Tristis

About the Book

Tristis is a fascinating story about a bird, a goldfinch with a brilliant humanlike mind who observes human activities and tries to emulate them, including building a house that burns down when he tries to cook in it. He also debates with a blue bird who tries to slow him down. The story suggests that the bird took the many photos and told the author the story of the book. In reality, the very unique photos the book contains were taken by the author, my father, in the 1930s using a blind and 4×6 black-and-white camera and wild birds he was able to partially tame enough to picture them in humanlike activities. Tristis ultimately fails in his efforts to live like a human, and the story ends with his realization that “only by being himself could he find happiness”—a moral that all of us can appreciate.

About the Author

My father, Frank W. Griffiths was a school teacher and an intense ornithologist most of his life. He could identify virtually all the birds in the Eastern United States, not only by seeing them up close but by their song or even their flight pattern high in the sky. He was an avid photographer both with still cameras and later with a 16 mm Bell and Howell Cine Kodak Special movie camera. Even before I was born in 1936 he would routinely set up blinds so that he could take wonderful photos of wild birds in flight or in their nests feeding their young. He was also an English major and enjoyed writing stories - particularly stories with morals to them. In the early nineteen thirties while he lived on the south side of Syracuse, NY he combined his photographic and writing skills to create Tristis. During his lifetime, the story never got beyond a hand typed note book with many hand written corrections. But, the notebook did contain many wonderful, black and white original prints of wild birds he partially tamed to sit in one position long enough to catch images of birds with human like personalities - and most particularly a goldfinch that tried to live like a human, but finally learned that “only by being what you are may be the best in life”. The original script was typed into computer format by my daughter, and I carefully scanned the images and inserted them into the copy to create a book that can be enjoyed by all - and just may convey a message of how to live one’s life. The color cover photo of a Goldfinch couple was copied from a framed color print from dad’s collection and is of Tristis’s father and mother looking over the eggs before Tristis with his special personality was hatched. Original family publication ~ 2006. Clark Griffiths, Composer and editor, Long time Lebanon, NH resident. Dartmouth College Class of 57 Retired Director of Engineering Timken Aerospace in Lebanon, NH