Farley Mowat: Writer, Environmentalist
Farley Mowat called nature “the only subject I really want to write about.” For the better part of 80 years he did exactly that. As a teenager, he published a periodical called Nature Lore. He used the profits to feed the ducks and geese who lived in water discharged from Saskatoon’s electrical plant.
His book Never Cry Wolf was based on his own experiences observing arctic wolves in 1948-49. At time wolves were believed responsible for the declining cariboo population. In the book, Mowat dismisses the theory that wolves are bloodthirsty killers. Karen Jones in her essay Never Cry Wolf: Science, Sentiment, and the Literary Rehabilitation of Canus Lupis, wrote about the book’s impact on the public. “Modern Canadians roused to defend a species that their predecessors sought to eradicate….Never Cry Wolf played a key role in fostering that change.”
Scientists disputed some of his conclusions but he explained that “I never let facts get in the way of a good story. I was writing subjective non-fiction all along”.
Mowat was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2003 and was an honourary director of the North American Native Plant Society. He actively supported the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a non-profit marine conservation organization that disrupts whaling vessels and has intervened in the Canadian seal hunt. The organization named a vessel after Mowat.
Farley Mowat died on May 6, 2014.
These are some of Mowat’s nature-themed books:
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Eastern Passage
• eBook
Mowat travels along the St. Lawrence River in 1950, observing the damage that humans are doing to the planet, including the scattering of uranium over the river by the US Air Force when a bomb was jettisoned over the river.
Never Cry Wolf
• 30th Anniversary Edition
• Audiobook
• eAudiobook
• eBook
• Large Print
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)
Mowat’s classic memoir about his experiences studying arctic wolves for the Canadian government.
Sea of Slaughter
• Regular Print 1
• Regular Print 2
• eBook
The negative impact of European settlers on North Atlantic wildlife is documented.
Virunga: the Passion of Dian Fossey
A biography of zoologist Dian Fossey who lived among and studied Rwandan mountain gorillas for 18 years until her 1985 murder.
• eBook — renamed Gorillas in the Mist
• Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons) — renamed Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa
A Whale for the Killing
• eBook
The true story of a fin whale trapped in a lagoon near Mowat’s home in Newfoundland and its mistreatment by local citizens.
For additional suggestions, consult staff at your local branch.
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Image of Farley Mowat by Tabercil
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