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 out what was so special about crows.

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 crows as untrustworthy tricksters.

Then there are the scientific studies about the Corvid (crow) family that show that crows 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 in his book, The Gifts of Crows.

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 may also have inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven.”

Image Above Scanned by Philip V. Allingham and found at https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/darley/26.html

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.