Grant MacEwan, the grand man of letters who wrote of the prairie experience in more than 55 books, died June 16 in Calgary at the age of 97.
For former Western Producer editor Keith Dryden, life with MacEwan as agriculture editor at the farm paper was memorable.
MacEwan had run for a Liberal seat in Brandon, and after his defeat got a job with the Western Council of Beef Producers, a forerunner of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. But he needed a job for a couple months in 1952 to tide his family over.
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“Bill Bradley was our executive editor at the time. He said, ‘why don’t you come to The Western Producer and be our agriculture editor because we sure need one of those,’ ” said Dryden. “He did rather well.”
MacEwan, already then a well-known personality, may have been overqualified.
Born in Brandon in 1902, Mac-
Ewan grew up on a farm near Melfort, Sask.
He earned an agriculture degree from the Ontario College of Agriculture at Guelph and from 1928 to 1946 taught in the animal sciences department of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. He was dean of agriculture at the University of Manitoba from 1946-51.
In the early 1930s, he co-wrote his first book, Types and Breeds of Farm Animals in Western Canada, which was used as a textbook by farmers and agriculture classes. He was also a well-respected cattle, horse and swine judge.
MacEwan maintained his association with the farm paper till the early 1990s. Its former publishing division, Prairie Books, published 27 of his books.
He wrote about everything from the history of the draft horse to the contributions of women to prairie life. His 56th book, a collection of memoirs, is to be released this fall.
MacEwan became a Calgary city alderman in 1953 and was elected mayor in 1963. He was Alberta’s lieutenant governor from 1965-1974.
