Farley Mowat (1921-2014) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Farley Mowat

Born 12 May 1921 in Belleville, Hastings, Ontario, Canada

Ancestors

Son of Angus McGill Mowat and Helen Anne Lilian (Thomson) Mowat

[sibling(s) unknown]

[spouse(s) unknown]

[children unknown]

Died 6 May 2014 at age 92 in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada

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Profile last modified 28 May 2023 | Created 11 May 2014

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1 Biography
2 Contributions to Canadian Literature
3 Awards / Honours
4 Sources

Biography

Farley Mowat is/was a significant Ontarian .

Farley Mowat is Notable.

Farley McGill Mowat, OC was a Canadian author and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books.

Mowat was born May 12, 1921, in Belleville, Ontario, and grew up in Richmond Hill. He was the son of Angus McGill Mowat and Helen Anne Lilian Thomson. His father, Angus Mowat, was a librarian who fought in the Battle of Vimy Ridge. His mother was Helen Lilian Thomson, daughter of Henry Andrew Hoffman Thomson & Georgina Phillips Farley Thomson of Trenton, Ontario. His great-great-uncle was Ontario premier Sir Oliver Mowat. Mowat started writing, in his words "mostly verse", when his family lived in Windsor from 1930 to 1933. In the 1930s, the Mowat family moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

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.

Spouse(s)

Frances (Thornhill) Mowat,
Claire (Wheeler) Mowat

Children

David Mowat

Robert Mowat

Farley Mowat died on May 6, 2014, less than one week before his 93rd birthday. 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.

Contributions to Canadian Literature

He achieved a degree of fame with the publication of his very first book about the Canadian north, People of the Deer (1952). Mowat traveled and lived with the Ihalmiut (Ahiarmiut), a group of Inuit people who had been displaced several times as a result of unscrupulous behaviour by the Canadian Government and large corporations. The book was widely panned by Canadian politicians which we now know is because quite a lot of the basis of the story was true. It was not until 2018 that the government officially apologized to the Ahiarmiut for their "colonial mindset" which caused "starvation, and death" among the people. Mowat continued to advocate for Canada's Northern Indigenous peoples throughout his life writing; The Desperate People (1959), Death of a People - the Ihalmiut (1975), Walking on the Land (2001), and No Man's River (2004).

Perhaps the most important publication of Mowat's life came in 1955 when he was searching for a publisher for his book The Regiment. Not because The Regiment became his magnum opus (although it is a great book) but because he was convinced to publish with a Canadian Company, McClelland & Stewart. Spurning a British offer for publication of his WWII personal Memoir/History he signed with Jack McClelland who became a lifelong friend. In Mowat's own words,^[1]

"I allowed myself to be talked into it and I'm so God damned glad I did, because as a result of his determination I have published continuously in Canada. I've remained a Canadian all my life. I've written about my country all my life and it's almost entirely due to Jack's influence."

The partnership between Mowat and McClelland is best exemplified in a series of letters between the two in 1960. Mowat refers to McClelland as "Mr. Liquid Lunch Esq." after the two had obviously had quite a day of drinking together. They had agreed at the "lunch" it would be a splendid idea to purchase a small schooner during the summer, Mowat writes;^[1]

you are to give up your pretensions at being a book publisher and are to join said vessel in Newfoundland… and accompany the ship on her erratic course for the period of one month... Yours in horrified anticipation, Bosun Mowat.

McClelland's reply to this was "Migod, you were serious!" but he did join Mowat and the result was, The Boat Who Wouldn't Float (1969), a comic portrayal of their adventures aboard the schooner The Happy Adventure. Mowat eventually donated the Schooner to activist friends John and Stephanie Middleton May who put it on blocks as a tourist attraction in Margaree Harbour, NS, where it resided until demolition in 2002.

Awards / Honours

1952 University of Western Ontario's President's Medal for short story Eskimo Spring
1953 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for People of the Deer (1953)
1956 Governor General's Award for Juvenile Fiction for Lost in the Barrens (1956)
1957 Book of the Year Award, Canadian Association of Children's Librarians for Lost in the Barrens (1956)
1958 Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award for Lost in the Barrens (1956)
1958 Canadian Women's Clubs Award for children's book for The Dog Who Wouldn't Be (1957)
1958 Hans Christian Andersen International Award for The Dog Who Wouldn't Be (1957)
1962 Boys' Clubs of America Junior Book Award for Owls in the Family (1961)
1963 National Association of Independent Schools Award for Owls in the Family (1961)
1965 Hans Christian Andersen Honours List, for juvenile books
1967 Canadian Centennial Medal
1970 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for The Boat Who Wouldn't Float (1969)
1970 Vicky Metcalf Award
1971 Mark Twain Award
1972 L'Etoile de la Mer Honours List for The Boat Who Wouldn't Float (1969)
1977 Curran Award
1977 Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal
1980 Knight of Mark Twain distinction
1981 Order of Canada (OC)
1985 Author's Award, Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters for Sea of Slaughter (1984)
1988 Book of the Year, Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters for Virunga (1987)
1988 Author of the Year by the Canadian Booksellers Association
1989 Gemini Award, Best Documentary; The New North
1991 Council of Canadians Back the Nation Award
1992 125th Anniversary of Confederation Medal
2002 Sea Shepherd Conservation Society RV Farley Mowatt named in his honour
2002 Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal
2005 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Outdoor Book Award
2010 Star of Canada's Walk of Fame
2012 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
2014 University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon) commission by Ron Rhodes dedicated a life-sized statue of Mowat which was unveiled just weeks after his death (artist George Bartholomew Boileau), Mowat himself had seen the clay mock-ups earlier. Mowat's wife Claire was in attendance.