Farley Mowat

For the Sea Shepherd ship, see RV Farley Mowat.
Farley Mowat
OC

Mowat in 2010
Born Farley McGill Mowat
(1921-05-12)May 12, 1921
Belleville, Ontario, Canada
Died May 6, 2014(2014-05-06) (aged 92)
Cobourg, Ontario, Canada
Resting place Port Hope, Ontario
Occupation Author, soldier, environmentalist & philanthropist
Language English
Nationality Canadian
Education Biology
Alma mater University of Toronto
Period 1952–2014
Genre Memoir, Young adult fiction, Non-fiction
Subject Environmentalism, Northern Canada
Notable works Never Cry Wolf, People of the Deer, Lost in the Barrens, The Curse of the Viking Grave, The Grey Seas Under
Spouse Frances (Thornhill) Mowat, Claire (Wheeler) Mowat[1]
Children Robert Mowat, David Mowat
Relatives John Mowat, John Bower Mowat, John McDonald Mowat, Angus McGill Mowat, Sir Oliver Mowat, Frank LeGrange Farley

Military career

Nickname(s) Squib, after his father
Allegiance  Canada
Service/branch  Canadian Army
Years of service 1939–1945
Rank Captain
Unit The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment
Battles/wars World War II: Allied invasion of Italy, Moro River Campaign
Awards
Relations Angus McGill Mowat
Website
farleymowat.ca

Farley McGill Mowat, OC (May 12, 1921 – May 6, 2014) was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian north, such as People of the Deer (1952) and Never Cry Wolf (1963).[2] The latter, an account of his experiences with wolves in the Arctic, was made into a film of the same name released in 1983. For his body of work as a writer he won the annual Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature in 1970.[3]

Mowat's advocacy for environmental causes and his own claim to "never let the facts get in the way of the truth",[4] earned him both praise and criticism: "few readers remain neutral" (Canadian encyclopedia). Descriptions of Mowat refer to his "commitment to ideals" and "poetic descriptions and vivid images" as well as his strong antipathies, which provoke "ridicule, lampoons and, at times, evangelical condemnation".[2]

Early life and education

Mowat was born May 12, 1921 in Belleville, Ontario[5] and grew up in Richmond Hill, Ontario.[6] His great-great-uncle was Ontario premier Sir Oliver Mowat,[5] and his father, Angus Mowat, was a librarian who fought in the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Mowat started writing, in his words "mostly verse", when his family lived in Windsor from 1930 to 1933.[2]

In the 1930s, the Mowat family moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,[5] where as a teenager Mowat wrote about birds in a column for the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. During this time he also wrote his own nature newsletter, Nature Lore.[6] In the 1930s Mowat studied zoology at the University of Toronto but never completed a degree.[1] He took his first collecting expedition in the summer of 1939 to Saskatoon with fellow zoology student Frank Banfield collecting data regarding mammals and Mowat focusing on birds. They sold their collections to the Royal Ontario Museum to finance their trip.[1]:219 Before enlisting Banfield published his field notes in the Canadian Field Naturalist. Mowat published his when he returned from World War II.

War service

During World War II, Mowat joined the Canadian Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Second Battalion, The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, affectionately known as the Hasty Ps. He went overseas as a reinforcement officer for that regiment, joining the Canadian Army in the United Kingdom. He saw very brief active service when the 3rd Infantry Brigade was shipped to Brest, France, in June, 1940, but was quickly withdrawn. On July 10, 1943, he was a subaltern in command of a rifle platoon and participated in the initial landings of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily.[7]

Mowat served throughout the campaign as a platoon commander and moved to Italy[6] in September 1943, seeing further combat until December 1943. During the Moro River Campaign, part of the Italian Campaign, he suffered from battle stress, heightened after an incident on Christmas Day outside of Ortona, Italy when he was left weeping at the feet of an unconscious friend, Lieutenant Allan (Moir) Park, who had an enemy bullet in his head.[8] He then accepted a job as Intelligence Officer at battalion headquarters, later moving to Brigade Headquarters. He stayed in Italy with the 1st Canadian Infantry Division for most of the war, and was eventually promoted to the rank of captain.

