Heather Robertson (1) (1942–2014)

Heather Robertson was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. After graduating from Kelvin High School, she completed an Honours BA in English at the University of Manitoba in 1962. She then earned a master's degree from Columbia University in New York City. Robertson began her journalism career at the Winnipeg Free Press, then moved to the Winnipeg Tribune. In the late 1960s, she received a grant to study native people; this research provided much of the material for her bestselling first book, Reservations Are for Indians, published in 1970. She published four more books in the 1970s, including Grass Roots, which profiled four modern prairie towns and the difficulties faced by farmers in Western Canada; Salt of the Earth; and A Terrible Beauty: The Art of Canada at War. In 1981, she chronicled the life of bank robber Ken Leishman in The Flying Bandit. In the 1980s, Robertson turned to writing fiction based on real-life characters, and won the Books in Canada Best First Novel Award for Willie: A Romance (1983). Two more novels followed: Lily: A Rhapsody in Red (1986) and Igor: A Novel of Intrigue (1989). Her last book, Walking Into Wilderness, won the inaugural Ontario Speaker of the Legislature Award in 2013. Throughout her writing career, Robertson was a prolific freelancer for the CBC and national magazines such as Maclean's, Chatelaine, Saturday Night, Canadian Forum and Equinox. She was a founding member of The Writers' Union of Canada and The Periodical Writers Association of Canada.