W(illiam) O(rmond) Mitchell (1914-1998)

• short-story writer, novelist, humourist, playwright
• born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan on March 13, 1914
• died February 25, 1998 in Calgary
• spent much of his adolescence in Florida, fighting off a case of tuberculosis
• worked as a deckhand on a Greek steamer, a lifegaurd at Biarritz, a farm hand, a door-to-door salesman, a stunt driver for a carnival, a high school English teacher, the editor of Maclean's, and as a radio and television scriptwriter
• enrolled in the University of Manitoba, intending to study medicine, but his tuberculosis returned
• graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree in education
• chose to settle in 1944 in High River, Alta., where he taught school and wrote in his spare time
• the success of his first novel Who Has Seen the Wind? allowed him to write full-time
• became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1973
• Books:
  • Who Has Seen the Wind? (1947), filmed in 1977
  • Jake and the Kid (1968) stories originally published in the1940's in Maclean's (and in the U.S. in Liberty magazine), adapted for a CBC radio series (1950-1956) and a television series (1961)
  • The Kite (1972)
  • Devils Instrument (1973)
  • How I Spent My Summer Holidays (1982)
  • Dramatic W. O. Mitchell (1982), a collection of plays, including:
    • Back To Beulah, won the Chalmers Award (1976)
    • The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon
    • For Those in Peril on the Sea
  • The Vanishing Point (1983)
  • Since Daisy Creek (1984)
  • Roses Are Difficult Here (1990)
  • According to Jake and the Kid a collection of new stories (1994)
• more information

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