Pierre Berton - Canadian Icon

Pierre Berton was actually born in 1920 in Whitehorse, Yukon, but the family moved back to Dawson City in 1921.

Pierre's father Frank (He may have been called Francois) spent the ages of 6 to 16 in an orphanage in New Brunswick. He probably joined the gold rush as soon as he was old enough, in the hopes that he could make his fortune. The gold rush only lasted for 2 years. It began in 1898 and was over by 1900.

Berton's mother, Laura Berton nee Thompson was a school teacher. She wrote one book about the Yukon, It was called I Married the Klondike. In 1908 when Laura Thompson was 29 years old, she was asked to be the school teacher in Dawson, Yukon. At that time Laura was earning $480 per year as a teacher in Toronto. Dawson City was offering her $2100 per year. It was, of course an easy offer to accept.

By 1920 Whitehorse had a population of 300, and Dawson City was 12,000. Today (in the 21st century) Whitehorse is a territorial government town and thus it has 24,000 people while Dawson City has just 1800. Dawson City is now a Historic place because it is a genuine gold rush town. It receives 60,000 tourists every year.

In his biography, Berton writes about riding his bicycle along Wooden sidewalks past old saloons, dancehalls, brothels, theatres and hotels, most of which were old, decaying, and boarded up. He describes the Victorian architecture, the luxurious but dusty interiors, and mining machinery strewn everywhere, both inside the old buildings, and outside lying along the streets.

In Winter Berton describes going to school in the dark, coming home in the dark, indeed, not even seeing the sun for 6 weeks during December & January. He saw the northern lights regularly and never thought anything of them. In the middle of summer "nothing was really dark in Dawson during that brief six week period when the sun set for less than 2 hours". Dawson City is 200 miles south of the arctic circle so it never truely gets the midnight sun in the summer.

The Bertons childhood home was located at 8th Avenue & Harper in Dawson. It was a small one bedroom house with no bathroom. It is now a historic site and used for a "writers in residence" program.

"In all my years in the Yukon" Berton wrote, "I never saw a wolf. I saw moose, caribou, brown bears, lynx, coyotes and all manner of wildlife from arctic hares to porcupine, but never a wolf. The howl of the wolf was heard frequently." Did you know that Huskies cannot bark. They can only whine or howl. I didn't know that.

I (Serenia) have now lived in Canada for 10 years. But I have not yet been to the Yukon. I have never seen the Northern Lights. It is my solemn vow that I will see Dawson City, the Yukon, The Midnight Sun and the Northern Lights all before I die. I better get cracking, I have less than 40 years to do it in - and that is assuming I live for 80 years.

Berton (as well as his mother Laura and sister Lucy) moved to Victoria (Island - Vancouver) in 1931 during the depression after his father lost his job. While Berton was in high school Victoria, he discovered his love of writing, and endeavoured to become a journalist. This he did while being on the staff of the Ubyssey (student paper) at UBC in Vancouver.

After he graduated from UBC, Berton got a job on the Vancouver News-Herald where he eventually rose to the position of City Editor by the time he was twenty one years old. Then in 1942 Berton joined the army, and spent 3 years being trained for all manner of things such as infantry, intelligence, officer school and so on.

But he never actually got to see any action. The closest he got to it was in England. When he was finally mustered out in 1945, he married his wife Janet (nee Walker) and tried to get his old city editor job back at the News-Herald. They refused to give it to him, paying him a paltry sum to be just a reporter. So Berton joined the Vancouver Sun Newspaper.

But something in him was still restless, and in 1946 Berton took a trip to the Headless Valley on the South Nahanni River in what is now the Nahanni National Park.

Fabled in 1908 by the disappearance of two prospecting brothers and the subsequent finding of their headless bodies. Headless Creek, Deadmen Valley, Funeral Range, Somber Range and Thundercloud Range were resulting place names and the presence of hot springs encouraged a legend of tropical banana growth. Pierre sent despatches back to the Vancouver Sun (his employer) and these were syndicated around the world. This won him accolades and a job offer from MacLeans Magazine in Toronto. So in late 1947, he and Janet packed up and moved to Toronto.

Berton originally wrote his biography as one book. The early editions were published as one book. But later editions have been split into 2 and published as 2 books. The first book covers Berton's life in Yukon and BC between 1920 and 1947. The second book covers all his years in Toronto and Kleinberg starting from 1948.

Pierre and Janet did spend a couple of years living in Toronto. Eventually Pierre and Janet found a large house in the country. In Kleinberg, just outside of Vaughan at the NW corner of the GTA - Greater Toronto Area. Vaughan is at the junction of Highways 400 and 407. The Berton family prospered and lived in this house for over 50 years. (1950 to 2004). Well Pierre and Janet did anyway. The kids grew up and moved out, like all children do.

