Mervyn J. Huston (1912 - March 7, 2001) was a Canadian pharmacologist and humorist. [1] A longtime professor and academic dean at the University of Alberta's school of pharmacy, [2] he was best known for his humor novel Gophers Don't Pay Taxes, which won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1982. [3]
Originally from Ashcroft, British Columbia, Huston worked in his father's pharmacy as a teenager before studying pharmacology at the University of Alberta and the University of Washington. [2] He became director of the pharmacy program at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine in 1946, and dean of the expanded Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1955. He held the latter role until his retirement in 1978, and served as an associate editor of the Canadian Pharmacists Journal . [2]
His other humor works included Canada Eh to Zed, Great Golf Humour, Toast to the Bride, Prescription for Humour, Golf and Murphy's Law and The Great Canadian Lover. [2] He was also a musician, playing saxophone in a jazz music band in his youth and later playing bassoon with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. [2]
He died in 2001. [2]
Stephen P. H. Butler Leacock was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist. Between the years 1915 and 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humorist in the world. He is known for his light humour along with criticisms of people's follies.
The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, also known as the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour or just the Leacock Medal, is an annual Canadian literary award presented for the best book of humour written in English by a Canadian writer, published or self-published in the previous year. The silver medal, designed by sculptor Emanuel Hahn, is a tribute to well-known Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock (1869–1944) and is accompanied by a cash prize of $25,000 (CAD). It is presented in the late spring or early summer each year, during a banquet ceremony in or near Leacock’s hometown of Orillia, Ontario.
William Patrick "W. P." Kinsella was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, known for his novel Shoeless Joe (1982), which was adapted into the movie Field of Dreams in 1989. His work often concerned baseball, First Nations people, and Canadian culture.
Thomas King is a Canadian writer and broadcast presenter who most often writes about First Nations.
Paul Lewis Quarrington was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.
William Stener Ferguson is a Canadian travel writer and novelist who won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel 419.
Andrew Stuart McLean, was a Canadian radio broadcaster, humorist, monologist, and author, best known as the host of the CBC Radio program The Vinyl Cafe. Often described as a "story-telling comic" although his stories addressed both humorous and serious themes, he was known for fiction and non-fiction work which celebrated the decency and dignity of ordinary people, through stories which often highlighted the ability of their subjects, whether real or fictional, to persevere with grace and humour through embarrassing or challenging situations.
Humour is an integral part of the Canadian identity. There are several traditions in Canadian humour in both English and French. While these traditions are distinct and at times very different, there are common themes that relate to Canadians' shared history and geopolitical situation in North America and the world. Though neither universally kind nor moderate, humorous Canadian literature has often been branded by author Dick Bourgeois-Doyle as "gentle satire," evoking the notion embedded in humorist Stephen Leacock's definition of humour as "the kindly contemplation of the incongruities of life and the artistic expression thereof."
Harry Joseph Boyle was a Canadian broadcaster and writer.
Trevor Cole is a Canadian novelist and journalist. He has published five novels; the first two, Norman Bray in the Performance of his Life (2004) and The Fearsome Particles (2006), were nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.
Eric Patrick Nicol was a Canadian writer, best known as a longtime humour columnist for the Vancouver, British Columbia newspaper The Province. He also published over 40 books, both original works and compilations of his humour columns, and won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour three times.
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Joseph Kertes is a writer who escaped from Hungary with his family to Canada after the revolution of 1956.
Terry Fallis is a Canadian writer and public relations consultant. He is a two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, winning in 2008 for his debut novel The Best Laid Plans and in 2015 for No Relation.
The University of Alberta Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, is located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in pharmacy.
Shakespeare's Dog is a 1983 novel by Canadian writer Leon Rooke. The novel tells the story of William Shakespeare's early career, including his aspirations to break through to popular success as a writer and his courtship and eventual marriage to Anne Hathaway, from the perspective of Hooker, Shakespeare's pet dog.
Cathal Kelly is a Canadian novelist and sports columnist for The Globe and Mail. He won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 2019 for his childhood memoir Boy Wonders.