Again Calls the Owl

by Margaret Craven

“A rich memoir . . . a woman of sensitivity, forthrightness, warmth, and talent.”— Booklist

To become a writer, she chose loneliness. To write a bestseller, she embraced a rugged land.

Deceptively simple in style, stunning in its implications, this gem of an autobiography carries readers back to the beginning of the century when Margaret Craven—one a handful of women at Stanford and a groundbreaking woman journalist—made the audacious decision not to work for a living, but to work as a writer.

Here Margaret Craven brings vividly to life an idyllic childhood which suddenly vanishes; advice from a red-robed Gertrude Stein propped up in bed; a nearly tragic battle with blindness; and a fateful trip to a magnificently wild Pacific Northwest, a town called Kingcome . . . and her emergence, at sixty-nine, as a women who realized a dream.

Praise for Again Calls the Owl

“A writer of compassion, humor, spirit, and persistence.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Readers will find in this small memoir courage, joy, inspiration.” — Library Journal

“An unabashed joy for living.” — Santa Barbara News-Press

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography, Biography Memoir, Canada, Literature, Historical

120 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Margaret was the daughter of Arthur J. Craven, a lawyer, and Emily K. Craven. After she and her twin Wilson were born, her family, including an older brother, Leslie (born 1889), moved from Montana to Bellingham, Washington. After finishing high school in Bellingham, Margaret went to Stanford University (Palo Alto, California) where she majored in history and graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
Upon graduating with distinction in 1924, she moved to San Jose, California, where she was secretary to the managing editor of the Mercury Herald. Soon she began writing the editorials. After the death of the editor, Margaret moved back to Palo Alto and began writing short stories for magazines like the Delineator. When her father died, her mother came to live with her and they moved to San Francisco. In 1941 her stories began appearing in the Saturday Evening Post. Although seriously hindered by near-blindness caused by a busaccident and bacterial infection, she continued to write. In 1960, an operation gave her sight back, and she began to write novels.
Margaret and her mother moved to Sacramento, California in 1959, where her brother Wilson was living. She learned about the Native-Americans of the northern British Columbia coast, first from her brother Wilson who had visited there, and then from reading published accounts of the native culture. In 1962, Margaret arranged with the Columbia Coast Mission of the Anglican Church to visit Kingcome and other native Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) villages on the B.C. coast. Out of this experience came her first novel, I Heard the Owl Call My Name, which was published in Canada in 1967, and then in 1973 in the U.S. where it became a best seller. The same year it was adapted as a television movie for General Electric Theater on CBS. The American edition of the book sold over one million copies and was translated into several languages.
Margaret Craven died at home in Sacramento on July 19, 1980, predeceased by both her mother and her twin brother Wilson.

Reviews

[Lenora Good · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read I Heard the Owl Call My Name when it came out and loved it. I read it in one sitting. Then I read her second novel, Walk Gently This Good Earth. I loved them both, and have read them more than once. With great delight, I recently discovered Again Calls the Owl, and read it shortly after it arrived.

This is a collection of autobiographical vignettes about Ms. Craven's life, from childhood to student at Stanford to how she became a writer, and then the writer of I Heard the Owl Call My Name. I enjoy reading about the authors whose books I like, and there were many places in this book where I laughed out loud. And a couple where the tears fell.

If you are looking for a sequel to I Heard the Owl Call My Name, do not get this book. If you are looking for some insight into the life of the author, you're in for a treat when you read this book.

[Robin Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and quaint little memoir from the author of I Heard the Owl Call My Name, which I'd never heard of but according to the author was a best seller. Some of the anecdotes are amusing, some a little boring.

[BuchBesessen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich lese ungern auf Englisch, kam aber problemlos zurecht mit dieser kleinen Autobiografie. Mich interessierten vor allem die Hintergründe zu Cravens bekanntem Roman „Ich hörte die Eule, sie rief meinen Namen“.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

1980
Hard to improve on the goodreads blurb here:

"Deceptively simple in style, stunning in its implication, this gem of an autobiography, Again Calls the Owl, carries readers back to the beginning of the century when Margaret Craven - one of a handful of women at Stanford and a groundbreaking woman journalist - made the audacious decision not only to work for a living, but to work as a writer."

Whether her character, personality, behavior were really as she describes them, doesn't maybe matter; it's fun to read and to imagine that she really said and did the things she describes. SUCCINCT is certainly the word here! She certainly has a well-honed talent for succinctness! Something we don't see all that often...

I would probably enjoy reading some of the articles [columns??] she wrote for the Post and other magazines, which is what she spent most of her career doing.

[Patsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I have read by Margaret Craven. I had never heard of her before. I stumbled onto this little gem as I was browsing at a used books store.

She gives us a glimpse into her own life as a writer. She writes with great humor and inserts sudden jolts of sad things she experienced in between the humorous.

I read this in two short sittings because of time constraints the first day. Otherwise I would have finished it in one sitting.

I never cried, but she sure had me laughing at the descriptions of some of the funny things that happened to her. I enjoyed it very much.

This book is a great encouragement for any up and coming writers like me.