Mowat moved with the division to northwest Europe in early 1945. There, he worked as an intelligence agent in the Netherlands and went through enemy lines to start unofficial negotiations about food drops with General Blaskowitz. The food drops, under the codename Operation Manna, saved thousands of Dutch lives.[9]

Mowat also formed the 1st Canadian Army Museum Collection Team,[10] according to his book My Father's Son, and arranged for the transport to Canada of several tons of German military equipment, including a V2 rocket and several armoured vehicles. Some of these vehicles are on display today at Canadian Forces Base Borden's tank museum,[11] as well as the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.[12][13]

Mowat was discharged in 1945, at the conclusion of World War II, as a captain and was considered for promotion to major. However, he declined the offer as it would have required his volunteering to stay in the military until "no longer needed", which Mowat assumed meant duty with the Canadian Army Occupation Force (CAOF) (but might also have meant the conclusion of the war with Japan).[14] He was entitled to the following medals as a result of his service: the 1939–1945 Star, the Italy Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medal, the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and the War Medal 1939–1945.

Post-war

In 1947 Mowat was hired as field technician for the legendary American naturalist, Francis Harper in his study of the barren-ground caribou in the Nueltin Lake in what is now Nunavut's Kivalliq Region[15] resulting in the publication of Harper's book entitled Caribou of Keewatin.[16] Two young Inuit were with them, including then-fifteen-year-old Inuk Luke Anoteelik (Luke Anowtalik) and his sister Rita, who were the sole survivors of starvation in an Inuit village.[17] Luke Anowtalik went on to become well known for his distinctive carvings of antler and bone that are now in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada.[18][19] Due to a clash of personalities, Mowat undertook his own explorations. "Harper later extracted a promise that neither would mention the other in their respective future writing, a promise also extracted from Mowat by later field companions for their lifetimes."[1]

In the late 1940s Mowat was hired by Frank Banfield – then Chief Mammalogist of the newly formed Canadian Wildlife Service – as field assistant in Banfield's ambitious multi-year investigation of the barren-ground Caribou,[20] [21][22] which resulted in Banfield's influential 1951 publication entitled "The Barren-ground Caribou."[23] Mowat, who was part of a four-researcher team, was fired by the chief of Canadian Wildlife Service because of complaints from the local population and lack of formal approval for some activities.[1]

Literary career

After serving in World War II, Mowat attended the University of Toronto.[24] Mowat's first book, People of the Deer (1952), was inspired by a field trip to the Canadian Arctic he made while studying at the University of Toronto. Mowat was "outraged" at the conditions endured by the Inuit living in Northern Canada. The book turned Mowat into a controversial, popular figure.[5]

Mowat became a McClelland and Stewart author when they published his book entitled The Regiment in 1955.[25] Jack McClelland, known for his promotion of Canadian authors, became his lifelong friend as well as his publisher. Mowat's next book, (a children's book) Lost in the Barrens (1956), won a Governor General's Award.[2][26]

In 1963, Mowat wrote a possibly fictionalised account of his experiences in the Canadian Arctic with Arctic wolves entitled Never Cry Wolf (1963), which is thought to have been instrumental in changing popular attitudes towards the animals.[4]

In 1985, Mowat started a book tour of the United States to promote Sea of Slaughter. He was denied entry by customs agents at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, which was justified by laws that allowed American customs officials to deny entry to entrants they thought were "Communist sympathizers". Believing gun lobbyists were behind his denial, he came forward with his suspicion. The law was overturned in 1990, and Mowat wrote about his experience in My Discovery of America (1985).[27]

Mowat became very interested in Dian Fossey, the American ethologist who studied gorillas and was brutally murdered in Rwanda in 1985. His biography of her was published in 1987, in Canada under the title Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey, and in the United States as Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa — an allusion to Fossey's own recounting of her life and research Gorillas in the Mist (1983).

Many of Mowat's works are autobiographical, such as Owls in the Family (1962, about his childhood), The Boat Who Wouldn't Float (1969, one of three books about his time living in Newfoundland), and And No Birds Sang (1979, about his experience fighting in World War II).[2]

Criticism

In a 1964 book review published in Canadian Field-Naturalist,[28] Frank Banfield of the National Museum of Canada, a former Canadian Wildlife Service scientist, compared Mowat's 1963 bestseller to Little Red Riding Hood, stating, "I hope that readers of Never Cry Wolf will realize that both stories have about the same factual content".[28] Mowat responded to Banfield's criticisms in a letter to the editor of the Canadian Field-Naturalist, and signed it "Mowat's wolf Uncle Albert".[29] L. David Mech, a wolf expert, stated that Mowat is no scientist and, in all Mech's studies, he had never encountered a wolf pack which primarily subsisted on small prey as shown in Mowat's book.[30]

