Legendary Cats And Their Humans - Book Review

Legendary Cats and Their Humans by the Germans Andreas Schlieper and Heike Reinecke is a fun book that is sure to be an entertaining reading for every cat lover. The writers have included thirty famous people who have been more or less crazy about their cats. Writers have depicted cats in their works and artists in their art. Gallery of the persons is so versatile that anyone can find a celebrity of interest. Among the authors are e.g. Haruki Murakami, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Hesse, T. S. Eliot, Patricia Highsmith, Charles Bukowski and Doris Lessing; artists e.g. Frida Kahlo, Paul Klee and Franz Marc. Of course, there are many other famous names involved: Winston Churchill, Isaac Newton, and the afterwords still list great many cat lovers that didn’t fit in the book.

The chapters in the book are structured so that the reader gets information about the person’s love  of cats and at the same time a brief overview of his or her life. There are a lot of quotes and they bring the person closer. One could say that Hemingway’s cat madness went a bit over board. He had up to sixty cats and he built an own residential tower for them in his Cuban finca. Hemingway bred multi-toed or polydactic cats. Today, Hemingway’s home in Key West, The US is open to the public and forty cats still live there!

Paul Klee: Cat and Bird 1928, MOMA

Personally, I wanted to explore more about artists who loved cats. One of them is the German Franz Marc (1880-1916), who founded the group Der Blaue Reiter. He is famous for his blue horses and other animals described in a colorful and cubist way. The German-Swiss Paul Klee (1879-1940) was also one of the blue riders. His view of the cat is funny: the idea of birds fills the cat’s entire brain! Based on my observations on Sissi, this is definitely true!

In Western symbolism, the black cat foretells evil, it literally represents evil, the devil, death, or at least uncontrollable lust. In the Middle Ages, the black cat was considered a companion to witches, and many still feel awkward when a black cat crosses the road - especially if it runs from left to right.

Frida Kahlo: Self-portrait with a thorn collar 1940

I did not know that the father of Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was German. In one of Kahlo’s symbolist self-portraits, a monkey and a black cat sit on the artist’s shoulders. The black cat in Mexico is also an amulet of love that brings good luck. There are various interpretations of the butterflies flying around Kahlo's head - they have been thought to symbolize change or, in the Christian sense, even the resurrection or the soul of Aztec culture.

I didn’t even remember that in the film loosely based on a work by Truman Capote (1924-1984), Breakfast at Tiffany's appeared an orange tomcat. In the film, it is anonymous, but in real life, the cat was played by Orangey, the cat star of many other films, too. Orangey was awarded the PATSY Award in 1962 - Picture Animal Top Star of the Year. In this Youtube link, Audrey Hepburn hugs the wet Orangey. He is said to have done his job very professionally: he remained in the scene even after the filming lasted for hours, but left the studio as soon as they ended.

Here are a few highlights from this fun book. Personally, I learned a lot and had fun! The book is not yet available in English as far as I found out.

Andreas Schlieper, Heike Reinecke -  Legendäre Katzen und ihre Menschen 2019
In Finnish Bazar 2020
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Andreas Schlieper (b. 1951) and Heike Reinecke (b. 1961) are a literary couple whose production includes criminal literature and non-fiction.

The Cats - Memory - T. S. Eliot

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