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For the Sea Shepherd ship, see RV Farley Mowat. The Sea Shepherd Conservation The R/V Farley Mowat is the Flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society 's fleet and is a long-range ice-class heavy-duty conservation

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. The Order of Canada is the highest civilian honour within the Canadian system of honours, with membership awarded to those who exemplify the order's Latin Doctor of Letters ( Latin: Litterarum doctor; DLitt; or Litt D Events 1191 - Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre. Year 1921 ( MCMXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar of the Gregorian calendar Belleville ( 2006 population 48821 metropolitan population 91518 is a city located at the mouth of the Moira River on the Bay of Quinte in southeastern The conservation movement also known as nature conservation is a political social and to some extent scientific movement that seeks to protect natural resources including Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page

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 books. A movie about his experiences with wolves, titled Never Cry Wolf, was released to widespread popularity in 1983. Never Cry Wolf ( 1983) is an American Drama film adaption of the Farley Mowat autobiographical book of the same name

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship RV Farley Mowat was named in honour of him, and he frequently visits it to assist its mission. The Sea Shepherd Conservation The R/V Farley Mowat is the Flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society 's fleet and is a long-range ice-class heavy-duty conservation

Contents

Childhood

Great grandnephew of Ontario premier Sir Oliver Mowat, Farley Mowat was born in 1921 in Belleville, Ontario. Sir Oliver Mowat GCMG, PC, QC ( July 22, 1820 &ndash 19 April, 1903) was a Canadian politician Belleville ( 2006 population 48821 metropolitan population 91518 is a city located at the mouth of the Moira River on the Bay of Quinte in southeastern His father, Angus Mowat, had fought at the Battle of Vimy Ridge, became a librarian, and enjoyed minor success as a novelist. The Battle of Vimy Ridge was a military offensive by the Canadian Corps against elements of the German Sixth Army in World War I. Farley began writing informally while his family lived in Windsor, 1930–33. Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and lies at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City-Windsor Corridor.

At the height of the Great Depression, the family relocated to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Canada was hit hard by the Great Depression. Between 1929 and 1933 the gross national product dropped 40% (compared to 37% in the US Saskatoon is a city located in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River, with a 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. The dog ( Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated Subspecies of the gray wolf, a Mammal of the Canidae family of the order Year 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1957 Gregorian calendar) Saskatchewan (səˈskætʃəwən) is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of 588276 He also kept a rattlesnake, a squirrel, two owls (Owls in the Family 1962), a Florida alligator, several cats, and hundreds of insects as pets. Rattlesnakes are a group of venomous Snakes, genera Crotalus and Sistrurus. A squirrel is one of the many small or medium-sized Rodents in the family Sciuridae. The Owls are an order of birds of prey. Most are Solitary, and nocturnal, with some exceptions (e Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. for differences between alligators and crocodiles please see Crocodilia An Alligator is a Crocodilian in the Genus WikipediaManual of Style (spelling, articles should conform to one overall spelling style of English typically the one most linked to the article topic (if it is geographic Insects ( Class Insecta) are a major group of Arthropods and the most diverse group of Animals on the Earth with over a million described A pet is an Animal kept for companionship and enjoyment or a househeld animal as opposed to Livestock, Laboratory animals Working animals 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. A museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development open to the public which acquires conserves researches communicates and exhibits the This museum eventually had to be moved after an invasion by moths and beetles. A moth is an Insect closely related to the Butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Beetles are the group of Insects with the largest number of known Species.

At the age of 13, Mowat founded a nature newsletter, Nature Lore, and had a weekly column on birds in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. The StarPhoenix is a daily Newspaper that serves Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada and is a part of CanWest News Service. 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. For duck as a food see Duck (food; for other meanings see Duck (disambiguation. Goose (plural geese) is the English name for a considerable number of Birds belonging to the family Anatidae. His friends were children at the Dundurn Indian Reserve. Dundurn is a Town of 647 residents in the Rural municipality of Dundurn No In 1935, at age 15, Mowat made his first trip to the Arctic with his great-uncle Frank, an amateur birder. The Arctic is the Region around the Earth 's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. [1]

War service

During the Second World War, Mowat was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Second Battalion, Hastings and Prince Edwards Regiment, affectionately known as the Hasty Ps. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Second Lieutenant is the lowest commissioned officer Military rank in many Armed forces. The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment is a Primary Reserve Infantry Regiment of the Canadian Forces. He later went overseas as a reinforcement officer for that regiment, joining the Canadian Army in the United Kingdom. Land Force Command ( LFC) is responsible for army operations within the Canadian Forces. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located On 10 July 1943, he was a subaltern in command of a rifle platoon, and participated in the initial landings of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. Events 48 BC - Battle of Dyrrhachium, Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia. Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. [2]

