Tim Cook, a historian at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa and an adjunct research professor at Carleton University, has won the $10,000 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize for his book, Vimy: The Battle and the Legend.
The prize is awarded annually to the best non-fiction work on Canadians, Canada, and Canada’s role in international affairs. It is named in memory of John Wesley Dafoe, editor of the Manitoba Free Press, now the Winnipeg Free Press, from 1901-1944.
Vimy: The Battle and the Legend examines the Canadian Corps’ capture of Vimy Ridge in April 1917 and the subsequent evolution of the battle’s meaning, documenting how and why this event has come to resonate with so many Canadians even 100 years later. Over four days in April 1917, 10,600 soldiers were killed or injured.
The prize will be formally awarded at the J.W. Dafoe Foundation’s Book Prize Dinner on May 29 in Winnipeg accompanied by a presentation by the author at McNally Robinson Booksellers, 4000-1120 Grant Avenue in Winnipeg, on Wednesday, May 30, at 7:00 p.m. The talk is open to the public.
The other books on the 2018 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize shortlist were:
Christopher Dummitt, Unbuttoned: The History of Mackenzie King’s Secret Life.
Ken McGoogan, Dead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage.
Tanya Talaga, Seven Fallen Feathers.
Mark Zuehlke, The Cinderella Campaign: First Canadian Army and the Battles for the Channel Ports.
Excellent book and well deserved win.