Canadian History for Kids: Farley Mowat

May 6 – 2014 – Canadian author Farley Mowat dies.

This Canadian History for Kids exclusive, looks at an amazing Canadian, Farley Mowat.

One of Canada’s greatest authors, Farley Mowat, has died at age 92 at his home in Port Hope, Ontario.

Farley Mowat brought Canada to readers around the world through his stories, which included non-fiction, children’s stories and his memoirs. He was a proud Canadian and a great storyteller.

He was born in Belleville, Ontario, on May 1921. In 1930 to 1933, as a teenager, he worked for the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix writing a column on birds. At 18 he enlisted in the army during WWII and spent three years overseas fighting in Italy, Belgium and Germany until her return to Canada in 1945.

Through a great-uncle he was introduced to the Arctic in 1936 when he was 15 years old. Upon his return to Canada he spent his summers in the Artic. He would become a lifelong naturalist and conservationist and many of his books would deal with man and his relationship with nature.

He travelled and lived in most areas of Canada. While he lived in Port Hope in his later years he also had a home in Cape Breton.

His first book, based on his time spent in the Far North with the Inuit people, was called People of the Deer. The book, released in 1952, dealt with his outrage at the treatment of the Ihalmiut, and caused the Canadian government to turn the minds to the Inuit people’s struggles.

In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, he wrote personal memoirs of his childhood, including The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be and Owls in the Family, as well as his time serving in WWII, The Regiment.

In 1963, his book, Never Cry Wolf, helped change the world’s perception of wolves. It helped to bring a ban to wolf hunting in Russia. The book was later made into a movie in the States in 1983.

His story, A Whale for the Killing, was made into a TV movie, and his short story, Walk Well, My Brother, was released in 2003 as the Canadian film The Snow Walker. In 1991, he also won a Gemini Award for his documentary, The New North.

He is survived by his wife, writer Claire Mowat, and two sons Robert and David.

And that’s this week’s Canadian History for Kids, exclusive!

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