Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 - July 3, 2001) was a great Canadian author, scriptwriter, and essayist. He is widely known for his wry humour and wit in his writing, and his controversial opinions on many contemporary Canadian issues.
Son of a scrapyard dealer, Richler was born and raised on St. Urbain Street in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, he attended Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) to study English but dropped out before completing his degree. Instead he managed to get a job working as a news editor at the CBC office in Montreal. He moved to Paris in 1959 for several years and then later London where he would stay until returning to Montreal in 1972.
His career took off with the book The Appenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. A book that featured much of what Richler would later become remembered for, recording the environment of the Jewish neighbourhood in the Plateau during the 40's and 50's. Later, in 1974, the book would be turned into a movie (directed by Richler's friend Ted Kotcheff and staring, in his first leading role, Richard Dreyfuss.)
Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize. He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2001, only a few months before his death.
Richler had five children with his wife Florence. Most notable of them is Daniel, who is a longstanding figure in Canadian media and broadcasting.
Awards:
- 1969 Governor General's Award for Cocksure.
- 1972 Governor General's Award for St. Urbain's Horseman.
- 1974 Giller Prize for Barney's Version.
- 1998 Canadian Booksellers Associations "Author of the Year" award.
Fiction:
- The Acrobats (1954) also released as (July 1955)
- Son of a Smaller Hero (1955)
- A Choice of Enemies (1957)
- The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959)
- The Incomparable Atuk (1963)
- Cocksure (1968)
- The Street (1969)
- St. Urbain's Horseman (1971)
- The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz [screenplay] (1974)
- Joshua Then and Now (1980)
- Joshua Then and Now [screenplay] (1985)
- Solomon Gursky Was Here (1989)
- Barney's Version (1997)
- Fiction for young adults:
- Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang (1975)
- Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur (1987)
- Jacob Two-Two and the Great Spy Case
Travel
- Images of Spain (1977)
- This Year In Jerusalem (1994)
Essays
- Hunting Tigers Under Glass: Essays and Reports (1968)
- Shovelling Trouble (1972)
- Notes on an Endangered Species and Others (1974)
- The Great Comic Book Heroes and Other Essays (1978)
- Home Sweet Home: My Canadian Album (1984)
- Dispatches from the Sporting Life (2002)
Broadsides
Nonfiction
- Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country (1992)
- On Snooker: The Game and the Characters Who Play It (2001)
Anthologies
- The Best of Modern Humor
- Writers on World War II
See also: List of Quebec authors
