Sealed Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George read newest by Irene Worth Vinyl Record Album LP Spoken Word
Julie of the Wolves is a children's novel by Jean Craighead George, published by Harper in 1972. Set on the Alaska North Slope, it features a young Inuk girl experiencing the changes forced upon her culture from outside. This vinyl edition released by Caedmon is abridged and read by Irene Worth. From the back cover: THE EVOLUTION OF THE BOOK “JULIE OF THE WOLVES” - A book is not an instant inspiration, but an unfolding of thoughts, incidents and feelings, slowly, painstakingly. lovingly. I did not know I was going to write Julie of the Wolves for many months after the incidents and information had already buried themselves deep in my mind. Unbeknownst to me. the book actually began the day I read a scientific article on the behavior and language of the wolf pack at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. As I put down the journal I. knew I must somehow become acquainted with this intelligent animal. The opportunity presented itself several weeks later when I was assigned, by a national magazine, to write an article about wolves. That summer, 1971, I packed my bags, and, with my then twelve-year-old son Luke, boarded a plane for the farthermost town in the United States, Barrow, Alaska where a pack of wolves dwelled at the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory. Scientists from all over the world came to this lab to study the Arctic world.
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Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George read by Irene Worth
Vinyl: Factory Sealed
Cover: Factory Sealed, chipping on spine, edge bumps, and corner bends
Side A: 30:17
Side B: 30:07
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Upon reaching Barrow we drove five miles east through the icy summer wind, to the bleak lab on the tundra. There we were greeted by Dr. Michael Fox and Dr. Edgar Folk, Jr., both renowned scientists who were experts on the wolf. Through them I not only met the pack of wolves that were enclosed in a large area, but I learned that a person could communicate with them in their own language — eye contact, sniffs, growls, grins and postures — if the wolves liked them. I resolved that day to somehow communicate with the beautiful wolf female, Silver — if she liked me. By the end of the day, Luke was tumbling and romping with her puppies, for one of the first things a wolf knows about a human being is his sex and age. Male humans are usually feared, females tolerated, and children warmly accepted.
The following day I approached Silver, and tried to grunt a friendly hello to her. She ignored me, turning her eyes deliberately away. Wolves contact their eyes to say "you're okay, you're one of us.” The days went by and, although Silver knew I was calling to her, she shunned all my efforts. On the day of departure for Mount McKinley National Park where Luke and I were to be shown a wild pack of wolves roaming free in the mountains by scientist Gorden Haber I ran to Silver's cage to try once more to communicate with her. I called, “hello” in wolf sounds. Jogging lightly, swinging her fur like a stole, she came to the fence where stood. “Umm umm," I grunted again. Slowly, almost with humor, she lifted her head, looked into my eyes, then wagged her tail and grinned. (Wolves grin by pulling their lips back from their teeth.)
My heartbeat quickened. I had spoken to a wolf and she had answered. A vast barrier had been crossed and had entered the private world of the animals.
For the next ten days Luke and I wandered the alpine tundra in McKinley Park with Dr. Haber watching the w wolves. At times we called and talked to them, but t1 were very shy and to see them we were forced to lie on bellies and peer through a spotting scope in order not frighten them into the hills.
Then the summer came to an end and Luke and I went home. As we soared over the Brooks Range we spoke of a little girl we had seen on arrival at Barrow. She was flying alone across the vast and flat North Slope. "I still think repeated Luke "that she was awfully little to be going off that tundra all by herself.”
Months later, when the sun had set for the winter in the Arctic and the call of the wolves was dim in our memo I went in to see the editor at Harper and Row.
"I want to write a book about a little Eskimo girl who lives with a pack of wolves,” I said, then paused and called my good friend, an Eskimo woman at Barrow, her name will be Julie.” It will also be Miyax, for the Eskimos have two names, an English name and an Eskimo name.” She nodded and smiled. "Good, go ahead," said Ursula Nordstrom.
As I wrote, Julie became, like my own children, a child living in a complicated technological society. Like my children she was thrilled by gadgets and electricity and jets, but she also felt overwhelmed. Julie left a violent husband to live a simple life on the tundra where she could reexamine her values and see the beauty in man's more simplistic relationship with nature; my children made bread, spun yarn and made candles to better understand. As Julie went back to the old Eskimo skills she became more confident in herself, more mature and understanding to the point that she could accept and love her father, despite his human faults.
The wolves, on the other hand, had to remain true to their instinctive behavior; wild, intelligent, guarding their life code with a simple society, headed by the alpha male wolf or leader, the beta wolf or vice-president, and the alpha female wolf, the leader of the pups and baby-sitter. They really never changed or grew emotionally as Miyax did; but they were personalities.
