Mordecai Richler Biography Home | add famous canadian | edit person

A prominent author, scriptwriter, and essayist, Mordecai Richler was persuaded by his children, Daniel, Emma, Noah, Martha, and Jacob, to write something for them. The result was Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang. Started as a bedtime tale for his youngest son, it went on to win two major children's book prizes in 1976. It has been translated into French, Finnish, German and Dutch, recorded, filmed, read on the radio, and adapted as a musical. Jacob Two-Two's adventures continue in two other stories, the most recent, Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case, winning one of the prestigious 1995 Mr. Christie's Book Awards. Mordecai Richler grew up in Montreal, attended Sir George Williams University, and then lived and wrote in England for many years. Homesick for "blizzards, hockey, smoked-meat sandwiches" and "the mountain lakes of his boyhood", he returned to Canada in 1972, dividing his time between Montreal and Quebec's Eastern Townships.

Awards

• 1969 Governor General's Literary Award for Cocksure.
  
• 1972 Governor General's Literary Award for St. Urbain's Horseman.
  
• 1974 Screenwriters Guild of America Award for Best Comedy for screenplay of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.
  
• 1976 Canadian Library Asssociation Book of the Year for Children Award: Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.
  
• 1976 Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award for Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.
  
• 1995 Mr. Christie's Book Award (for the best English book age 8 to 11) for Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case.