LITTERAE
Multilingual
literary magazin
A GREAT
WRITER HAS DIED: PIERRE BERTON
(1920-2004)
From: "Joyce Yardley"
Date: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 2:18 PM
I was so saddened by the news of Pierre's passing. I had the honour of
being seated beside him at the banquet at the TWUC AGM in Vancouver in
2002. I guessed that it had something to do with the fact that we were
still fellow Yukoners at heart, both of us having being raised there as
children. ( I was born, and spent most of my life there.) We had the most
enjoyable conversation that evening, and it certainly was one of the
highlights in my life. I've had these two pictures of us on my refrigerator
ever since! Here they are. He will be greatly missed by so many. Six of
his books are in my den library, and I treasure each and every one of them.
Thanks for the memory, Pierre.
Joyce
Bill Freeman wrote:
December 1, 2004
From: Bill Freeman, Chair
With all of the things written and said about the contributions of Pierre
Berton to the life of this country, we should remember the enormous
contribution that he made to our union and the lives of writers in this
country.
Pierre was a founding member of the Writers' Union. Legend has it that it
was his intervention that steered the union away from being a literary
organization to become a union made up of all book writers. For over thirty
years he was an active member of TWUC, contributing in his own forceful way.
He spent two years on National Council as First Vice Chair and Chair.
Pierre was also a founding member of the Writers' Trust and purchased and
funded the writers' retreat, Berton House in the Yukon. He knew better than
most that writing is a precarious craft and writers need to be nurtured and
supported in various ways.
This was a man who performed in deeds as well as words. When Pierre Berton
got to his feet to speak at an Annual General Meeting of the Writers' Union,
members stopped and took notice. His remarks were always pertinent and
often controversial. He was his own man, who took his own council and the
union benefited from the strength of his ideas, work and commitment.
Many of us have fond memories of the great generosity of Pierre. On several
occasions he hosted socials for union members at his home in Kleinburg. He
truly liked writers and wanted to hang out with the clan. Despite his great
success and the honours that he received, he always saw himself as a working
writer struggling to express his ideas on paper. He was one of us.
I had the good fortune to be on National Council when Pierre was the Chair
of the union in the mid 1980s. It was quite an experience. Like all good
organizers, Pierre had an agenda. He knew he could not achieve everything,
but he also knew what he was bringing to the position and how he could use
his prestige to move the yardsticks forward for book writers. His project
was to evaluate the book review pages of newspapers.
It was a marvel to watch. The office staff spent much of their time
measuring the column inches devoted to book reviews in newspapers. At the
end of the year Pierre issued his report evaluating which newspapers
provided the most book reviews. The Kingston Whig Standard triumphed, as I
remember, and Pierre had a wonderful time attacking all of the other
newspapers for their inadequacies. And did the newspaper editors squirm!
This was Pierre Berton, the pre-eminent Canadian newspaperman and writer,
skewering their newspaper. It was a delight to see.
There will not be many that can fill his shoes. Thanks Pierre, we'll miss
you.
Bill Freeman
From: "Elaine Clow-Martin" <babygames2000@hotmail.com>
To: <eugene@litterae.net>
Subject: Pierre Burton
Date: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 12:48 PM
I owe Pierre Burton a great debt for introducing me to some of the
intricacies of Canadian history, while spinning a good yarn. I will miss
his special magic.
Elaine Clow, Author
Vera's War (memoirs of a Canadian Nursing Sister in The Great War)
From: "Karleen Bradford" <karleen.bradford@SYMPATICO.CA>
Date: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 6:18 PM
My memories of Pierre Berton go back a long way. When Jim and I were first
married, in 1959, we used to look forward in the evenings to an always
entertaining column in the Toronto Telegram by a young chap named Pierre Berton.
I think I still have his recipe for Blackened Turkey around somewhere, although
I never did dare try it.
Karleen
Karleen Bradford
karleen.bradford@sympatico.ca
www.karleenbradford.com