WL Mackenzie King: A Bibliography and Research Guide

J.L. Granatstein, distinguished research professor emeritus of history
at York University, is the author of Who Killed Canadian History?, and
co-author of The Canadian 100: The 100 Most Influential Canadians of the
20th Century and the Dictionary of Canad

Mackenzie King was never loved or admired by his people during the years
in which he dominated Canadian politics, but since then his reputation
has improved dramatically. Historians and others have come to respect
the skilful way he balanced race and region, dealt with the British and
the Americans, and won election after election. In a Maclean’s survey
of historians in 1997, King was placed first among the nation’s 20
prime ministers, ahead of Macdonald and Laurier.

There has been a huge amount written by and about King, and until
Queen’s University archivist George Henderson set out to track it all
down, there was no ready guide to this work. His bibliography is simply
excellent: a complete, well-organized, and easy-to-use listing of
Kingiana. King’s own writings are listed, including his five books,
his hundreds of reports and articles, and of course his amazing diary,
one of the great documents of the 20th century. Then there are the
thousands of books and articles, well known and completely obscure,
about King, as well as plays, films, television programs, and photo
collections.

The only errors I noted were the misspelling of René Ristelhueber’s
name (the wartime Vichy France minister to Canada wrote a single article
on King and France) and the omission of one Great War newspaper article
by King on conscription (published anonymously and in the United
States). That only two errors can be found in a book covering such a
vast subject as Mackenzie King is testimony to the great skill and
diligence Henderson has shown. This bibliography is a first-class piece
of work in every respect.