Synopses & Reviews
Cultural Writing. Mythology. Ethnology. Canadian Studies. Transcribed from the original manuscripts by Ralph Maud. Between 1903 and 1913, Franz Boas commissioned Henry W. Tate to compose texts containing traditional Tsimshian lore. Although originally written in English, these transcripts first appeared in their translated Tsimshian versions in Boas' Tsimshian Mythology. Now in their English versions, Maud's transcriptions of these manuscripts capture Tate's "vibrant and compelling" style and provide a captivating and elucidating rendition of Tsimshian legend and history.
Review
"Maud acts as restorer, stripping away attitudes and prosody to reveal the vitality of the original text."
Vancouver Sun
Synopsis
Selection of the best original stories of Henry W. Tate (d. 1914), a Tsimshian informant to ethnographer Franz Boas.
Synopsis
Henry W. Tate (d. 1914) was a Tsimshian informant to ethnographer Franz Boas. Tate first wrote these stories in English before giving Boas the Tsimshian equivalent during the decade of 1903-1913. Boas published the stories in the much-consulted classic of ethnology, Tsimshian Mythology, in 1916. Through Ralph Mauds selection of the best of Tates original stories, we can see the actual creative writer behind Boas revised texts, now preserved much closer to the way Tate originally intended.
About the Author
Henry TateHenry Wellington Tate (circa 1860 1914) was an oral historian from the Tsimshian First Nation in British Columbia, Canada, best known for his work with the anthropologist Franz Boas. In Transmission Difficulties: Franz Boas and Tsimshian Mythology, the literary historian Ralph Maud expands further on the relationship between Henry Tate and Franz Boas.
Ralph Maud
Ralph Maud is the author of Charles Olson Reading (1996) and the editor of The Selected Letters of Charles Olson (2000.) He has edited much of Dylan Thomass work, including The Notebook Poems 19301934 and The Broadcasts, and is co-editor, with Walford Davies, of Dylan Thomas: The Collected Poems, 19341953 and Under Milk Wood. Maud is also the editor of The Salish People: Volumes I, II, III and IV by pioneer ethnographer Charles Hill-Tout. In addition, he has done extensive work on the translation collaboration between Henry W. Tate and Franz Boas, including the book, Transmission Difficulties: Franz Boas and Tsimshian Mythology.