35 Facts About Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat's works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books.

Farley Mowat achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian north, such as People of the Deer and Never Cry Wolf.

Farley Mowat was born May 12,1921, in Belleville, Ontario and grew up in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Farley Mowat's great-great-uncle was Ontario premier Sir Oliver Mowat, and his father, Angus Mowat, was a librarian who fought in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

Farley Mowat's mother was Helen Lilian Thomson, daughter of Henry Andrew Hoffman Thomson and Georgina Phillips Farley Thomson of Trenton, Ontario.

Farley Mowat started writing, in his words "mostly verse", when his family lived in Windsor from 1930 to 1933.

Farley Mowat took his first collecting expedition in the summer of 1939 to Saskatoon with fellow zoology student Frank Banfield collecting data regarding mammals and Mowat focusing on birds.

Farley Mowat published his when he returned from World War II.

Farley Mowat went overseas as a reinforcement officer for that regiment, joining the Canadian Army in the United Kingdom.

Farley Mowat served throughout the campaign as a platoon commander and moved to Italy in September 1943, seeing further combat until December 1943.

Farley Mowat then accepted a job as Intelligence Officer at battalion headquarters, later moving to Brigade Headquarters.

Farley Mowat stayed in Italy with the 1st Canadian Infantry Division for most of the war, and was eventually promoted to the rank of captain.

Farley Mowat moved with the division to northwest Europe in early 1945.

Farley Mowat 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.

Farley Mowat was discharged in 1945, at the conclusion of World War II, as a captain and was considered for promotion to major.

However, he declined the offer as it would have required his volunteering to stay in the military until "no longer needed", which Farley Mowat assumed meant duty with the Canadian Army Occupation Force.

Farley Mowat was outraged at the conditions endured by the Inuit living in Northern Canada.

Farley Mowat became a McClelland and Stewart author when they published his book entitled The Regiment in 1955.

In 1963, Farley Mowat wrote a possibly fictionalised account of his experiences in the Canadian Arctic with Arctic wolves entitled Never Cry Wolf, which is thought to have been instrumental in changing popular attitudes towards the animals.

In 1985, Farley Mowat started a book tour of the United States to promote Sea of Slaughter.

Farley Mowat was denied entry by customs agents at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, which was justified by laws that allowed American customs officials to deny entry to entrants they thought were "Communist sympathizers".

The law was overturned in 1990, and Farley Mowat wrote about his experience in My Discovery of America.

Farley Mowat became very interested in Dian Fossey, the American ethologist who studied gorillas and was brutally murdered in Rwanda in 1985.

Many of Farley Mowat's works are autobiographical, such as Owls in the Family, The Boat Who Wouldn't Float, and And No Birds Sang.

Farley Mowat responded to Banfield's criticisms in a letter to the editor of the Canadian Field-Naturalist, and signed it "Farley Mowat's wolf Uncle Albert".

Farley Mowat is not a scientist, and his book, although presented as truth, is fiction.

Pryde said that when Farley Mowat visited his post at Baker Lake in 1958, he could barely speak a single word in the Inuit language.

Farley Mowat was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981.

Farley Mowat had previously been awarded both the Canadian Centennial Medal and the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal.

Farley Mowat is the namesake of the lovable sheepdog in the comic strip by Lynn Johnston, For Better or For Worse.

Farley Mowat was an honorary director of the North American Native Plant Society.

Farley Mowat is considered a saint by the God's Gardeners, a fictional religious sect that is the focus of Margaret Atwood's 2009 novel The Year of the Flood.

Farley Mowat died on May 6,2014, less than one week before his 93rd birthday.

Farley Mowat maintained his interest in Canada's wilderness areas throughout his life and could be heard a few days before his death on the CBC Radio One program The Current, speaking against the provision of Wi-Fi service in national parks.

Farley Mowat is buried at the historic St Mark's Anglican Church cemetery in Port Hope.