Howard O'Hagan
Howard O'Hagan was a Canadian writer born on February 17, 1902, in Lethbridge, Alberta. He spent much of his early life in Lucerne, Alberta, where his experiences in the surrounding mountains inspired his literary work. O'Hagan attended McGill University, where he studied law but ultimately decided to pursue a career in writing. He wrote a series of short stories that culminated in his 1939 novel, *Tay John*, which explores themes of cultural intersection and the nature of storytelling through the tale of a mixed-blood Indian messiah in the Canadian Rockies. Although *Tay John* initially went unrecognized, it gained attention after being republished in the 1970s, leading to a resurgence of interest in O'Hagan's work. Throughout his career, he received several accolades, including the Governor-General's Award for his short story "Trees are Lonely Company." O'Hagan's contributions to Canadian literature are significant, and his works, particularly *Tay John*, are studied in academic settings for their depth and cultural relevance. He passed away in 1982, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate in Canadian literary circles.
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Howard O'Hagan
Author
- Born: February 17, 1902
- Birthplace: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
- Died: September 18, 1982
Biography
Howard O’Hagan was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, on February 17, 1902. His father, Dr. Thomas O’Hagan, shifted from one medical practice to another, moving the family several times during Howard’s early life. In 1919, the family finally settled in Lucerne, a divisional point on the Canadian Northern Railway just west of the town of Jasper. There, O’Hagan regularly ventured into the surrounding mountains working on survey parties and as a guide in Banff National Park. His mountain experiences would later provide the themes and settings for his fiction.
O’Hagan attended McGill University in Montreal studying law and earned his B.A. in 1922, and his LL.B. in 1925. During college, he edited the McGill Daily and decided against law to become a writer. After graduating, O’Hagan traveled extensively working as a journalist and as a publicist in the railway industry. In 1934, his friend, American novelist Harvey Fergusson, persuaded O’Hagan to move to Berkeley, California, where he met his future wife Margaret Peterson, a painter who was teaching art at the University of California, Berkeley. They married in 1937.
While living in California in the 1930’s, O’Hagan wrote a series of short stories that formed the foundation for his 1939 novel Tay John. Based in part on the Iroquois legend of Tête Jaune (yellow head) and set in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Tay John tells the story of a mixed-blood Indian messiah born mysteriously from the grave of his mother, a Shuswap Indian who was raped by a Western fur trapper-turned- religious crusader. The tribe believes that Tay John is the yellowed-haired messiah promised by their prophets. Rejecting his foreordination, Tay John retreats to the mountains to seek his own truth. He ultimately walks back into the earth as mysteriously as he emerged. Told in part as an Indian legend and in part through the voice of a Western narrator, Tay John is a study of the collision of cultures and of the nature of storytelling itself.
When first published, Tay John was overlooked amid the turmoil of World War II. It was published again in 1960, but still got little recognition. O’Hagan continued to write for magazines and newspapers, publishing two collections of short stories and a second novel, The School-Marm Tree (1977). In 1974, Tay John was published for a third time, finally sparking an awakening of interest in his work. It prompted O’Hagan and his wife, who had been living in Sicily, Italy, since 1963 to return to Vancouver. They remained there until O’Hagan’s death in 1982.
Howard O’Hagan is the winner of the University of Western Ontario Medal in 1959 and the Governor-General’s Award for best short story published in Canada in 1958, for “Trees are Lonely Company.” In 1979, Howard O’Hagan was made an honorary member of the Writer’s Union of Canada. He was awarded an honorary degree from McGill University in 1982. Considered O’Hagan’s most important work, Tay John, is regularly included in college courses on Canadian literature and remains one of the most powerful novels in Canadian literature.