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In the course of his research for A Guide to B.C. Indian Myth and Legend, Ralph Maud consulted manuscripts at Columbia University Library of the stories that Henry W. Tate, a Tsimshian, sent to Franz Boas during the decade 1903-13. Maud was struck by the fact that Tate first wrote the stories in English before providing a Tsimshian equivalent for Boas, and that the style of storytelling was much more vibrant and compelling in these original English texts than in the versions Boas "cleaned up" and published in Tsimshian Mythology (1916). Boas' monumental compilation of heavily revised texts has long been a much-consulted "classic" of ethnology. Through Maud's selection of the best of Tate's original stories, we can hear the animated writer behind Boas' revised texts - texts now presented in the authentic voice of Tate's original tellings. Each of the stories, and the extensive Raven Cycle, are provided with introductions and notes by the editor.
A propos de l'auteur
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 MaudRalph 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 Thomas's work, including
The Notebook Poems 1930-1934 and
The Broadcasts, and is co-editor, with Walford Davies, of
Dylan Thomas: The Collected Poems, 1934-1953 and
Under Milk Wood. Maud is also the editor of
The Salish People: Volumes I, II, III & 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.
Résumé
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 Maud’s selection of the best of Tate’s original stories, we can see the actual creative writer behind Boas’ revised texts, now preserved much closer to the way Tate originally intended.
