Pierre Berton

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Pierre Francis Berton, CC, O.Ont, BA, D.Litt (July 12, 1920 – November 30, 2004) was a noted Canadian author of non-fiction, especially Canadiana and Canadian history, and was a well-known television personality and journalist.

An accomplished storyteller, Berton was one of Canada's most prolific and popular authors. He wrote 50 books, including ones on popular culture, Canadian history, critiques of mainstream religion, anthologies, children's books and historical works for youth. He was credited with popularizing Canadian history.

Biography

He was born in Whitehorse, Yukon, and raised in the Yukon, where his parents had moved for the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush. He worked in Klondike mining camps during his years as a history major at the University of British Columbia, where he also worked on the student paper "The Ubyssey." He spent his early newspaper career in Vancouver, where at 21 he was the youngest city editor on any Canadian daily, replacing editorial staff that had been called up during the Second World War.

Berton himself was conscripted into the Canadian Army under the National Resources Mobilization Act in 1942 and attended basic training in British Columbia, nominally as a reinforcement soldier intended for The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. He elected to "go Active" (the euphemism for volunteering for overseas service) and his aptitude was such that he was appointed Lance Corporal and attended NCO school, and became a basic training instructor in the rank of corporal. Due to a background in university COTC and inspired by other citizen-soldiers who had been commissioned, he sought training as an officer.[1]

Berton spent the next several years attending a variety of military courses, becoming, in his words, the most highly trained officer in the military. He was warned for overseas duty many times, and was granted embarkation leave many times, each time finding his overseas draft being cancelled. A coveted trainee slot with the Canadian Intelligence Corps saw Berton, now a Captain, trained to act as an Intelligence Officer (IO), and after a stint as an instructor at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, he finally went overseas in March 1945. In the UK, he was told that he would have to requalify as an IO because the syllabus in the UK was different from that in the intelligence school in Canada. By the time Berton had requalified, the war in Europe had ended. He volunteered for the Canadian Army Pacific Force (CAPF), granted a final "embarkation leave", and found himself no closer to combat employment by the time the Japanese surrendered in September 1945.[2]

He moved to Toronto in 1947, and at the age of 31 was named managing editor of Maclean's. In 1957 he became a key member of the CBC's public affairs flagship program, Close-Up, and a permanent panelist on the popular television show 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 until 1973. Thereafter he appeared as host and writer on My Country, The Great Debate, Heritage Theatre, The Secret of My Success and The National Dream.

He served as the Chancellor of Yukon College and, along with numerous honorary degrees, received over 30 literary awards such as the Governor-General's Award for Creative Non-Fiction (three times), the Stephen Leacock Medal of Humour, and the Gabrielle Léger National Heritage Award.

He is a member of Canada's Walk of Fame, having been inducted in 1998. In The Greatest Canadian project, he was voted #31 in the list of great Canadians.

In 2004, Berton published his 50th book, Prisoners of the North, after which he announced in an interview with CanWest News Service that he was retiring from writing.

On October 17, 2004 the CAD $12.6 million Pierre Berton Resource Library, named in his honour, was opened in Vaughan, Ontario. He had lived in nearby Kleinburg, Ontario, for about fifty years.

Berton raised eyebrows in October 2004 by discussing his forty years of recreational use of marijuana on two CBC Television programs, >play and Rick Mercer Report where he gave tips on how to roll a joint.[3]

Berton died at Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto, reportedly of heart failure, at the age of 84 on November 30, 2004.

His childhood home in Dawson City, now called Berton House, is a writers' retreat. Established writers apply for three-month long subsidized residencies there; while in residence, they give a public reading in each of Dawson City and Whitehorse. Many books have been created during the tenancy of writers in that house. The Berton House Retreat is sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts, Random House Canada Limited, and Klondike Visitors Association; the administrator is Elsa Franklin.

Works

Television

Pierre Berton, though known most widely for his numerous books, was also an important television presence from the earliest days of Canadian television. For more than 30 years he was a constant presence, and by the 1970s was perhaps the most well known and highly popular television personality.

