An Evening with W. O. Mitchell

W.O. Mitchell, 1914 - Novelist and dramatist William Ormond Mitchell was born at Weyburn, Sask on March 13, 1914. Mitchell studied at U of Man and U of A. He was the fiction editor at Maclean's from 1948-1951. After 1968, he was writer-in-residence at the Banff Centre, U of C, U of A, and Massey College, Toronto. He was also at the University of Windsor from 1978-1987.

Mitchell's first novel, "Who Has Seen the Wind" (1947), received instant recognition. It features the characters, madman Saint Sammy, the ever-drunken Ben and tells of the boy Brian's initiation into the meaning of birth, death, life, freedom and justice. He uses the beauty and power of the prairie and the wind, to symbolize God. His second novel was "The Kite" (1962), which also concerned life and mortality. Another theme of initiation was found in "How I Spent My Summer Holidays" (1981) and takes the character Hugh from childhood innocence, into a world of betrayal, repression and violence and ends with Hugh as an old man left only with knowledge. In 1988, he published the suspense novel "Ladybug, Ladybug.." and followed with "Roses Are Difficult Here" in 1990.

Mitchell has also written many plays for radio and television. The early radio plays The Devil's Instrument (1949) and The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon (written 1951, published 1965) were later revised as full-length plays. Two other plays written for the stage were Back to Beulah, which won the Chalmers Award in 1976, and For Those in Peril on the Sea (1982). Jake and the Kid (1961) originated from stories written for Maclean's. Mitchell also experimented with a musical, Wild Rose, in 1967.

Mitchell became a Member of the Order of Canada in 1973, has received several honorary degrees and was the director of the Writing Division, Banff Centre from 1975-1985. He received the Stephen Leacock Award for "According to Jake and the Kid" (1989). In 1992, he became an honorary Member of the Privy Council.