Farley Mowat - Canadian Literary Treasure

Farley McGill Mowat OC, BA, D.Litt (born May 12, 1921 in Belleville, Ontario) is a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors. Many of his most popular works have been memoirs of his childhood, his war service, and his work as a naturalist. His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million copies of his books. Adding to that, a movie about his experiences with wolves, titled Never Cry Wolf, was released to widespread popularity in 1983.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat was named in honor of him, and he frequently visits it in order to assist it on its mission.

Great-grand-nephew of Ontario premier Sir Oliver Mowat, Farley Mowat was born in 1921 in Belleville, Ontario. His father, Angus Mowat, had fought at Vimy Ridge, became a librarian, and enjoyed minor success as a novelist. Farley began writing informally while his family lived in Windsor, 1930-33.

At the height of the Great Depression, the family relocated to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. As a boy, Mowat was fascinated by nature and animals. With his dog, Mutt (the hero of The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, 1957), Mowat explored the Saskatchewan countryside. He also kept a rattlesnake, a squirrel, two owls, a Florida alligator, several cats, and hundreds of insects as pets. With some of his friends, Mowat created the Beaver Club of Amateur Naturalists, and kept a museum in the Mowat basement, which included the joined skull of a two-headed calf, some stuffed birds, and a bear cub. This museum eventually had to be moved after an invasion by moths and beetles.

At the age of 13, Mowat founded a nature newsletter, Nature Lore, and had a weekly column on birds in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. He used the money he gained from his writing to feed ducks and geese who would have otherwise died because they didn't migrate south for the winter. About this time, Mowat made his first trip to the Arctic with an uncle.

Returning to Canada after the war, Mowat studied biology at the University of Toronto. During a field trip to the Arctic, Mowat became outraged at the plight of the Inuit people (which he attributed to misunderstanding by whites). His outrage led him to publish his first book, People of the Deer (1952). This book made Mowat into a literary celebrity and was largely responsible for a shift in the Canadian government's Inuit policy: the government began shipping meat and dry goods to a people they had previously denied existed.

This work