- Pierre Berton
:"For other people with the same name, see "
Pierre Berton (disambiguation) ."Pierre Francis De Marigny Berton, CC, O.Ont, BA, D.Litt (July 12 ,1920 –November 30 ,2004 ) was a noted Canadian author of non-fiction, especiallyCanadiana andCanadian history , and was a well-knowntelevision personality andjournalist .An accomplished storyteller, Berton was one of Canada's most prolific and popular
author s. He wrote 50 books, including ones onpopular culture , Canadian history, critiques of mainstreamreligion , anthologies, children's books and historical works for youth. He was credited with popularizing Canadian history.Biography
He was born on July 12, 1920, in
Whitehorse, Yukon , and raised in theYukon , where his father had moved for the 1898Klondike Gold Rush . His mother, Laura Beatrice Berton (nee Thompson) was a school teacher in Toronto until she was offered a job as a teacher in Dawson City at the age of 29 in 1907. She met Frank Berton in the nearby mining town of Granville shortly after settling in Dawson and teaching kindergarten. Laura Beatrice Berton's autobiography of life in the Yukon entitled "I Married the Klondike" was published in her later years and gave her, what her son Pierre describes as 'a modicum of fame, which she thoroughly enjoyed.'Like his father, Pierre Berton 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 theSecond World War .Berton himself was conscripted into the
Canadian Army under theNational Resources Mobilization Act in 1942 and attended basic training in British Columbia, nominally as a reinforcement soldier intended forThe 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 ofcorporal . Due to a background in universityCOTC and inspired by other citizen-soldiers who had been commissioned, he sought training as an officer. [Berton, Pierre. "Starting Out" (McLelland and Stewart, 1987).]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. [Ibid.]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 ". That same year, he also narrated theAcademy Award -nominatedNational Film Board of Canada documentary "City of Gold", exploring life in his hometown of Dawson City during theKlondike Gold Rush .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. It was on this show, in 1971, Berton that interviewedBruce Lee in what was to be the famous martial artist's only television interview. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ0RF_QetSQ Bruce Lee "Lost" Interview] . You Tube. Retrieved onMarch 30 ,2008 .] Berton's television career included spots 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 theGovernor General's Award for Creative Non-Fiction (three times), theStephen Leacock Medal of Humour , and theGabrielle Léger Award for Lifetime Achievement in Heritage Conservation. He is a member ofCanada's Walk of Fame , having been inducted in 1998. InThe 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. OnOctober 17 ,2004 the $12.6 million Pierre Berton Resource Library, named in his honour, was opened inVaughan, Ontario . He had lived in nearbyKleinburg, 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 openly gave tips on how to roll a joint and ended with a quick shot of him eating snacks, a la munchies. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2004/10/15/Arts/bertonsmokes041015.html National story] , see also [http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/index.jsp?program=%3Eplay%3A+Goes+To+Pot CBC National] , and [http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport/backissues.php?season=2 Mercer Report] .]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 both Dawson City and Whitehorse. The Berton House Retreat is sponsored by a charitable foundation set up to support it and by the Klondike Visitors Association; the administrator is Elsa Franklin.Pierre Berton Award
2006 recipient,
Ken McGoogan 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 Award s for: "The Last Spike", 1972; "Klondike", 1958; "The Mysterious North", 1956.
*Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, 1959.elected bibliography
* "The Mysterious North: Encounters with the Canadian Frontier,1947-1954". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1956.
* "". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1958. ISBN 0-385-65844-3
* "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.
* "The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama ". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977.
* "The Invasion of Canada ". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1980. ISBN 0-316-09216-9
* "Flames Across the Border ". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1981. ISBN 0-316-09217-7
* "Why We Act Like Canadians". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982.
* "The Klondike Quest". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1983.
* "Vimy". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986. ISBN 0-7710-1339-6
* "The Arctic Grail ". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1988. ISBN 0-385-65845-1
* "The Great Depression". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1990. ISBN 0-7710-1270-5
* "". Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1995. ISBN 0-385-25528-4
* "Marching as to War ". Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2001. ISBN 0-385-25725-2
* "The Battle of Lake Erie". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1994 ISBN 0-7710-1424-4 (illustrated by Paul McCusker)
* "Attack on Montreal ". Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1995. ISBN 0-7710-1419-8
* "Farewell to the Twentieth Century ". Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1996. ISBN 0-385-25577-2
* "". Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1997. ISBN 0-385-25662-0
* "Welcome To The 21st Century ". Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2000. ISBN 0-385-258186-0External links
* [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0000707 The Canadian Encyclopedia]
* [http://archives.cbc.ca/400d.asp?id=1-74-936-5468-11&wm6=1 CBC Archives]
* [http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=135 Order of Canada Citation]
* [http://users.yknet.yk.ca/dcpages/bertonhouse/story.html Berton House Writers' Retreat]
* [http://www.historysociety.ca/pba.asp Pierre Berton Award]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-lMOxuciYQ Pierre Berton on the Rick Mercer's Monday Report: How to Roll a Joint]Footnotes
Persondata
NAME = Berton, Pierre Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = author and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH =July 12 ,1920
PLACE OF BIRTH =Whitehorse, Yukon
DATE OF DEATH =November 30 ,2004
PLACE OF DEATH =Toronto
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