Howard O'Hagan (February 17, 1902 – September 18, 1982) was a Canadian writer.Ken Mitchell
"Howard O'Hagan"
''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available fo ...

'', April 10, 2008. One of the first significant writers to have been born in

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...

, he was most noted for his 1939 novel ''Tay John''.Ella Tanner, ''Tay John and the Cyclical Quest: The Shape of Art and Vision in Howard O'Hagan''.

ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholarly book ...

, 1990. . Born in

Lethbridge Lethbridge ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. With a population of 101,482 in its 2019 Alberta municipal censuses, 2019 municipal census, Lethbridge became the fourth Alberta city to surpass 100,000 people. The nearby Canadian ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, O'Hagan worked as a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

in the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part ...

as a young adult before studying law at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

; however, once graduating he practiced law for only a month before leaving the occupation and returning to work as a mountain guide. He subsequently worked for a time as head of publicity for the

Central Argentine Railway The Central Argentine Railway, referred to as CA below, (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Central Argentino) was one of the ''Big Four'' broad gauge, British companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The company had been establish ...

. He was married to artist

Margaret Peterson Margaret Peterson (1883 – 1933) was an English people, English novelist. Biography Margaret Peterson grew up in Mumbai, Bombay (Mumbai), the youngest child of Peter and Agnes (née Christall) Peterson. Her parents were originally from Scotlan ...

, with whom he resided in a variety of international locations before settling in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. ''Tay John'', his most significant published work, was a fictionalized account of the life of

Tête Jaune Pierre Bostonais or Pierre Hastination (died 1828), better known as Tête Jaune, was an Iroquois (Haudenosaunee)-Métis trapper, fur trader, and explorer who worked for the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company during the 18th and 19th centuri ...

, an

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

fur trader who was a significant figure in the development of the Canadian West. His later works included ''Wilderness Men'' (1958), ''The Woman Who Got on at Jasper Station and Other Stories'' (1963) and ''The School Marm Tree'' (1977). Following O'Hagan's death, ''Tay John'' was reissued by

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

New Canadian Library The New Canadian Library is a publishing imprint of the Canadian company McClelland and Stewart. The series aims to present classic works of Canadian literature in paperback. Each work published in the series includes a short essay by another nota ...

series in 1989, and the

Writers Guild of Alberta The Writers' Guild of Alberta (WGA) was founded in 1980 as a non-profit organization for writers based in Alberta, Canada. It claims to be the largest provincial writers' organization in Canada, representing approximately 1,000 writers throughout th ...

created the Howard O'Hagan Award for Short Fiction to honour short story collections published by Alberta writers.Gordon Morash, "Hollingshead spins a pair of winning books; Edmonton and Calgary split 50/50 for Writers Guild of Alberta awards". ''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as ...

'', May 16, 1993.

Works

* ''Tay John'' (1939) * ''Wilderness Men'' (1958) * ''The Woman Who Got on at Jasper Station and Other Stories'' (1963) * ''The School Marm Tree'' (1977)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:O'Hagan, Howard 1902 births 1982 deaths Canadian male novelists Canadian male short story writers Writers from Lethbridge 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian short story writers