Pierre and Janet had six biological children, and one adopted. From eldest to youngest they are Penny, Pamela, Patsy, Peter, Paul, Peggy Ann and Perri. We know their names because of a small, very personal memoir Pierre wrote after a summer trip he and Janet took their kids on, sailing down the Yukon River in August 1972.

This memoir was called Drifting Home, and it includes many personal stories about Pierre and his childhood in Dawson City and along the Yukon River. Some of these stories were later mentioned in his other autobiographies and some stories were not. The 1973 first edition of Drifting Home had a Black cover and photos of Pierre's kids - as they looked in 1972. The eldest daughter Penny was 24, and the youngest daughter, Perri, was 8. This is not a long book. Just 174 pages.

One of the last books Berton ever wrote was called the Joy of Writing: A Guide for Writers, Disguised as a Literary Memoir, published in 2003.

Pierre Berton was a writer. It was in his blood and for over 50 years he wrote constantly. Berton wrote for Newspapers, for Canada's leading News magazine, for Canadian television and he was a prolific writer of books.

In Vancouver after World war 2, he was the youngest city editor on any Canadian daily by the age of 21. He moved to Toronto in 1947 (at age 27), and 4 years later at the age of 31, he was named managing editor of Maclean's magazine. In 1957, he became a key member of the CBC's public affairs flagship program, Close-Up, and a permanent panelist on Front Page Challenge. He joined The Toronto Star as associate editor and columnist in 1958, leaving in 1962 to commence The Pierre Berton Show, which ran (on TV) until 1973.

During this entire time, he was always writing and publishing books. In 1967 Berton was involved in the celebrations for the centenary of Canada's Federation Day. He wrote his first personal memoirs in 1973 after he took his kids on a trip down the Yukon River. He later expanded his memoirs which became his autobiography, published as My Times in one volume in 1995. The one volume has since been split into two. Volume one is now called Starting Out and volume two is called My Times.

We have all read about the Dionne Quintuplets, right? Well Pierre Berton even wrote an article about the Dionne girls for the Canadian Encyclopedia. He may have expanded this article into his book The Dionne Years published in 1977 and later a CBC TV program about the Dionnes in 1979.

These are SOME of Pierre Bertons books - NOT ALL.

The Mysterious North: Encounters with the Canadian Frontier,1947-1954. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1956.
Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1958.
The Secret World of Og. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1961 (illustrated by William Winter)
The Comfortable Pew. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1965.
The Cool, Crazy, Committed World of the Sixties. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1966.
The Smug Minority. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1968.
The National Dream. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1970.
The Last Spike. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1971.
Drifting Home. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973.
The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama . Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977.
The Invasion of Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1980.
Flames Across the Border. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1981.
Why We Act Like Canadians. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982.
The Klondike Quest. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1983.
Vimy. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986.
The Arctic Grail. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1988.
The Great Depression. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1990.
My Times: Living With History 1917-1995. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1995.
The Battle of Lake Erie. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1994 (illustrated by Paul McCusker)
Attack on Montreal. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1995.
Farewell to the Twentieth Century. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1996.
1967: The Last Good Year. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1997.
Welcome To The 21st Century. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2000.
Marching as to War. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2001.
Cats I Have Known and Loved. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2002.
The Joy of Writing: A Guide for Writers, Disguised as a Literary Memoir. Toronto Doubleday Canada, 2003

Berton was larger than life. He received many many accolades in his life time.
Since I can't copy and paste, I'm going to link to some of the more interesting obituaries.

Pierre Berton's Obituary - Toronto Star

In Memoriam - Pierre Bertons life in TV

Pierre Berton - His entry in the Canadian Encyclopedia

Pierre Berton - Canadian Personality

The Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon.
As printed in the Klondike Sun, Dawson city, Yukon, October 31, 1997.
The current Berton Retreat House Programme

McMaster University Collection.
Pierre Berton and family reading the Secret World of Og in 1961.

Yukon 1920s photo from Berton's Autobiography - Volume One Starting Out

Pierre reviews the Fair
Pierre Berton was an established Canadian media personality who received four major literary awards and was made a Companion to the order of Canada. In the June 1967 edition of Maclean's magazine, Pierre Berton reviewed Expo 67.
You'll need to scroll down until you get to the MacLeans cover picture

Berton and his Railway books
Some people were jealous of Berton's success. The bestsellers list for September 1972 shows 4 of Berton's books in the top 10. Klondike was originally published in 1958. It was reprinted in 1972 to cash in on the popularity of Berton's railway books.