author
William Lyon Mackenzie King
1874–1950
Canada’s longest-serving prime minister guided the country through the Great Depression, the Second World War, and the long stretch of change between them. He was a cautious, often enigmatic leader whose private diaries reveal a far more complicated man than his public image suggested.
1 Audiobook
The Secret of Heroism: A Memoir of Henry Albert Harper
by William Lyon Mackenzie King
About the author
Born in Berlin, Ontario (now Kitchener) on December 17, 1874, William Lyon Mackenzie King was the grandson of reformer William Lyon Mackenzie. He studied at the University of Toronto, the University of Chicago, and Harvard, and before rising to national power he worked as a civil servant, labour expert, and politician.
King led the Liberal Party for decades and served as prime minister of Canada in three separate terms: 1921–1926, 1926–1930, and 1935–1948. His years in office spanned some of the country’s hardest tests, including the Depression and World War II, and he is remembered for careful political management, compromise, and a steady instinct for holding a divided country together.
He died on July 22, 1950, in Kingsmere, Quebec. Long seen as a reserved and even puzzling public figure, King has remained one of the most studied people in Canadian history, in part because of the remarkably detailed diaries he kept for much of his life.