Jon Whyte

Jon Whyte (1941 – January 6, 1992) was a Canadian poet, curator and non-fiction writer in Banff, Alberta. He believed poetry was a "public act" and that it informs and educates in a way almost no other medium can. He was an advocate for the Canadian West and specifically the Rockies in both poetry, non-fiction, and his activities as a conservationist. Even today, his name is considered by many to be synonymous with the Canadian Rockies.

Biography Jon Whyte was born in Banff to Jack White, son of Dave and Barbara Whyte. After public school education in Banff and Medicine Hat, Alberta, he received a B.A. in English from the University of Alberta in 1964, and a master's degree in Medieval English in 1967. Afterwards, he received a master's degree in communications from Stanford University, California, in 1974. His thesis at Stanford was a film documentary, Jimmy Simpson, Mountain Man. He was an author and his books, and contributions to anthologies, magazines and other media, sought to secure a unique cultural origin and identity for western Canada. Counted among them must be his many non-fiction books on aspects, places or artists such as Peter and Catharine Whyte, in the Rocky Mountains, often co-authored. His book on Carl Rungius, "Carl Rungius: Painter of the Western Wilderness", co-authored with E. J. Hart, was published in 1985.

Whyte died of liver cancer in 1992, at the age of 50.

Whyte was given the Banff Mountain Book and Film Festival Summit of Excellence Award, in 1992, posthumously. In 1992, the Writers' Guild of Alberta established the Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award in his memory. There is also a Jon Whyte Award for Mountain Literature given by the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival. The book, Jon Whyte: Mind Over Mountains, published in 2000, traces his poetic career from his early years as part of Edmonton's 1960s literary community, through his 1981 poem "Homage: Henry Kelsey" with its illustrations by Dennis Burton, to "The Fells of Brightness" (1983). It includes a foreword by his longtime friend and writer Myrna Kostash.

The Jon Whyte fonds, a collection of his papers, is in the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies Archives and Library. Correspondence with Jon Whyte is also found in Library and Archives Canada under Joan Murray fonds, R4917-8-6-E (Vol. 11, File 46). There is also a transcript of an interview with him under R4917-4-9-E (Vol. 6, File 5).

Selected works

Three (1973), with Charles Noble and J. O. Thompson Homage, Henry Kelsey (1981), illustrated by Dennis Burton Carl Rungius: Painter of the Western Wilderness (1985), with E. J. Hart Indians in the Rockies (1990)