The New York Times Book Review published a dismissive review of People of the Deer on February 24, 1952.[31] The Beaver was quite hostile in its first review. The second review, by A. E. Porsild, was equally hostile, questioning the existence of the Ihalmiut.[32] Despite a few harsh reviews, however, People of the Deer was generally well received; published in the Atlantic Monthly, and "showered with glowing international reviews."[33]

Duncan Pryde, a Hudsons Bay Company trader who pioneered the linguistic study of Inuit languages, attacked Mowat's claim to have picked up the language quickly enough in two months to discuss detailed concepts such as shamanism, pointing out that the language is complex and required a year or more for Europeans to master the basics. Pryde said that when Mowat visited his post at Baker Lake in 1958, he could barely speak a single word in the Inuit language.[34]

Awards and honours

Mowat was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in 1981. He also received the Canadian Centennial Medal (1967) the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (1977), the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal (1992), Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002), and Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012).[26][41]

Farley is also the namesake of the lovable sheepdog in the comic strip by Lynn Johnston, For Better or For Worse. Johnston and Mowat were long-time friends.

Honorary doctorates

Affiliations

Mowat was a strong supporter of the Green Party of Canada and a close friend of the party's leader Elizabeth May. The Green Party sent a direct mail fundraising appeal in Mowat's name in June 2007, and that same year Mowat became a patron of the Nova Scotia Nature Trust by donating over 200 acres (0.81 km2) of his land in Cape Breton to the Nature Trust. He was also an honorary director of the North American Native Plant Society.[42] Mowat was described as "a life-long socialist."[43]

Farley Mowat Library

In 2012, independent Canadian publisher Douglas & McIntyre announced they had created the Farley Mowat Library series and would be re-releasing many of his most popular titles, with new designs and introductions, in print and e-book format.[44]

Later life

Mowat and his second wife Claire spent their later years together in Port Hope, Ontario and their summers on a farm on Cape Breton Island.[45] They attended a local Anglican church in Port Hope about monthly, Claire emphasizing that Mowat was more spiritual than religious, and Mowat stating that he probably believed in God the same way his dog did, and that such ceremonies were important in tying people to each other and the world.[46]

Mowat died on May 6, 2014, less than one week before his 93rd birthday.[6][47] He maintained his interest in Canada's wilderness areas throughout his life and could be heard a few days before his death on the CBC Radio One program The Current, speaking against the provision of Wi-Fi service in national parks.[48] He is buried at the historic St. Mark's Anglican Church cemetery in Port Hope.[49][50]

Works

The Top of the World Trilogy

See also

Webpage:

