Worth Repeating: A Literary Resurrection, 1948-1994

Julie Rekai Rickerd is a Toronto-based broadcaster and public-relations
consultant.

“Writing is an obsession with me,” Pierre Berton confided in a
column written for Maclean’s in 1970. The products of his are over 40
books and thousands of columns, essays, and editorials in Maclean’s
and The Toronto Star. Berton complemented his writing career with stints
in radio and television; he served as the host of The Pierre Berton Show
and Under Attack, as a panelist on Front Page Challenge, and as a
debater on radio with Charles Templeton.

Everything sparks Berton’s curiosity: history, social mores, royalty,
cooking. Arranged in chronological order, the pieces that make up this
volume evoke nostalgia for a time when journalists spoke their minds
without fear of legal repercussions. Berton comments on the arrival of
television (“the one-eyed monster”) in 1949; produces a fine
portrait of his boss, Harry Hindmarsh, editor of The Toronto Star in
1952; and writes about the “lunacy” of the Caryl Chessman death
penalty case in 1960. The same intimacy with the reader is achieved in
the excerpts from The Comfortable Pew (1965), The Smug Minority (1968),
and Hollywood’s Canada (1975).

Worth Remembering is a welcome reminder of the many talents of this
living legend.