In 1980 an unlikely first-time author published the first book in a series, Earth’s Children, that would make her one of the bestselling writers of historical fiction in the world — a record 45-million copies worldwide just for the first five books, translated into 18 languages.
This was The Clan of the Cave Bear, which introduced a young Cro-Magnon girl, Ayla, who, after being orphaned by an earthquake, is rescued and raised by a small clan of Neanderthal people. This was the start of an epic journey — for Ayla, for Jean M Auel (pronounced Owl) and for her millions of readers around the world.
In the next 10 years, The Clan of the Cave Bear was followed by The Valley of the Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, The Plains of Passage and The Shelters of Stone. Now the sixth and final instalment, The Land of the Painted Caves, is being published. To commemorate the completion of the series, Hodder & Stoughton is also bringing out new editions of the first five books.
Auel (née Untinen), of Finnish descent on both sides, grew up in Chicago in the United States. She married Ray Auel just after high school and the couple moved to Portland, Oregon, where they still live. Five children followed during the next 10 years, while Auel worked full-time, first as a clerk, then as a circuit-board designer, a technical writer and a credit manager. In between she also started college. In 1977, at the age of 40, with her children almost grown, having just received an MBA, Auel decided to quit her job. Then, although she had never written fiction before, one day she had an idea for a short story.
The Mail & Guardian spoke to the author, who was at home in Portland, by telephone.
Where did the idea for Earth’s Children come from?
After years of being real busy raising children, working, going to school and doing homework, I suddenly had no big commitments, although I was thinking of starting a business. And then one night I got the idea for a story about a young girl who was living with a group of people who were different, different from her, a Cro-Magnon girl, one of the first modern humans, but to them she was the one who was different. And before I knew it, I had scribbled down the rough basics of what would become Earth’s Children.
Were you influenced in your choice of heroine by your Finnish descent? I’ve read that the Finnish people are perhaps most directly descended from Cro-Magnon people — the Finns are generally tall, blonde people, just like Ayla.
No, I don’t think I made a conscious connection. I was most interested in the idea of difference, of someone growing up with people who were very different from her.
At the time you wrote Clan of the Cave Bear, the popular image of Neanderthals was that of brutish, subhuman types.
Yes, most people then only had the kind of image they got from Hollywood, from the movies, but I did a lot of research, a lot of reading, and I spoke to a lot of experts in the field. What ordinary people thought and what the research was showing was very different.
There’s a distinct feminist current throughout the series. Ayla and most of your female characters are pretty strong women. Were you influenced by the women’s movement during the 1970s and 1980s?
Not really. As I’ve said, I did a lot of research and I tried to create a world based on that research. I was exploring ideas about how people lived back then, before they knew what made women fall pregnant, when they believed that perhaps it was when a woman bathed in a river, or ate certain plants.
I was interested in how they would have begun to make certain connections, to begin to understand what was really going on. Everything I’ve written about is based on a lot of research.
In the prefaces to some of your books you’ve written that the success of Clan of the Cave Bear gave you the freedom to travel to many of the places where you’ve set your books.
Yes, indeed, and it has been such a wonderful experience, such a privilege to go into those caves and to see those paintings and those places for myself. I’ve also been lucky, over the years, to meet the people who are studying those sites, who took me to places where the ordinary public don’t have access.
I believe you’ve also visited South Africa.
Yes! There was going to be a full eclipse of the sun, and I had an idea that I could use it somewhere in Earth’s Children, so I took my full family on a safari, 32 people, my children and grandchildren, including two great-grandchildren, and one took his first steps there, on African soil. And the Maasai made them some ‘thousand-mile sandals” out of old car tires.
The Maasai are in Tanzania and Kenya. I meant further south, to South Africa itself.
Oh, yes, and in one of the South African malls, I went into a jewellery store and I found a beautiful pair of tanzanite and diamond earrings, so I decided to buy them for myself as a special memento of my trip.
In the acknowledgements to The Shelters of Stone, you mention the South African rock art expert, Dr David Lewis-Williams. Have you met him? And did you see any South African rock art?
Yes, I have met him — a lovely man. His work really helped me to understand what Cro-Magnon was doing in the European caves. But I didn’t get the chance to visit South African sites.
Perhaps you will get an opportunity to visit again?
Oh, yes! I would love to do that.
As far as I know, only one film has been made, based on Clan of the Cave Bear, back in 1986, with Darryl Hannah as Ayla, but that a planned sequel was shelved. After the more recent successes of movies such as Lord of the Rings and Avatar, has there been any renewed interest in filming the series?
Not that I know of, but of course I’d be very happy if someone was interested.
I’ve read that you initially meant only to write a short story. Now, after more than 40 000 pages in this full six-book paperback series, what are your future plans? I thought the end to the sixth book was a bit open-ended: are you perhaps thinking of continuing the adventures of Ayla and Jondalar?
Some people think my books make great doorstops! [Laughs] No, I think I’ve done everything I wanted to do there. I have some ideas for other projects I might do, something different, but not for more stories about Ayla.