As a result, only a few pieces are in circulation today and are offered on the Internet at corresponding prices. The text is available as an e-book from certain providers .
All 28 original drawings are in the possession of the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University and were last exhibited in early 2014 along with two Munes made by Waugh.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The clan of munes. WorldCat , accessed December 25, 2019 .
- ↑ a b The Clan of Munes: Frederick J. Waugh. Ulrich Museum of Art, January 2014, accessed on December 25, 2019 .
- ↑ The Clan of Munes. Grapefruit Moon Gallery, accessed December 25, 2019 .