My Father's Son: Memories Of War And Peace - Softcover

Farley Mowat (1921 2014) was born in Belleville, Ontario. He spent much of his youth in Saskatoon, and lived in Ontario, Cape Breton and Newfoundland, while travelling frequently to Canada’s far north. Throughout, Mowat remained a determined environmentalist, despairing at the ceaseless work of human cruelty. Yet his ability to capture the tragic comedy of human life on earth has made him a national treasure in Canada, and a beloved storyteller to readers around the world. Over his internationally celebrated career, he wrote 44 books, including People of the Deer, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be, Sea of Slaughter, and The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float.

In 1940 at the age of 19, Canadian novelist and nonfiction writer Mowat presented himself at the Royal Canadian Air Force recruiting office in Toronto to sign up for World War II. He was rejected as too small. He subsequently made it into the army and in 1942 was sent overseas. Thus began a lively correspondence between Mowat and his would-be novelist father, who worked as a librarian. This book consists mainly of the letters son and father (and sometimes mother) exchanged from 1942 to 1945. It may seem a little late in the day to be producing such a book, but there is something about the volume that keeps one going. The sum total is a graphic picture of the war as seen through the eyes of a sensitive and idealistic young man and a no less sensitive and idealistic father, who was blessed with an ingenious fancy, a sense of humor, and the gift of agreeable patter. For public library collections.
- A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
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