His shows included:

  • 1957-95 Front Page Challenge (weekly panelist)
  • 1957-63 Close-Up (host)
  • 1972-73 The Pierre Berton Show (host)
  • 1974 The National Dream (writer/narrator) series in 8 parts
  • 1976 Greenfell
  • 1979 The Dionne Quintuplets (writer)
  • 1984-87 Heritage Theatre (story editor/host)
  • 1985 Spirit of Batoche
  • 1988 The Secret of My Success (writer/interviewer) [4]

Writings

Berton was both a journalist and an historian, a combination that endeared him to his fellow countrymen as he brought Canadian history to life through his writings. His books include:

Berton wrote the forward to this book which features the contributions of writers who have won recognition as some of Canada's best known historians and writers.
The lives of five inspiring and controversial characters are chronicled in these tales of courage, fortitude, and adventure in Canada’s harsh north.
  • The Joy of Writing; A Guide for Writers Disguised as a Literary Memoir, Toronto, Anchor Canada, 2003, ISBN 9780385659987
A witty and practical guide for writers, including interviews with nearly 30 of Canada's best known authors.
A collection of lively cat tales!
“I have called this period Canada’s Turbulent Years – turbulent not only because of the battles we fought on the African veldt, the ravaged meadows of Flanders, the forbidding spine of Italy, and the conical hills of Korea, but turbulent in other ways. These were Canada’s formative years, when she resembled an adolescent, grappling with the problems of puberty, often at odds with her parents, craving to be treated as an adult, hungry for the acclaim of her peers, and wary of the dominating presence of a more sophisticated neighbour.” – From the Introduction


  • My Country
  • Niagara
  • The Promised Land
  • The Secret World of Og
  • The Arctic Grail
  • The Great Depression
  • Klondike
  • Vimy
  • Flames Across the Border
  • The Invasion of Canada
  • The Last Spike
  • The National Dream
  • Welcome To The 21st Century
  • Worth Repeating
  • 1967
  • My Times
  • Berton, Pierre, The Mysterious North: Encounters with the Canadian Frontier,1947-1954, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1956
  • Berton, Pierre, Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, Toronto, Anchor Canada, 2001, 1972, ISBN 0385658443 - ISBN 9780385658447
  • Berton, Pierre, The Secret World of Og, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1961
  • Berton, Pierre, The comfortable pew; a critical look at Christianity and the religious establishment in the new age, Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1965, OCLC 711581
  • Berton, Pierre, The Cool, Crazy, Committed World of the Sixties, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1966, OCLC 1337747
  • Berton, Pierre, The Smug Minority, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1968
  • Berton, Pierre, The National Dream, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1974, ISBN 0771013329 - ISBN 9780771013324
  • Berton, Pierre, The Last Spike, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1971, ISBN 0771013272 - ISBN 9780771013270
  • Berton, Pierre, The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama , Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1977
  • Berton, Pierre, The Invasion of Canada, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1980, ISBN 0316092169
  • Berton, Pierre, Flames Across the Border, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1981, ISBN 0316092177
  • Berton, Pierre, Why We Act Like Canadians, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1982, ISBN 0771013647 - ISBN 9780771013645
  • Berton, Pierre, The Klondike Quest, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1983
  • Berton, Pierre, Vimy, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1986, ISBN 0771013396
  • Berton, Pierre, The Arctic Grail, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1988, ISBN 0385658451
  • Berton, Pierre, The Great Depression, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1990, ISBN 0771012705
  • Berton, Pierre, My Times: Living With History 1917-1995, Toronto, Doubleday Canada, 1995, ISBN 0385255284


  • Berton, Pierre, The Battle of Lake Erie, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1994, ISBN 0771014244
  • Berton, Pierre, Attack on Montreal, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1995, ISBN 0771014198
  • Berton, Pierre, Farewell to the Twentieth Century, Toronto, Doubleday Canada, 1996, ISBN 0385255772
  • Berton, Pierre, 1967: The Last Good Year, Toronto, Doubleday Canada, 1997, ISBN 0385256620

Awards

  • Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal 2002
  • Order of Canada, Companion, 1986.
  • Canadian Booksellers Award, 1982.
  • Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for non-fiction, 1981
  • Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal 1977
  • Nellie Award, best public affairs broadcaster in radio, 1978.
  • Governor General's Awards for: The Last Spike, 1972; Klondike, 1958; The Mysterious North, 1956.
  • Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, 1959.

Sources and Further Reading

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ Berton, Pierre. Starting Out (McLelland and Stewart, 1987).
  2. ↑ Ibid.
  3. ↑ National story, see also CBC National, andMercer Report.
  4. ↑ Television, Pierre Berton Website. Retrieved May 9, 2007.


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