For almost a year I reworked and rewrote the book until I felt that every word was just as it must be and every thought was put into action and drama. And then it was done. I had spoken of my love of the Eskimos and wolves, of the scientists who had uncovered the miraculous plot, and of the exquisite balance of life in the Arctic. As the American Librarians Association's reviewer so kindly noted, I had, indeed, written a love story. Jean Craighead George
Some call Julie of the Wolves an ecological novel: through reading it we experience deep in our hearts the impact of such phrases as "the delicate balance of nature” or “people caught between two cultures,” phrases which previously had only intellectual meaning to us. Others see Julie of the Wolves as a thrilling adventure tale in which the action and there is plenty-keeps the reader or listener in suspense. While yet others describe it as a novel about growing up, the transition between girlhood and womanhood. All are correct. It is, therefore, not surprising that Julie of the Wolves was awarded the 1973 Newbery Medal for its distinguished contribution to children's literature.
The magic ingredient that makes Julie of the Wolves mean so much to so many different readers and listeners is Ms. George's brilliant use of imagination. What sparked that imagination was something that she and her young teenage son Luke, who accompanied her to Alaska, observed a few minutes after they arrived at the Barrow airport. “As we waited for our luggage, Luke pointed to a small fur-clad child who was walking into the wilderness over which we had just flown. 'She's awfully little to be going that way alone' he said, shoving his hands deep into his pockets and stepping closer to me. The little girl walked with determination, her straight back expressing confidence and inner strength," said Ms. George in her Newbery acceptance speech. Out of that brief but poignant observation Ms. George created, months later, her unforgettable character Julie Edwards Miyax Kapugen. It is significant that, though a citizen of the United States, this girl refers to herself by her Eskimo surname, Miyax, as does the author, throughout the novel. Only the Americans in Miyax's life call her Julie. After listening to this record, think about why the author titled the story Julie of the Wolves rather than Miyax of the Wolves and calls her protagonist Julie only in the last sentence of the story.
Ms. George's story opens with Miyax lost and starving to death on the vast tundra. She knows that her only hope for survival is in making friends with the wolf pack that she has come upon. Her father, the great Eskimo leader Kapugen, has taught her many things about nature—she could not have survived without that knowledge—but he unfortunately did not teach her how to communicate with wolves. Once Miyax learns how to "talk” to Amaroq, the great black wolf leader, she is accepted as one of them and, like the other pups in the pack, brought huge hunks of life-sustaining caribou meat. Not only do the wolves save her from starving and protect her from other animals, they provide her with the love, companionship and sense of family belonging which keep Miyax from giving up. The wolves are her brothers, Amaroq is her adopted father and Miyax is at one with nature, living in the "old ways” of her ancestors. But, as Miyax tragically learns, even the remote tundra is not far enough from the destructive reach of “civilization" and "progress.” Heartbroken at what happens to her beloved Amaroq, Miyax remembers her father's words: “When the wolves are gone there will be too many caribou grazing the grass, and the lemmings will starve. Without the lemmings the foxes and birds and weasels will die. Their passing will end smaller lives upon which even man depends, whether he knows it or not, and the top of the world will pass into silence.” How Miyax faces this bitter reality provides one of the most stirring—and painfully honest conclusions in all of children's literature.
Through her vivid portrayal of one courageous and resourceful young girl's will to survive in an alien world Ms. George has dramatized and made movingly real the plight of all Eskimos and their world. It is a story that makes you think. As you listen to this record, consider what it would be like to live in the land of the midnight sun. How do you think your values—the things you consider important in life—would change? -Janet Schulman
Janet Schulman was a vice president in charge of children's book marketing at Macmillan Publishing for many years and is now a full time author and critic of children's books.
Irene Worth who recently returned to the New York stage in Sweet Bird of Youth has won both Broadway's Tony Award and Britain's Best Actress Awards for stage, screen and television. The American born actress began her career with a Broadway debut in The Two Mrs. Carrolls. Her first international success was the role of Celia Coplestone in the world premiere of T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949, a role she recreated in New York opposite Alec Guinness and in London opposite Rex Harrison. The Part earned her a Tony Award nomination. With Tyrone Guthrie and Alec Guinness she helped found the Stratford, Ontario Shakespeare Festival in 1953. Returning to New York she created the role of Albertine Prine in Lillian Hellman's The Toys in the Attic, with Jason Robards and Maureen Stapleton. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962, playing among other distinguished roles, Goneril in Peter Brook's legendary production of King Lear with Paul Scofield, a role she repeated in a worldwide tour in honor of Shakespeare's 400th anniversary and in the subsequent film of the production. On Broadway starred with Sir John Gielgud in Edward Albee's Tiny Alice and won the Tony Award for her performance. She appeared opposite Noel Coward in the trilogy of plays he had written for her and himself: Suite in Three Keys, for which she won the Evening Standard Award. Also in London, she played Hesione Hushabye in Heartbreak House, for which she won the Variety Club Award and the Whitbread Anglo-American Award. Her performance in the film Others to Kill won the British Film Academy Award as Best Actress,
CREDITS:
Cover: Charles Lilly Library of Congress # 76-741298
© Caedmon, 1977 Directed by Ward Botsford. Engineer: Howard W. Harris Tape Editing: Daniel A. Wolfert. Mastering: Howard W. Harris
Abridged by Janet Schulman SOURCE: JULIE OF THE WOLVES,© 1972 by Jean Craighead George. Published by Harper & Row
Publishers, Inc., New York
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