Mowat served throughout the campaign as a platoon commander, and moved to Italy in September 1943, seeing further combat until December 1943. During the Moro River campaign, he suffered from battle stress, heightened after an incident on Christmas Day outside of Ortona, Italy when he was left weeping at the feet of an unconscious friend who had an enemy bullet in his head. Ortona is a coastal town and Municipality of the Province of Chieti in the Italian region of Abruzzo with some 23000 inhabitants Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest He then accepted a job as Intelligence Officer at battalion headquarters, later moving to Brigade Headquarters. He stayed in Italy as a D-Day Dodger in the 1st Canadian Infantry Division for most of the war, eventually being promoted to the rank of captain. The D-Day Dodgers is a term for those Allied servicemen who fought in Italy during the Second World War, which also inspired a popular wartime soldier's The 1st Canadian Infantry Division was a formation mobilized on 1 September, 1939 for service in the Second World War.

He moved with the Division to Northwest Europe in early 1945. Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar There, he worked as an intelligence agent in The Netherlands and went through enemy lines to start unofficial negotiations about food drops with General Blaskowitz. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Johannes Blaskowitz ( 10 July 1883 - 5 February 1948) was a German general during World War II. The food drops, under the codename Operation Manna, saved thousands of Dutch lives. Operation Manna took place from 29 April to 8 May 1945, at the end of World War II.

He also formed the 1st Canadian Army Museum Collection Team, according to his book My Father's Son, and arranged for the transport to Canada of several tons of German military equipment, including a V2 rocket and several armoured vehicles. (It is believed that some of these vehicles are on display today at the Canadian Forces Base Borden tank museum. )

Mowat was discharged at the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945 as a Captain, and was considered for promotion to Major, though he turned down the offer as it was incumbent on him volunteering to stay in the military until "no longer needed", which Mowat assumed to mean duty with the Canadian Army Occupation Force (CAOF) but might also have meant the conclusion of the war with Japan. [3]

Literary career

Returning to Canada after the war, Mowat studied biology at the University of Toronto. Foundations of modern biology There are five unifying principles This article is about the University of Toronto's St George Campus During a field trip to the Arctic, Mowat became outraged at the plight of the Ihalmiut, a Caribou Inuit band, which he attributed to misunderstanding by whites. Northern Canada is the vast Northernmost Region of Canada variously defined by Geography and Politics. The Ihalmiut ("People from Beyond" or Ahiarmiut ("the Out-of-the-Way Dwellers" are a group of inland Inuit who lived along the banks of the Caribou Inuit, Barren-ground Caribou hunters are bands of inland Inuit who lived west of Hudson Bay in northern Canada's Keewatin Region His outrage led him to publish his first novel, People of the Deer (1952). People of the Deer (published in 1952 revised in 1975 is Canadian author Farley Mowat 's first book which brought him literary recognition This book made Mowat into a literary celebrity and contributed to the shift in the Canadian government's Inuit policy: the government began shipping meat and dry goods to a people they previously denied existed.

This work was followed by a Governor General's Award-winning children's book, Lost in the Barrens (1956), which was about two teenagers — one white, one Cree — lost in the Arctic. The Governor General's Awards are named in honour of the Governor General of Canada, and are presented in a number of fields Not to be confused with the Creek. Cree is an Exonym applied to various people indigenous to North America namely the Nehiyaw Nehithaw Nehilaw The children are able to combine their skills to survive for part of the winter, but ultimately, they almost die before being saved by an Inuit boy whose knowledge of the Arctic supplements their skills.

Mowat followed up these works with a series of personal memoirs. The Regiment (1955) is a skillful and — unusual for military regimental histories of that era — highly readable account of the regiment he had served in during the Second World War. [4] The Dog Who Wouldn't Be (1957) and Owls in the Family (1961) are hilarious memoirs about his childhood.

