Queen of the Mist

by Joan Murray

The Forgotten Heroine of Niagara

This novel-in-verse tells the fascinating story of Annie Taylor, who, in 1901, became the first person to plunge over the brink of Niagara Falls in a barrel. But as Joan Murray reveals, America didn't know what to do with a mature and self-possessed Annie Taylor, as an "older woman," was rejected and exploited and finally eclipsed by the man who repeated her stunt ten years later.

"A portrait of a woman so achingly intimate it will linger long in your memory."
-Joyce Carol Oates

Genres: Poetry, History, Nonfiction

110 pages, Hardcover

First published February 9, 1999

About the author

Joan Arden Charlat Murray (August 12, 1943 - ) is an American-born Canadian art historian, writer and curator.

Joan Charlat studied art history at the University of Toronto and in 1968 she took a position at the Art Gallery of Ontario where she became Research Curator, and the first Curator of Canadian Art (1970–1973).

Murray was also the Director of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa & served as a Director at McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario.

Murray has written extensively on the Group of Seven, particularly Tom Thomson. She has authored many books on the history of Canadian art, most notably Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century, Northern Lights: Masterpieces of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, The McMichael Canadian Art Collection: One Hundred Masterworks.

Reviews

[Mollie]

This is an interesting little book, the story of the first PERSON who ever went over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Annie Edson Taylor went over the Falls on her 63rd birthday, the first person to survive such a trip and a woman, at that! This is written in verse and it reads fast, it is a sad story of a woman who accomplished something amazing but was taken advantage of - not just by men, but it seems they were the most guilty. She thought she was going to meet professors and speak to college classes. Her barrel was stolen, she lived on the streets and scraped for her living. She died poor and alone. A sad ending for someone so brave.

[Hapzydeco]

This is book length poem (novel-in-verse) based on a true story. Obviously unusual. But worth a read.

[Naomi]

Two pages about the experience and 98 or so about Annie telling about the experience. This poem has too many parts to maintain its interest and the energy of Niagara.

[Tristan]

Actual rating 4.5

This long poem tells the story of Annie Taylor, a sixty-three-year-old teacher who became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. It chronicles how she came to go over the falls, and her life afterwards as a fair performer and lecturer, ending with her approach of death, blind and poor, selling postcards in Niagara. The language is brilliant. Here is an excerpt from the account of the actual fall down the falls:

But then I fell into the whirlpool
and my veins and arteries unwound.
My cord rocketed from its stack of bones.
My joints unlatched. My pulse
spread out through space. Every atom of me
dispersed--to a place I couldn't name.
I moved in and out of it like breath--
expanding and contracting
through its infinite rings,
until only a single
cell of me remained

The whole book follows in the same manner, readable and straightforward with lots of highly evocative imagery and metaphor. The first section is a little hard to get into, but the poetry can be found easily after a few minutes of reading; the piece isn't strictly metrical, but has a distinct sense of rhythm.
The story of Annie Taylor boils down to the fact that she survived her fall, and that really is the crux of Ms. Murray's poem. Annie Taylor survived, and that survival becomes the focus of the work; the importance of being survive as an autonomous individual,as someone who can influence his or her own destiny is the message of our slightly absurd heroine. She changed her life by changing how she defined herself, and her point is that that is what change is--and it doesn't necessarily take something as drastic as challenging Niagara to make it happen; it is enough to find a mobile moment and to seize it. This makes the poem inspiring without seeming forced; not like it was written to motivate, but simply to show what a person can do when faced with nothing greater than themselves and their world. Annie went over Niagara Falls when she could no longer be a teacher; she created a new identity that would last her life, even as she died forgotten. The book does not plead; the final line is "But I ask you: What else could I have done?" Annie Taylor, as portrayed by Murray, is not here to tell us what to do, but to show that she did what she needed, and that that was enough.
My one gripe with Queen of the Mist is the appearance of the man who may or may not be (but really almost definitely is) Jesus. I am unsure whether it would have been better to remove him completely or to simple pare back his part. I understand his inclusion, revealing to Annie both the eventual fate of Niagara and herself as well as how her story relates to the human condition, but he seemed rather heavy-handed in theme (the only place this is the case) and in spirituality. All other "spiritual" or metaphysical scenes are directly tied to Niagara Falls, either in physicality or in Annie's mind, and I thought the his inclusion--as a sort of vision--did not fit as well as it should with Annie's character. The language use in the section was equally skillful, but it was the least impressive section of the book due to its blatant and unceasing exposition of Ms. Murray's argument.

[Amy Brown]

amazing sustained narrative poetry about a bizarre and interesting actual person

[Kali]

This is an incredible book length poem written in the voice of Annie Taylor, the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. I highly recommend it.