Personal Tribute: Greg Clark

“Greg Clark is too famous and his life was too full to do him justice in this small space. Suffice it to say he was a man who had his priorities straight. He loved people, good talk, good fishing, good whiskey, and good tobacco. He won the Military Cross in World War I at Vimy Ridge yet never let the horror he experienced dull his appreciation of life. He knew everybody who was anybody in Canada and the English speaking world. He was a legend in his own time and one of the most widely read and best loved men in Canada.

Hemingway worked with him at the [Toronto] Star and said of Clark, ‘If he has a weakness it is having too much sense. He writes the best of anyone on the paper.’

He was born in Toronto in 1892, the son of Joe Clark, editor of the Toronto Star. He began his writing career as editor of Varsity, and in 1911 started as reporter on the Star. In 1916 he joined the infantry, rose to the rank of Major, and was awarded the M.C. Resuming his newspaper career he became a staff writer on the Star Weekly and joined cartoonist James Frise in producing a feature that ran for nineteen years.

During the Second World War he was war correspondent with the First Canadian Division in Sicily, Italy and Normandy. He was awarded the O.B.E. With Frise he moved to the Montreal Standard in 1946, and afterwards became associate editor of Weekend Magazine. He died in 1977.”

(Back flap copy from Greg’s books)