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Northwest Passages: Jean Auel
Oregon author Jean Auel wrote her bestselling novel The Clan of the Cave Bear thirty years ago. It was the first of the Earth's Children series - drawing on the archelogical record of the Ice Age to imagine the social and spiritual life of a young Cro-Magnon woman raised by Neanderthals.
It turns out Auel's imagination may now be validated by recent DNA discoveries of interbreeding. Her subsequent novels in the series are popular around the world. The sixth, perhaps ending the story of heroine Ayla, is finished and due out early next year.
Has your imagination been swept into prehistoric life by any of Auel's novels? What intrigues you about our Ice Age ancestors? What experience do you have that perhaps brushes with that time – gathering your own food, killing and using all parts of an animal? What questions do you have for Jean Auel?
Tagged as: books · history · jean auel · northwest passages
Photo credit: Aaron Johanson
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Your books served me as a "coming-of-age" series for me through my adolescent and teenage years. The story of Ayla that has stayed close to my heart is from Valley of the Horses after she was disowned by her clan, she fought to survive. The stories you created when Ayla had to start from scratch were intriguing because often times the process to make baskets and tools were told step-by-step. It was easy for me to envision myself as Ayla during her journey and life through the ice-age. Thank you, Jen
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Such an amazing article! I really enjoy reading it, very good insights, the article is very ell-said. A thumbs up!
Sodium Metabisulfite
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I love the parts when Ayla is riding a horse. How did this part of your novel come together in your mind?
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I have read most of the books in the series, and thanks for writing them so very well.
As to research, did you ever read Larry Dean Olson's Outdoor Survival Skills? A good book and all based on primitive technologies from digging sticks, to hand woven ropes, brain tanning of hides and tool making including flint knapping, fire making and more.
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Great Writer!
Great Speaker too!
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Jean
Jean
I was thinking of you because we reviewed "Clan" in my book group this week.
I'm always proud to say, "I knew you when." I envy your writing skills and the knowledge and imagination that drive them; not to mention the hard work and persistence.
I hope you have a great sense of satisfaction in the work you have accomplished and are happy and at ease in the world you have created. I'm sure that being famous has its inconveniences as well as it's thrills.
Best
Bill Walker
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Comments are now closed.
The Clan of the Cave Bear was the first book I read that suggested Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal existed on earth at the same time. Was that common knowledge when you researched this book, or were you one of the first to present that idea?