[Karen GoatKeeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a companion volume to "I Heard the Owl Call My Name." It is autobiographical bringing the reader through how and why the author became a writer and finally came to write the novel she is known for. It is a trip into nostalgia for when $25 a week was a living wage.
Craven's style makes this book an easy, relaxing read. It is interesting for writers as it talks about writing and problems of writing a novel.
Another aspect is about the Kwakiutl tribe. When the movie of the novel was made, Kingcome was deserted. White culture couldn't keep these Indians forever and they have returned to their village even though their culture is forever changed.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a gentle book and a nice inspiration to writers. Oh the pains of that first job at a news paper. Then just as the switch to a better life is about to take place she gets cataracts. However she makes it through the surgery and into her job at the Saturday evening post. I loved it what a fast, but great read for a day off.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the autobiography of Margaret Craven, the author of one of my favorite books -- "I Heard the Owl Call My Name." I enjoyed reading about her life as a writer during the Depression and in post-WWII America. I also enjoyed reading about her travel to Kingcome, and the process of writing the novel. It's a short, inspirational read that I'd recommend to fans of her work.

[Shilo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not what I thought it was going to be. I expected a sequel to I Heard the Owl Call My Name but was instead about Craven's experience coming up from college into writing and then her experience visiting Canada and writing the novel which sold over a million copies and was translated to multiple languages. I found this book to be interesting, especially because as a writer myself I am always interested in hearing the life stories of other writers, but I found the writing a bit dry at times. I flip-flopped the whole time between a 3 or 4 star rating, but have ultimately decided to go with a 4.

[Ingrid Self · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read the first book, The Owl Calls my Name, I was interested to read this, especially as I'd been disappointed to learn that the first was a work of fiction. Well, this sorts everything out and while TOCMN is strictly speaking fiction, it is adapted heavily from truth. The author is the sort of person I would like to have known, she is interesting and has had an interesting life, which this knits together beautifully.

[Michael Delaware · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir of Margaret Craven, and her break into journalism and professional story writing at a time when it was a place few women had ventured. She also describes the events and circumstances in her life which led her to research and write the famous bestselling book "I Heard the Owl Call My Name".

[Sonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked I Heard the Owl Call My Name and thought this would be a sequel. Instead, it's a lovely book by the author about how she came to write that book. It's short and has nice drawn illustrations in it.

[Alana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this as a Classic Biography choice from my Library’s Blind date with a book event. Wasn’t a huge fan. Easy read but I just wasn’t really interested in the subject matter. One of the more interesting parts talks about how she almost went blind because one optometrist said nothing was wrong with her.

[Gareth Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting biographical insight into the life of the woman who wrote the classic The Owl Calls My Name. We learn how she got started writing and encounter the source material for her classic novel. Written, as always with the spare skill of a journalist.
We also get to understand why she did not write more long form works. I would have loved it to be longer.

[Persephone Abbott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long ago I read Margaret Craven's famous novel and, as a teenager, was enthralled. It's just now I wonder if the censorship or otherwise said simplistic style of her writing would make it into literature other than young adult. She's a good writer and her tact is most admirable.

[Courtenay · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a marvelous person is Margaret Craven! It was a joyful experience reading this book about her life & her writings. I read I HEARD THE OWL CALL MY NAME (second time) while I was reading this story, it was revealing.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written by the author of "I Heard The Owl Call My Name", this book is an autobiography. It tells how she met the indigenous people featured in her other book. At time, the writing seems disjointed, but the overall is interesting.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super short with beautiful drawings/sketches and just a sweet story of Margaret Craven's life in sound bytes.

It's lovely to read how much her experiences and travel into Canada were the story of "I heard the Owl Call My Name".

Definitely worth reading as a follow-up/extension of her first novel.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a free book on the Friends of the Libary cart and I first thought it was a children's book. Wrong, but it is a quick read about life of a woman reporter for the Saturday Evening Post.

[Randa D'aoust · Rating 3 out of 5]

By the author of I Heard the Owl Call My Name, this slim book is a collection of essays and reflections about her life of writing and the research that went into it.

[Nicholas Beck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating story of her life just felt choppy, piecemeal and thrown together somewhat with some repetition from her famous novel at the end. A little disappointing.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting short memoir by the author of I heard the owl call my name. Her life story, and how she came to write the little novel which sold over a million copies worldwide.

[Ninamarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weirdly referred to as a sequel to “I Heard the Owl Call my Name”, this is NF. The author’s memoir of events leading up to and after her penning the novel is an easy read.

[Mary Maxwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring

[Zachary Duval · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a book that exists and was totally misleading in its title which is not a major deciding factor for me, but there was an owl on the front and yet little to no owl in the book.

[Sofia Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Def gave the bell jar vibes in the beginning, but the author definitely was sane and not crazy.

[Lacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and love her gumption!!

[Kathy Piehl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather disjointed memoir by the author of I Heard the Owl Call My Name. It's a long time since I read that book so maybe I would have appreciated it more as a direct follow-up.

[Lynn V · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’ve got to have read I Heard the Owl Call My Name to appreciate this book.
I loved I Heard the Owl Call; I liked this book.
If you loved I Heard, you will want to read Again Calls the Owl.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming, notes on Margaret Craven's life, from the depression years, a bit dates as you would expect. Quick read, 77 pages.