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March 13 marks the birthday of one of Canada’s greatest writers, W.O. Mitchell. His most famous book, Who Has Seen the Wind, was released in 1947 and over the years it sold close to one million copies in this country.

Born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan in 1914, Mitchell lived in a variety of Canadian cities throughout his life. He racked up a colourful resume of jobs before following the writing path, including that of being a department store Santa, a carnival show high diver in Europe, a World Book Encyclopedia door-to-door salesman and a Calgary Herald classified ad sales rep. Mitchell went to the University of Manitoba in hopes of being a neuro-surgeon, but a bad wrist forced a change in disciplines, to philosophy and eventually education. He became a teacher in small town Alberta and a principal in communities including High River, writing short stories all the while, and eventually leaving his education career to become a full-time writer.

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Upon moving to Toronto, he was the fiction editor of Maclean’s magazine and created a CBC weekly radio series called Jake and the Kid. After relocating to Manitoba, he was the writer in residence at the Winnipeg School Division; a position he took up at several schools over the years including the University of Windsor. He also served as director of the Banff Centre’s writing division, before moving to Calgary during latter years and eventually dying here in February 1998.

A school in Calgary — and another in Kanata, Ontario — is named after him, as is the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, co-ordinated by the City of Calgary and Writers’ Guild of Alberta.

Here’s a sampling of 1998 news articles written about W.O. Mitchell, offered up on the 110th anniversary of his birth.

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