Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton (1920 – 2004)

Pierre Berton was born in Whitehorse to Frank and Laura Beatrice (nee Thompson) Berton. The family moved to Dawson in 1921 and to Victoria in 1932. He worked in the Klondike mining camps while attending the University of British Columbia. He was the youngest city editor on any Canadian daily when the editorial staff was called up for duty during the Second World War. He volunteered for duty and trained as an intelligence officer. He went overseas in 1945, and the war ended before he saw active duty. In 1947, he won attention as a travel writer after he wrote an article of his trip to the Nahanni River. He moved to Toronto that year and became the managing editor of Maclean’s magazine. In 1957 he became a key member of CBC’s Close-Up, a permanent panellist on the television program Front Page Challenge, and narrated the Academy Award-nominated National Film Board of Canada documentary City of Gold about Dawson. He joined the Toronto Star as a columnist and associate editor of the Star Weekly in 1958, and left in 1962 to host The Pierre Berton Show that ran until 1973.¹⁾

Berton served as a chancellor of Yukon College and received many honorary degrees. He received over thirty literary awards including Governor General’s Awards for creative non-fiction. He was named a Companion of the Order of Canada and was a member of the Order of Ontario. Berton published fifty books in his lifetime. The Pierre Berton Award is presented annually to authors presenting Canadian history in an informative and engaging manner. Berton was the first recipient and agreed to lend his name to the award. The Berton House, Berton’s childhood home in Dawson, is a retreat for professional Canadian authors who apply for a three-month residency. All of Berton’s writings are held in the Pierre Berton fonds at the Macmaster University Archives.²⁾

Berton’s Yukon books include: The Golden Trail: The Story of the Klondike Rush (1954); The Golden Trail (1955); Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896-1899 (1958); The Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush (1959); Drifting Home (1973); and The Klondike Quest (1983).