Having been trained as a biologist, Mowat took a Canadian government job as biologist in the Arctic. At the time, the government was concerned that the size of caribou herds was shrinking, and they suspected that wolves were eating the caribou, so the best way to protect the caribou would be to kill wolves. The grey wolf or gray wolf ( Canis lupus) also known as the timber wolf or simply wolf, is a Mammal of the order Carnivora Flying into the heart of the wilderness on a small plane, Farley set up an observation camp near a local wolf population. After months of observation, Mowat concluded that, contrary to the ranchers' claims, the wolves mainly ate field mice and only ate old or sick caribou — by killing off the weakest of the caribou, wolves actually strengthened the caribou herd. A vole is a small Rodent resembling a Mouse but with a stouter body a shorter hairy tail a slightly rounder head and smaller ears and eyes The trappers in the area were, according to Mowat, using the wolves as scapegoats for the decline of the animals, for which they themselves were responsible; one Inuit trapper, who helped Mowat in his observations, estimated that he personally killed three hundred caribou per year to feed his dogs and himself. Mowat set forth his findings in his 1963 book, Never Cry Wolf, a book which was widely read around the world, and which was one of the major reasons the Soviet Union banned the killing of wolves. Never Cry Wolf is a Book by Canadian Author Farley Mowat, first published in 1963 by McClelland and Stewart. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991

Mowat then went through a phase of being very interested in Viking voyages to Canada, which resulted in the books Westviking (1965) and The Curse of the Viking Grave (1968). A Viking is one of the Norse ( Scandinavian Explorers Warriors Merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas

Mowat then moved to Burgeo, Newfoundland, where he lived for 8 years. Burgeo is a Canadian town located on the south coast of the island of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland He published three books describing his evolving view of his Newfoundland neighbours: in The Rock Within the Sea (1968), he presents Newfoundlanders as a heroic people uncorrupted by modern technology; The Boat Who Wouldn't Float (1969) reflects his disillusionment with a few Newfoundlanders; and, completing his disillusionment, A Whale for the Killing (1972) presents the shooting of a trapped and doomed whale as an inhumane tragedy. Newfoundland and Labrador (ˈnuːfɨn(dlənd ən(d ˈlæbrəˌdɔr (Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador is a province of Canada, the tenth and latest to join the Confederation Whales are marine mammals which are neither Dolphins (ie members of the families Delphinidae or Platanistoidae) nor Porpoises Orcas He was also co-author for the 1981 film version with Peter Strauss and Richard Widmark. Peter Strauss (born February 20, 1947) is an American television and movie actor perhaps best known for his roles in several television Miniseries Richard Widmark ( December 26, 1914 &ndash March 24, 2008) was an American Actor of Films stage,

Mowat published a denunciation of "the destruction of animal life in the north Atlantic" entitled Sea of Slaughter in 1984. In 1985, as a part of the promotional tour for this book, Mowat accepted an invitation to speak at a university in Chico, California. Chico (pop 86949 is the most populous city in Butte County, California, United States, with 105000 However, U. S. customs officials at Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto denied Mowat entry to the United States. Lester B Pearson International Airport is a major International airport serving Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated 27 kilometres (17 mi northwest Toronto (təˈrɒntoʊ colloquially pronounced or) is the largest city in Canada and is the provincial capital of Ontario The United States of America —commonly referred to as the They wouldn't tell him why specifically, but did tell him that it was because of a security file about him that indicated he should be denied entry "for violating any one of 33 statutes" (which ranged from being a member of the Communist Party to being a member of several other radical groups). A Political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of Communism through a communist form of The result was a media circus, which brought worldwide attention to Mowat. The negative publicity eventually forced the Reagan Administration to decide that Mowat was free to visit the U. The United States Presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan Administration, was a Republican administration headed by S. , but Mowat, peeved by being initially refused, declined to visit the U. S. Mowat speculated on the reasons why he was refused entry to the U. S. in his 1985 book, My Discovery of America.

Then, Mowat became very interested in Dian Fossey, the American ethologist who studied gorillas and who was brutally murdered in Rwanda in 1985. Dian Fossey ( January 16, 1932, San Francisco, California &ndash December 26, 1985, Virunga Mountains, Ethology ( from Greek ἦθος ethos, "character" and λόγος logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of Animal The Republic of Rwanda (ruːˈændə or /rəˈwɑːndə/ in English ɾwanda or in Kinyarwanda is a small Landlocked country in the Mowat published two books about Fossey: Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey (1987) and Woman in the Mists (1987) (an allusion to Fossey's book Gorilla in the Mists (1983)).

In the 1990s and 2000s, Mowat's works have mainly consisted of recombinations of themes he had previously dealt with. He returns to his World War II military service in My Father's Son (1992), and to his childhood in Born Naked (1993). He returns to the Canadian Arctic in High Latitudes: An Arctic Journey (2002) (an account of a 1966 trek in northern Canada) and No Man's River (2004) (an account of an Arctic adventure he took amongst the Ihalmiut in 1947). In Rescue the Earth: Conversations (1990), Mowat continued his work as an environmental advocate. In The Farfarers (2000), Mowat returned to the theme of pre-Columbian interactions between Europe and North America. In Bay of Spirits: A Love Story (2006) he returns to stories from his travels to St. Pierre and the southwest coast of Newfoundland in the early 1960's. Saint-Pierre is the Capital of the French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, off of the coast of Newfoundland in Canada Newfoundland and Labrador (ˈnuːfɨn(dlənd ən(d ˈlæbrəˌdɔr (Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador is a province of Canada, the tenth and latest to join the Confederation These events have already led to This Rock Within the Sea: A Heritage Lost (1968), The Boat Who Wouldn't Float (1969), and A Whale for the Killing (1972). However, the 2006 effort adds many new personal details as well as fresh accounts of sailing the southwest coast and meeting its inhabitants that were not included in the previous works from this time period in his life.

