Biography & Autobiography Personal Memoirs
Tending the Tree of Life
- Publisher
- Wild Sage Press
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2015
- Category
- Personal Memoirs
- Recommended Age
- 14 to 18
- Recommended Grade
- 9 to 12
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780988122987
- Publish Date
- Mar 2015
- List Price
- $25
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
How did a Jewish farm boy from Saskatchewan end up participating in LSD experiments and other cutting-edge psychiatric research? Irwin Kahan - World War II veteran, champion for people suffering from schizophrenia, father of three - recounts his often dramatic life. He tells his story simply, with an engaging quirkiness that makes his character come fully alive on the page. This memoir illustrates the compassion and dedication of a man who strove, with humour and optimism, to tend the tree of life.
About the authors
Contributor Notes
Irwin Kahan was born in 1919 in a Jewish farming community in Saskatchewan and died in 2015 in Toronto. After serving with the RCAF during World War II, he received his social work degree from McGill University. In the 1950s he participated in the Saskatchewan government's cutting-edge psychiatric research program. Working with the Canadian Mental Health Association (Saskatchewan Division) and as founding General Director of the Canadian Schizophrenia Foundation, Kahan was a fierce advocate for people with mental illness. Wendy Winter is an award-winning artist.
Excerpt: Tending the Tree of Life (by (author) Irwin Kahan; illustrated by Wendy Winter)
I worked with Linus Pauling, the two-time Nobel Prize winner. He came to some of our CSF conferences. The first time I met him, I was picking him up at the airport. I expected this old guy whose luggage I would have to carry. The plane was late, so I thought he'd be really tired. But he came bouncing off the airplane with a small suitcase and a purple beret. He was a lot of fun. We had breakfast together and I thought he'd eat something really healthy but he had bacon and eggs. I was disappointed.
Editorial Reviews
"I learned so much from Irwin's story - from the struggles of pioneering while attempting to keep the Jewish faith, to the difficulties of trying to finish high school by correspondence lessons, and even to what it's like to take LSD (for science, of course)…it is people like Irwin who I thank for starting the line of thinking that people with mental illness shouldn't be stigmatized or medicated into a stupor…[the Farm Life section] is a simple account full of funny little stories, but enough information to paint a very clear picture about what life was like…"
- Jessica Bickford, SPG Book Reviews
"Irwin Kahan's memoir, Tending the Tree of Life, though fraught with its unfortunate share of racial and religious hatreds, is mostly a story of family love and eventual success...Kahan closes his book with some profound reflections on the value and believability of religion and looks at his own ability to live in the world and respond to its many challenges. His memoir, outlining his sturdy grounding in family, culture and religion, allowed him a full and productive life from which to meditate on these subjects."
- Bill Robertson, Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, April 11, 2015
