Wednesday, November 08, 2017

Prize Watch: the Pierre Berton to Daniel Francis


The Pierre Berton Award for 2017 -- for a career in presenting Canadian history in books, film, television, and new media -- will be presented to my friend and fellow history blogger Daniel Francis of North Vancouver, a historian "both of the local and the national."  Bravo!

Daniel began writing histories of the fur trade, exploration, and Arctic whaling, He edited the newsstand history magazine Horizon Canada, and wrote the widely read (and taught) National Dreams and The Imaginary Indian, both groundbreaking works in redefining Canadian perceptions of the past. After returning to his British Columbia roots, he became one of that province's pre-eminent interpreter of west coast history, notably through his editorship of the Encyclopedia of British Columbia, but also through his journalism (particularly at Geist), and his books on everything from political biography to highways to the sex trade to prohibition. 

The Berton will be presented to him at Rideau Hall in Ottawa in a couple of weeks, along with awards in history teaching and other fields sponsored by Canada's National History Society, and also the CHA's previously announced John A. Macdonald prize, given this year to Sarah Carter to Imperial Plots: Women, Land, and the Spadework of British Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies, published by University of Manitoba Press.  All the details here.
 
Follow @CmedMoore