Hot News: Farley Mowat dead at 92

Farley Mowat, one of Canada's best-known authors and a noted environmentalist, has died at age 92.

Mary Shaw-Rimmington, the author's assistant, confirmed his passing to CBC News on Wednesday afternoon.

Mowat, author of dozens of works including Lost in the Barrens and Never Cry Wolf, introduced Canada to readers around the world and shared everything from his time abroad during the Second World War, to his travels in the North and his concern for the deteriorating environment.

More than 17 million copies of his books, which have been translated into dozens of languages, have been sold worldwide.

Mowat won a Governor General's Award for Memorial Medal for Humour for Lost in the Barrens in 1956 and the Stephen Leacock The Boat that Wouldn't Float in 1970. He became an officer of the Order of Canada in 1981.

Born in Belleville, Ont., on May 12, 1921, Mowat developed an early love of nature and writing.

As a preteen, he wrote a regular column about birding for the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix from 1930 to 1933.

At 18, he enlisted in the army to fight in the Second World War. He spent three years overseas, serving first in Italy, then in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. He returned to Canada in 1945, spending summers in the Arctic and winters studying at the University of Toronto.

His first book, People of the Deer, was based on his experience in the Far North with the Inuit people and made him an immediate celebrity.

A lifelong naturalist, many of his books focus on man's relation to nature.

His 1963 book Never Cry Wolf is credited with helping to change the popular perception of wolves, even leading to a ban on wolf hunting in Russia after the book was published there.

The flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was named after him, with his blessing.

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