This is the story of the formative years of Canada's most famous newspaper editor, John Wesley Dafoe. Written by his grandson, it is an honest account of the man that his family and his friends knew, from his unpromising beginnings in the backwoods of pre-Confederation Ontario to his early and unexpected success in nineteenth-century Canadian journalism. It includes an examination of Dafoe's family background, his education, his early career, his rise as a national and international figure and his lifelong search for a true Canadian identity. Some of it is told in his own words, some is drawn from the recollections of those who knew him. It is a quintessentially Canadian story and one that is worth remembering.

Christopher Dafoe's profile page

Christopher Dafoe was born in Winnipeg in 1936 and was educated in Winnipeg and later at Stanford University and in England. He was for many years a theatre, film and literary critic in Winnipeg and Vancouver. As a freelance writer he has contributed articles and criticism to the Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Citizen, the Winnipeg Free Press, the Vancouver Sun, and British newspapers, including The Times, The Guardian and the Yorkshire Post. From 1985 to 1997 he was editor of the Canadian history magazine The Beaver and vice-president of Canada's National History Society. His books include a history of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Dancing Through Time; a history of Winnipeg, Heart of the Continent; and a comic novel, The Molsheim Meadowlark. He currently lives in Vancouver.

"The story of a remarkable young man who accomplished greatness after he realized early that 'I was born to be a scribbler and a scribbler I'll be all my life.' Chris, who was eight when his grandfather died, clearly inherited the scribbler mantle." -Gerald Flood, the Winnipeg Free Press - -