Dickens, Capote, and Lily Scott Learned To Love Crows

A friend asked me an interesting question about my last newsletter. Did I have a writerly reason for allowing Luna the crow to arrive on the doorstep of my protagonist? The question sent me on a quest to find an answer for her.

There are many myths about crows. The Vikings regarded them as sacred, while Welsh mythology believed them harbingers of death. Some Native American tribes viewed them as spiritual messengers. Other tribes regarded them as untrustworthy tricksters.

Scientific studies of crows show that they are smarter than most birds. They adapt tools, can count as well as toddlers, have a rich language, and remember humans who hurt or help them as documented by John Marzluff and Tony Angell in their book, The Gifts of Crows: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans.

But I would argue that the most fascinating thing about crows is their ubiquitous presence in art and literature. Pablo Picasso painted a mysterious young woman kissing a crow in “Woman with a Crow” shown here: https://www.wikiart.org/en/pablo-picasso/woman-with-raven-1904-1 Impressionist Vincent Van Gogh’s last painting was the dark, stormy landscape in “Wheat Field with Crows” shown here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatfield_with_Crows

As for writers, Charles Dickens kept a pet raven named Grip, who became the basis for a character in his book, Barnaby Rudge.  Grip inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven.”

Illustration of Charles Dickens’ Children with Grip

 Truman Capote named his pet crow “Lola” and immortalized her in his collection of essays, Portraits and Observations.

Lola gave Capote plenty to write about. He suspected Lola of hiding a guest’s false teeth and set a trap. He left a gold signet ring out in the open and then followed Lola to his library. She kept her stolen cache behind The Complete Jane Austen, as well as his favorite cuff links, long-lost car keys, the first page of a short story…and the missing false teeth.

Those crows inspired me to want one of my own. Instead, I comforted myself by creating a smart, funny crow named Luna to help Lily Scott solve crimes.

This 3 minute BBC video about one smart crow blew my mind! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVaITA7eBZE

Let me know what you thought if you watched it, too.