Farmer, novelist.
Born on a farm near Davidson, Saskatchewan on 21 August 1914, son of Ernest H. Boon and Mattie Marie Jensen, his family moved to Manitoba and he farmed in the vicinity of Virden. After seeing the movie “Born to Buck,” he observed that he could write a story as good as the one he had just seen. Encouraged by his wife, in 1971 he wrote Bachelor Jim, a novel of homesteading in Saskatchewan. It was self-published in 1973 and, after he retired from farming, he wrote 19 novels and memoirs on prairie history, including Patches (1974), Which Way to Turn Next (1975), Love This Land (1976), Under One Roof (1977), Heroes of the Prairies (1979), I Was a Step-Child (1980), A Gift to Remember (?), Bachelor By Choice or Chance (1980), Daddy Come Home (1982), The Way We Lived (1983), It's Never Too Late (1985), Memories of the Thirties (1986), Bachelor Jim's Family (1990), Immigrants (1992), Homesteading Days (1994), and Family Memories (1995). Some of the books were illustrated by local artists such as Terry McLean. He also lectured on writing and publishing in schools and libraries across the Canadian prairies. He and wife Myrtle Welch (?-?) had a daughter and a son. He died at Virden on 15 May 2004 and was buried in the Virden Cemetery.
Birth registration [Clarence Alton Boon], Saskatchewan Vital Statistics.
“Sun Beams,” Brandon Sun, 8 January 1974, page 3.
Anecdotes and Updates: Virden Centennial 1981 by Empire Publishing Company, 1982, pages 107-108.
“These seniors demonstrate plenty of spunk,” Brandon Sun, 7 December 1995, page 33.
“The way we live - Southwestern,” Winnipeg Free Press, 16 August 1998, page 14.
Obituary, Brandon Sun, 19 May 2004, page 17.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
We thank Terry Johnson for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 1 July 2024
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