Film and television:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Cook, Francis R., "Obituary – Farley Mowat 1921–2014", Canadian Field Naturalist, 128, retrieved 1 November 2014
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Rubio, Gerald J. Mowat, Farley. The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  3. ↑ "Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People". Awards. Writers Trust of Canada (writerstrust.com). Retrieved 2015-08-20. With linked guidelines and list of winners.
  4. 1 2 Burgess, Steve (May 11, 1999). "Northern exposure". Salon.com. Retrieved March 24, 2006.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Martin, Sandra (May 7, 2014). "Acclaimed Canadian author Farley Mowat dead at 92". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Rinehart, Dianne (May 7, 2014). "Farley Mowat, acclaimed Canadian author, dead at 92". Toronto Star. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
  7. ↑ And No Birds Sang, p. 7
  8. ↑ And No Birds Sang, p. 259
  9. ↑ CBC Radio Canada International
  10. ↑ Harold A. Skaarup: Canadian War Trophies
  11. ↑ "My Fathers Son CL". Publishers Weekly. January 4, 1993. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  12. ↑ Ottawa Citizen: Andrew King, November 7, 2014
  13. ↑ Legion Magazine, September 2014
  14. ↑ My Father's Son, p. 359
  15. ↑ Harper 1955.
  16. ↑ Harper, Francis (21 October 1955), Hall, E. Raymond, ed., Caribou of Keewatin, Kansas: Museum of Natural Science via Gutenberg Press, p. 164
  17. ↑ Kuehl, Gerald (2002), "Luke Anowtalik", Portraits of the North, retrieved 2 November 2014
  18. ↑ Luke Anowtalik, Inuit, Arviat, Nunavut Territory, Canada (1932–2006), Vancouver, BC, retrieved 2 November 2014
  19. ↑ Hessel, Ingo (Winter 1990), "Arviat Stone Sculpture: Born of the Struggle with an Uncompromising Medium", Inuit Art Quarterly: 4–15
  20. ↑ Burnett, J. Alexander (1 November 2002). "Working with Mammals (1962–67) Building a National Wildlife Program". A Passion for Wildlife: The History of the Canadian Wildlife Service. Vancouver, British Columbia: UBC Press. pp. 96–128. ISBN 9780774842525.
  21. ↑ Burnett, J. Alexander (January–March 1999), "A Passion for Wildlife: A History of the Canadian Wildlife Service, 1947–1997", The Canadian Field-Naturalist, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada, 113 (1): 183
  22. ↑ Sandlos, John (1 November 2011), Hunters at the Margin: Native People and Wildlife Conservation in the Northwest Territories, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 360
  23. ↑ Banfield, Frank (1951a), The barren-ground caribou, Ottawa, Ontario: Canada Department of Resources and Development, pp. 56 + vi
  24. ↑ Kennedy, John R. (May 7, 2014). "Canadian author Farley Mowat dies at 92". Global News. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  25. ↑ Thomson, Donna, The Boat Who Wouldn't Float – The Happy Adventure of Farley Mowat and Jack McClelland, McMaster University
  26. 1 2 3 "Remembering Farley Mowat". CBC Books. 7 May 2014. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  27. ↑ Martin, Sandra (May 7, 2014). "Scarred by war, acclaimed author Farley Mowat spent his life trying to save animals, nature and First Nations". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  28. 1 2 Banfield, A.W.F. (1964). "Book Review: 'Never Cry Wolf' by Farley Mowat. 1963". Canadian Field-Naturalist. 78. pp. 52–54. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  29. ↑ Uncle Albert (1964). "Letter to the editor". Canadian Field-Naturalist. 78. p. 205. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  30. ↑ Shedd, Warner (2000). Owls Aren't Wise and Bats Aren't Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife. p. 336. ISBN 0-609-60529-1.
  31. ↑ Mowat, Farley (2010). Eastern Passage. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-7710-6491-3.
  32. ↑ Eastern Passage, pp. 66–67
  33. ↑ Querengesser, T. (September 2009). Farley Mowat: Liar or Saint? Up Here. Retrieved on: 2012-12-27.
  34. ↑ Pryde, Duncan (1975). Nunaga: Ten Years of Eskimo Life. New York: Walker and Co. p. 33.
  35. ↑ "Governor General's Literary Awards" [table of winners, 1936–1999]. online guide to writing in canada (track0.com/ogwc). Retrieved 2015-08-20.
  36. ↑ (list of winners). Book of the Year for Children Award. Canadian Library Association (cla.ca). Retrieved 2015-07-21. With linked press releases 2003 to present.
  37. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Farley Mowat: nature lover". Famous Canadians. Argot Language Centre (r-go.ca). Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  38. ↑ "Sealing activists bailed out with bag of toonies". CTV.ca. April 14, 2008. Retrieved September 7, 2009.
  39. ↑ NOBA 2005 winners
  40. ↑ "2010 Inductees for The Canada Honours Announced". Canada's Walk of Fame. June 8, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  41. ↑ "Canadian author Farley Mowat dies at 92". 660 News. May 7, 2014. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  42. ↑ "The 2013–2014 NANPS Board of Directors". North American Native Plant Society. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  43. ↑ Hollander, Paul (1995). Anti-Americanism: Irrational and Rational. Oxford University Press, Inc. p. xli. ISBN 9781412817349.
  44. ↑ McIntyre, Scott. "The World of Farley Mowat" (PDF). Spring 2012. p. 8. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  45. ↑ Longwell, Karen (May 6, 2014). "Port Hope residents recall funny, kind-hearted Farley Mowat". Northumberland News. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  46. ↑ Todd, Douglas. "Farley Mowat: "I believe in God the way my dog does" | Vancouver Sun". Blogs.vancouversun.com. Retrieved 2015-08-24.
  47. ↑ Parini, Jay (8 May 2014). "Farley Mowat obituary". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  48. ↑ Reinhart, Dianne (May 8, 2014). "Farley Mowat, Acclaimed Canadian author, dead at 92". Toronto Star. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
  49. ↑ "Farley Mowat (1921–2014) – Find A Grave Memorial". Findagrave.com. Retrieved 2015-08-24.
  50. ↑ "HistoricPlaces.ca". HistoricPlaces.ca. Retrieved 2015-08-24.
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