Bill Waiser
- Trent University
- University of Saskatchewan
William Andrew "Bill" Waiser CM SOM FRSC (born 1953) is a Canadian historian and author specializing in western and northern Canadian history.
Career and honours
Waiser grew up in Toronto but developed an interest in western Canadian history through visiting his grandparents' Manitoba homestead each summer.[1] His father had been a transient worker on the Prairies during the Great Depression before settling in Ontario after the Second World War.[2] Waiser studied history at Trent University under renowned Manitoba historian W. L. Morton.[1] Waiser completed his graduate work at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S), earning his master's in 1976 and doctorate in 1983. He was Yukon Historian for the Canadian Parks Service before joining the Department of History at the U of S in 1984.[2] He served as department head from 1995 to 1998.
Waiser received the College of Arts and Science Teaching Excellence Award in 2003 and was named the university's Distinguished Researcher at the spring 2004 convocation. He was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, the province's highest honour, in 2006, and elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada the following year.[3] Bill retired from the university in 2014. He was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2018.[4] The same year, he was awarded the Royal Society's J. B. Tyrrell Historical Medal, the first U of S historian to receive the honour since A. S. Morton in 1941.[5] He also received the Pierre Berton Award for achievement in popular history in 2018.[6] In 2020, Waiser was honoured with a lifetime achievement award for Prairie history by the Canadian Historical Association (CHA).[7] In 2021, he won the Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence for his impact on writing in Saskatchewan, for which the nominator wrote, "I think he is one of Saskatchewan's most important and accomplished writers."[8]
Waiser's books have won numerous awards. All Hell Can't Stop Us: The On-to-Ottawa Trek and Regina Riot won the 2003 Saskatchewan Book Award (SBA) for non-fiction.[9] His centennial history of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan: A New History, won the CHA's 2006 Clio Prize as the best book in Prairie History.[7] A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan Before 1905 won the 2016 Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction as well as that year's SBA non-fiction award.[10] He had previously been nominated for the award in 1997 for Loyal till Death: Indians and the North-West Rebellion, co-written with Blair Stonechild.[10]
In 2023, Waiser had his first children's book published through Thistledown Press. Gordie's Skate tells the story of hockey legend Gordie Howe's family acquiring a pair of skates during the Great Depression in Saskatchewan.[11]
Selected works
- Gordie's Skate (Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 2023)
- In Search of Almighty Voice: Resistance and Reconciliation (Markham: Fifth House Publishers, 2020)
- A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan Before 1905 (Markham: Fifth House Publishers, 2016)
- Tommy's Team: The People Behind the Douglas Years, with Stuart Houston (Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 2010)
- Who Killed Jackie Bates? Murder and Mercy during the Great Depression (Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 2008)
- Saskatchewan: A New History (Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 2005)
- All Hell Can't Stop Us: The On-to-Ottawa Trek and Regina Riot (Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 2003)
- Loyal till Death: Indians and the North-West Rebellion, with Blair Stonechild (Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 1997)
- Park Prisoners: The Untold Story of Western Canada's National Parks (Saskatoon: Fifth House Publishers, 1995)
- Saskatchewan's Playground: A History of Prince Albert National Park (Saskatoon: Fifth House Publishers, 1989)
References
- ^ a b Brickman-Young, Katie (2020-01-17). "Bill Waiser: Saskatchewan's historian". USask Alumni. University of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
- ^ a b Trembath, Sean (2015-10-07). "Illuminating local lore". Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
- ^ "Bill Waiser". University of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
- ^ Office of the Secretary to the Governor General (2018-01-22). "Order of Canada Investiture Ceremony". The Governor General of Canada. Archived from the original on 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
- ^ Piller, Thomas (2018-09-18). "University of Saskatchewan historian awarded Royal Society of Canada medal". Global News. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
- ^ Giles, David (2018-11-23). "Retired University of Saskatchewan professor wins top national award for history". Global News. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
- ^ a b "CHA Prizes". cha-shc.ca. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
- ^ Bennett, Jocelyn (2021-09-14). "Bill Waiser named 2021 winner of Kloppenburg literary award". Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
- ^ "2003 SBA Winners". Saskatchewan Book Awards. Archived from the original on 2010-04-24. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
- ^ a b "Sask. historian Bill Waiser wins Governor General's Literary Award". CBC News. 2016-10-25. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
- ^ Mitchell, Kevin (2023-06-03). "Historian tells a tale for kids about Gordie Howe's first skate (singular) and how it launched a hockey career". Regina Leader-Post. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
External links
- Official website
- Former website
Awards | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by | Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction 2016 | Succeeded by Graeme Wood |
Preceded by | J. B. Tyrrell Historical Medal 2018 | Succeeded by Allan Greer [fr] |
- v
- t
- e
- Thomas Beattie Roberton, TBR: Newspaper Pieces (1936)
- Stephen Leacock, My Discovery of the West (1937)
- John Murray Gibbon, Canadian Mosaic (1938)