In 2007, Mowat became actively involved with the Green Party of Canada, adding his name to the party's fundraising letters. The Green Party of Canada is a Canadian federal Political party founded in 1983 with around 9000 registered members as of November 2007. He currently lives in Port Hope, Ontario and spends summers on a farm in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Port Hope is a Municipality in Ontario, Canada, about 109 km east of Toronto and about 159 km west of Kingston. Cape Breton Island ( French: île du Cap-Breton - formerly île Royale, Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Cheap Breatuinn, Nova Scotia (ˌnəʊvəˈskəʊʃə ( Latin for New Scotland; Alba Nuadh Nouvelle-Écosse is a Canadian province located on Canada 's

Order of Canada

In 1981, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. The Order of Canada is the highest civilian honour within the Canadian system of honours, with membership awarded to those who exemplify the order's Latin

Criticism

Mowat has encountered controversy in the media, especially after he was in the forefront of protest against American cruise missile testing in Canada. A cruise missile is a guided Missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system usually a Jet engine, to allow His activism famously led Ronald Reagan's administration to deny him entry from Canada to the U. S. for a routine speaking engagement; but the resultant public outcry in the U. S. eventually forced the Reagan administration to back down.

The Toronto Star has written that Mowat's memoirs are at least partially fictional. The Toronto Star is Canada 's highest-circulation newspaper though its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario. In a 1968 interview with CBC Radio, Farley admitted that he doesn't let the facts get in the way of the truth (Canada Reads). CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information Radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada 's public broadcaster, the CBC. Once, when Mowat said that he had spent two summers and a winter studying wolves, the Toronto Star wrote that Mowat had only spent 90 hours studying the wolves. This hurt Mowat's reputation.

An article in the May, 1996 issue of Saturday Night written by John Goddard lays out a somewhat more in-depth criticism of Farley's celebrated works, especially Never Cry Wolf. Saturday Night is a Canadian general interest Magazine. It was founded in Toronto, Ontario in 1887 Never Cry Wolf is a Book by Canadian Author Farley Mowat, first published in 1963 by McClelland and Stewart. In an interview during the flap over the article, Mowat admitted that his books are "thinly-veiled fiction". As a result of these persistent and recurring claims, it is difficult to say with authority whether some of Farley's books, billed by many as non-fiction, are just that.

L. David Mech, an internationally recognized wolf expert who has researched wolves since 1958 in places such as Minnesota, Canada, Italy, Alaska, Yellowstone National Park, and on Isle Royale, stated that Mowat is not a scientist and that in all his studies, he had never encountered a wolf pack which regularly subsisted on small prey as shown in Mowat's book. Lucyan David "Dave" Mech is an internationally recognized Wolf expert a senior research scientist for the U [5]

Affiliations

Mowat is a strong supporter of the Green Party of Canada, and close friends of leader Elizabeth May. The Green Party of Canada is a Canadian federal Political party founded in 1983 with around 9000 registered members as of November 2007. Elizabeth May, OC (b June 9 1954, Hartford Connecticut) is the current leader of the Green Party of Canada. The party sent a direct mail fundraising appeal in his name in June 2007. Direct mail, also known as junk mail, advertising mail or admail, is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal Mail. In 2007 Farley also became a Patron of the Nova Scotia Nature Trust by donating over 200 acres of his land in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to the Nature Trust.

Writings by Farley Mowat

External links

Notes

  1. ^ Farley Mowat. The Why and Wherefore. amazon. com. Retrieved on 2007-12-24. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 563 - The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by Earthquakes
  2. ^ And No Birds Sang, p. 7
  3. ^ My Father's Son, p. 359
  4. ^ Regimental histories written in the 1950s and 1960s tended to be focused at military readers and often used much jargon. Mowat's book is remarkable for flowing like a novel (with a novelist's eye for capturing emotional detail) while still chronicling the important historical facts of the regiments' service.
  5. ^ Shedd, Warner (2000). Owls Aren't Wise and Bats Aren't Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife, pp. 336. ISBN 0609605291.  
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