Joseph Schull

Schull, Joseph

Joseph Schull, historian (b at Watertown, S Dakota 6 Feb 1906; d at Montréal 19 May 1980). Schull grew up in Moose Jaw, Sask, and began writing professionally after WWII, primarily as a radio dramatist and journalist, though his first book publications were as a poet. Work on the official history of the Royal Canadian Navy in the war (The Far Distant Ships, 1950; repr 1987) led him to many other commissioned histories, including 100 Years of Banking in Canada: A History of the Toronto-Dominion Bank (1958) and Edward Blake (1975-76), an impressive 2-vol biography of the 19th-century Liberal leader commissioned by Blake's old law firm. Laurier: The First Canadian (1965) is a first-rate political biography. Other works include Rebellion: The Rising in French Canada 1837 (1971), a concise and readable narrative, as well as works for children.