- Laura Salverson, Confessions of an Immigrant's Daughter (1939)
- J. F. C. Wright, Slava Bohu (1940)
- Emily Carr, Klee Wyck (1941)
- Bruce Hutchison, The Unknown Country (1942)
- Edgar McInnis, The Unguarded Frontier (1942)
- E. K. Brown, On Canadian Poetry (1943)
- John Robins, The Incomplete Anglers (1943)
- Dorothy Duncan, Partner in Three Worlds (1944)
- Edgar McInnis, The War: Fourth Year (1944)
- Ross Munro, Gauntlet to Overlord (1945)
- Evelyn M. Richardson, We Keep a Light (1945)
- Frederick Phillip Grove, In Search of Myself (1946)
- Arthur R. M. Lower, Colony to Nation (1946)
- William Sclater, Haida (1947)
- Robert MacGregor Dawson, The Government of Canada (1947)
- Thomas Head Raddall, Halifax, Warden of the North (1948)
- C. P. Stacey, The Canadian Army, 1939-1945 (1948)
- Hugh MacLennan, Cross-country (1949)
- Robert MacGregor Dawson, Democratic Government in Canada (1949)
- Marjorie Wilkins Campbell, The Saskatchewan (1950)
- W. L. Morton, The Progressive Party in Canada (1950)
- Frank MacKinnon, The Progressive Party in Canada (1951)
- Josephine Phelan, The Ardent Exile (1951)
- Donald G. Creighton, John A. Macdonald, The Young Politician (1952)
- Bruce Hutchison, The Incredible Canadian (1952)
- J. M. S. Careless, Canada, A Story of Challenge (1953)
- N. J. Berrill, Sex and the Nature of Things (1953)
- Hugh MacLennan, Thirty and Three (1954)
- Arthur R. M. Lower, This Most Famous Stream (1954)
- N. J. Berrill, Man's Emerging Mind (1955)
- Donald G. Creighton, John A. Macdonald, The Old Chieftain (1955)
- Pierre Berton, The Mysterious North (1956)
- Joseph Lister Rutledge, Century of Conflict (1956)
- Thomas H. Raddall, The Path of Destiny (1957)
- Bruce Hutchison, Canada: Tomorrow's Giant (1957)
- Pierre Berton, Klondike (1958)
- Joyce Hemlow, The History of Fanny Burney (1958)
- [No award] (1959)
- Frank Underhill, In Search of Canadian Liberalism (1960)
- T. A. Goudge, The Ascent of Life (1961)
- Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
- J.M.S. Careless, Brown of the Globe (1963)
- Phyllis Grosskurth, John Addington Symonds (1964)
- James Eayrs, In Defence of Canada (1965)
- George Woodcock, The Crystal Spirit: A Study of George Orwell (1966)
- Norah Story, The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature (1967)
- Mordecai Richler, Hunting Tigers Under Glass (1968)
- [No award] (1969)
- [No award] (1970)
- Pierre Berton, The Last Spike (1971)
- [No award] (1972)
- Michael Bell, Painters in a New Land (1973)
- Charles Ritchie, The Siren Years (1974)
- Marion MacRae and Anthony Adamson, Hallowed Walls (1975)
- Carl Berger, The Writing of Canadian History (1976)
- F. R. Scott, Essays on the Constitution (1977)
- Roger Caron, Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars (1978)
- Maria Tippett, Emily Carr (1979)
- Robert Bothwell and William Kilbourn, C.D. Howe (1979)
- Larry Pratt and John Richards, Prairie Capitalism (1979)
- Jeffrey Simpson, Discipline of Power: The Conservative Interlude and the Liberal Restoration (1980)
- George Calef, Caribou and the Barren-Land (1981)
- Christopher Moore, Louisbourg Portraits: Life in an Eighteenth- Century Garrison Town (1982)
- Jeffery Williams, Byng of Vimy: General and Governor General (1983)
- Sandra Gwyn, The Private Capital: Ambition and Love in the Age of Macdonald and Laurier (1984)
- Ramsay Cook, The Regenerators: Social Criticism in Late Victorian English Canada (1985)
- Northrop Frye, Northrop Frye on Shakespeare (1986)
- Michael Ignatieff, The Russian Album (1987)
- Anne Collins, In the Sleep Room (1988)
- Robert Calder, Willie: The Life of W. Somerset Maugham (1989)
- Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall, Trudeau and Our Times (1990)
- Robert Hunter and Robert Calihoo, Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past (1991)
- Maggie Siggins, Revenge of the Land: A Century of Greed, Tragedy and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm (1992)
- Karen Connelly, Touch the Dragon (1993)
- John Livingston, Rogue Primate: An Exploration of Human Domestication (1994)
- Rosemary Sullivan, Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen (1995)
- John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization (1996)
- Rachel Manley, Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood (1997)
- David Adams Richards, Lines on the Water: A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi (1998)
- Marq de Villiers, Water (1999)
- Nega Mezlekia, Notes from the Hyena's Belly (2000)
- Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Ingenuity Gap (2001)
- Andrew Nikiforuk, Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil (2002)
- Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (2003)
- Roméo Dallaire, Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2004)
- John Vaillant, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed (2005)
- Ross King, The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism (2006)
- Karolyn Smardz Frost, I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad (2007)
- Christie Blatchford, Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army (2008)
- M. G. Vassanji, A Place Within: Rediscovering India (2009)
- Allan Casey, Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada (2010)
- Charles Foran, Mordecai: The Life and Times (2011)
- Ross King, Leonardo and the Last Supper (2012)
- Sandra Djwa, Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page (2013)
- Michael John Harris, The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection (2014)
- Mark L. Winston, Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive (2015)
- Bill Waiser, A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan Before 1905 (2016)
- Graeme Wood, The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State (2017)
- Darrel J. McLeod, Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age' (2018)
- Don Gillmor, To the River: Losing My Brother (2019)
- Madhur Anand, This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart (2020)
- Sadiqa de Meijer, alfabet/alphabet: a memoir of a first language (2021)
- Eli Baxter, Aki-wayn-zih: A Person as Worthy as the Earth (2022)
- Kyo Maclear, Unearthing (2023)