Starting Out, 1920-1947

W.H. Heick is a professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Berton’s autobiography provides an excellent picture of the first third of a person’s life. Growing up in the Yukon and Victoria, he spent the latter part of these years in Vancouver and in the Canadian Army. This story is of Benton’s becoming a newspaperman, the first of his several careers.

In a deeper sense, the autobiography tells of a young man’s development into a person who needs to be involved in communicating with others. Whether working in the gold fields, or serving in the army, Pierre found ways to start a newspaper through which he communicated with his fellows. Indeed the most valued lesson he learned in the military service was the art of communication. Once he became an employee of the Vancouver Sun he was able to gain a solid basis of experience. It was here that he began to plan the move into other media which took place later in his career.

While the autobiography centres on the early years of a budding “media man,” it also provides a very rich analysis of the Canadian society within which he grew up: the Yukon in the 1920s; Victoria in the Depression; Canada and Britain during World War II; Vancouver in the immediate post-war years. Benton’s perceptiveness extends to a description of the people in his life — his wife, family, and fellow workers. Any reader acquainted with Berton’s work will again appreciate his fine ability to bring out the uniqueness of the people of whom he writes. His nationalist bias, in budding form, is also very evident.