Last week, on a warm August evening, more than a hundred people gathered in Calgary’s Roxboro Park across the street from the longtime residence of the celebrated and beloved Canadian writer W. O. Mitchell.

The occasion for this summer celebration? Historic Calgary Week and the recent addition of the Mitchell Residence at 3031 Roxboro Glen Road to the City of Calgary’s historic resources inventory.

Several special guests joined me to share Mitchell memories on our impromptu grassy stage. Freehand Books displayed copies of their beautiful 75th anniversary edition of Mitchell’s 1947 prairie classic Who Has Seen the Wind. (You can read more about the novel’s Alberta connections over at Read Alberta.)

Mitchell and his wife Merna’s home office (Photo: Mitchell family)

We kicked off the evening with W. O. himself and a recording from 1976. We then dove into W. O.’s long association with Calgary, going back to 1930s when Mitchell was scratching a living in the city during his apprentice years and living at the local YMCA. After two decades in High River, in 1968 the Mitchells moved to Calgary. Here on Roxboro Glen Road, W. O. raised orchids in his solarium and led what has been called his “three-ring circus life as writer, teacher, and performer/celebrity.”

A few of the guest speakers who helped celebrate Mitchell in Roxboro Park

Mitchell’s son Orm and his wife Barbara travelled from Peterborough to be part of the evening — not only are they members of the Mitchell clan, they are W. O.’s biographers. Their two-volume account of Mitchell’s life is a comprehensive, compelling read. In the park, Orm regaled us with stories and memories, including the family’s move to Calgary, a visit from Dustin Hoffman, and more.

Calgary-based researcher Gillian Sissons recounted the history of Mitchell’s house and neighbourhood. (You can find more of her research on the City’s historic resources inventory site.)

Poet Rosemary Griebel spoke about her connection to Mitchell in Castor, Alberta, then read a passage of W. O.’s 1988 novel Ladybug, Ladybug…— a story that unfolds in a house like Mitchell’s in a neighbourhood like Roxboro.

Mitchell was not only a prolific writer and performer, he was a beloved mentor and teacher. Three of his former students shared their memories: publisher Glenn Rollans, Shirlee Smith and Rea Tarvydas standing in for Beth Everest.

Author and literary historian George Melnyk remembered visiting Mitchell at his home in the last years of Mitchell’s life. There, he proposed the idea of naming a book prize in Mitchell’s honour. The plan took hold and since 1996, the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize has become an integral part of the city’s literary culture.

The audience also chimed in with Mitchell memories — a former neighbour, students, and colleagues.

The Mitchells in their living room circa 1977 (Photo: Mitchell family)

Next time you’re walking in Roxboro Park, stop and pay homage to W. O. Mitchell — an unforgettable, irascible, much-loved writer whose life, work and legacy live on in the city he called home for thirty years.

If you’d like to help continue Mitchell’s legacy for new generations of Alberta writers, consider contributing to the Writers’ Guild of Alberta’s W. O. Mitchell Scholarship Fund. Each year, the Fund supports a novelist and a playwright in the Guild’s Mentorship Program.