Claire Angel Mowat (born 5 February 1933) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

writer and environmentalist.

Personal life

Born on February 5, 1933, Mowat (née Wheeler) was raised and educated in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. She graduated from

Havergal College Havergal College is an independent day and boarding school for girls from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school was established in 1894 and named for Frances Ridley Havergal, a composer, author and humanitaria ...

and the

Ontario College of Art & Design Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

as a

Graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

and was married to the late author

Farley Mowat Farley McGill Mowat, (May 12, 1921 – May 6, 2014) was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Can ...

. The couple divided their time between

, and

Cape Breton Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18. ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

Career

Mowat began writing

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

s in the 1960s, leading in 1983 to her first book ''The Outport People'', about the five years she and husband Farley spent at the start of their marriage in the

outport An outport is any port considered secondary to a main port (including a provincial one as opposed to a capital one), and often (especially) a small port built to support the commercial operations of a large port. The Port of Tilbury from the Port ...

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

community of Burgeo. riginally published 2005-10-15 Her second book ''Pomp and Circumstances'' (1989) arose from witnessing protocol behind the scenes at the Governor General's residence

Rideau Hall Rideau Hall (officially Government House) is the official residence in Ottawa of both the Canadian monarch and their representative, the governor general of Canada. It stands in Canada's capital on a estate at 1 Sussex Drive, with the main b ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. A 2005 memoir ''Travels with Farley'', describes the couple's life in the

Magdalen Islands The Magdalen Islands (french: Îles de la Madeleine ) are a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with a land area of . While part of the Province of Quebec, the islands are in fact closer to the Maritime provinces and Newfoundland th ...

, following the still-birth of their only child. She has also written a trilogy of

young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

: ''The Girl from Away'' (1992), ''The French Isles'' (1994) and ''Last Summer in Louisbourg'' (1998).

Works

* ''The Outport People'' (1983) published by

McClelland & Stewart McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann. History It was founded ...

- * ''Pomp and Circumstances'' (1989) published by

- * ''The Girl from Away'' (1992) Illustrated by Malcolm Cullen, published by

Key Porter Books Key Porter Books was a book publishing company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1979 by Anna Porter, later well known as a writer, the company specialized in Canadian non-fiction, although it published some fiction too. It ceased ope ...

- * ''The French Isles'' (1994) Illustrated by Huntley Brown, published by

- * ''Last Summer in Louisbourg'' (1998) published by

- , (2012)

Nimbus Publishing Nimbus Publishing is a publishing company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The company specializes in subjects relevant to the Atlantic Provinces. Until 2016, the company published an average of 35 to 40 new titles a year, but expanded its outpu ...

- , 978-1-55109-910-1 * ''The Girl from Away Trilogy'' (2002) published by

- * ''Travels with Farley'' (2005) published by

- , (2015)

Pottersfield Press Pottersfield (also spelled "Potter’s Field") was a large historically Black neighborhood located in downtown Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It was originally built over a hundred years ago to be a home for those working at the University of Nort ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mowat, Claire 1933 births Living people Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian environmentalists Canadian women environmentalists 20th-century Canadian memoirists Canadian women novelists Canadian women memoirists Canadian women children's writers People from Northumberland County, Ontario Writers from Toronto 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian women writers

Claire Clair or Claire may refer to: *Claire (given name), a list of people with the name Claire * Clair (surname) Places Canada * Clair, New Brunswick, a former village, now part of Haut-Madawaska * Clair Parish, New Brunswick * Pointe-Claire, Q ...

Havergal College alumni