Ondaatje, Christopher 1933–

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Ondaatje, Christopher 1933–

PERSONAL: Born February 22, 1933, in Kandy, Ceylon; son of Philip Mervyn and Enid Doris Ondaatje; married, 1959; wife's name Valda; children: David, Seira, and Jans. Education: Attended Blundell's School, Tiverton, England. Religion: Church of England.

ADDRESSES: E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer, publisher, and banker. Affiliated with National and Grindlays Bank, London, England, 1951–55; Burns Bros. & Denton, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1955–56; Montrealer Magazine and Canada Month Magazine, 1956–57; Maclean-Hunter Publishing, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1957–62; Financial Post, Toronto, 1963–65; Pitfield, Mackay, Ross & Company, Ltd., Toronto, 1965–69. Founder and former chair, Pagurian Corporation, Ltd., Toronto, 1967–89, and vice president, Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon & Company, Ltd., 1970–88; former vice chair, Hees International Bancorp, Inc. Founder, Ondaatje Foundation Canada, Ondaatje Foundation Bermuda, Ondaatje Hall Trust England, Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture (with Royal Society of Portrait Painters), and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. Honorable governor, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; trustee, National Portrait Gallery (London, England), and Pearson College (Canada); member of advisory board, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, and Lakefield College School (Ontario, Canada); governor emeritus, Blundell's School. Member, Canadian Olympic bobsled team, 1964.

MEMBER: Traveller's Club (London, England), Royal Geographical Society (England; fellow), Royal Society of Literature (honorary fellow), Chester Yacht Club of Nova Scotia, Somerset County Cricket Club.

AWARDS, HONORS: Officer, Order of Canada, 1993; Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), 2000; awarded knighthood in the Queen's honours list, England, 2003; honorary degrees from Dalhouise University, 1994, University of Buckingham, 2003, and Exeter University, 2003.

WRITINGS:

The Prime Ministers of Canada: 1867–1967, Pagurian Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1967.

(With Gordon Currie) Olympic Victory: The Story behind the Canadian Bob-Sled Club's Incredible Victory at the 1964 Winter Olympic Games, Pagurian Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1967.

(With Jeremy Brown) The First Original Unexpurgated Canadian Book of Sex and Adventure, Pagurian Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1979.

Leopard in the Afternoon: An African Tenting Safari, Lester & Orpen Dennys (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989.

The Man-Eater of Punanai: A Journey of Discovery to the Jungles of Old Ceylon, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1992.

Sindh Revisited: A Journey in the Footsteps of Captain Sir Richard Burton: 1842–1849, the India Years, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1996.

Journey to the Source of the Nile, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1998.

Hemingway in Africa: The Last Safari, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2003, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 2004.

Woolf in Ceylon: An Imperial Journey in the Shadow of Leonard Woolf, 1904–1911, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2005.

The Power of Paper: A History, a Financial Adventure, and a Warning, HarperCollins (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS: Christopher Ondaatje, brother of noted novelist Michael Ondaatje, had become an extremely successful financier and publisher in Canada when he quit the business world in the 1990s to return to writing, a career he had practiced in the 1960s with his books The Prime Ministers of Canada: 1867–1967 and Olympic Victory: The Story behind the Canadian BobSled Club's Incredible Victory at the 1964 Winter Olympic Games. The latter book, cowritten with Gordon Currie, is about the Canadian Olympic gold medal bobsled team of 1964 and Ondaatje's role on the team. When he returned to writing, Ondaatje continued to focus on nonfiction, often writing about his own travels within the context of retracing others' historic excursions. In his 1998 book, Journey to the Source of the Nile, the author recounts a trip he took that retraced expeditions taken by early English explorers, such as Richard Burton, as they searched for the legendary source of the Nile River. Interspersed in the narrative are Ondaatje's observations on the struggling people of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and other African countries. Gilbert Taylor, writing in Booklist, commented that the Ondaatje's "fine book successfully captures the excitement of exploration, as well as the worry about contemporary Africa's problems."

Hemingway in Africa: The Last Safari focuses on writer Ernest Hemingway and the time he spent in East Africa. Following the approach he took in Journey to the Source of the Nile, Ondaatje retraces Hemingway's safari travels and routes, commenting on Hemingway and his writings as he discusses them in relation to other African writers. He also vividly describes the surrounding savanna plains and those who live there. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that the author "has as observant an eye as Hemingway's for the land's beauty and a better one for its residents." Nigel Winser, writing in Geographical, wrote: "Ondaatje has shaken the Hemingway tree and given us a new metaphor for the life of Africa." Another reviewer writing in the Economist called the book "beautifully illustrated and eminently readable." The reviewer went on to note that Hemingway in Africa "combines a deep love for Hemingway's finest writing with a genuine feel for the continent that inspired him."

Ondaatje once again follows the footsteps of another writer in his book Woolf in Ceylon: An Imperial Journey in the Shadow of Leonard Woolf, 1904–1911. Woolf, who was also a British government worker and husband of noted novelist Virginia Woolf, served as a colonial administrator in Ceylon. In his book, Ondaatje, who was born in Ceylon, recounts not only Woolf's seven years there but also his own reminiscences about Ceylon as a youth compared with the modern-day realities of the country, now known as Sri Lanka, that is dealing with a longtime conflict between Hindus and Buddhists. Geographical contributor Mike Herron called Woolf in Ceylon "part biography, part literary study" and "a geographical work of the first order." Robin Hanbury-Tenison, writing in the Spectator, commented: "This is how history should be told."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Marawille, Simon, Fool's Gold: The First $1,000,000, Scribner (New York, NY), 1974.

PERIODICALS

Biography, winter, 2006, Simon Winchester, review of Woolf in Ceylon: An Imperial Journey in the Shadow of Leonard Woolf, 1904–1911, p. 260.

Booklist, March 1, 1999, Gilbert Taylor, review of Journey to the Source of the Nile, p. 1146; September 15, 1999, Brad Hooper, review of Journey to the Source of the Nile, p. 224; May 15, 2004, Allen Weakland, review of Hemingway in Africa: The Last Safari, p. 1590.

Economist, October 4, 2003, review of Hemingway in Africa, p. 81.

Geographical, December, 2003, Nigel Winser, review of Hemingway in Africa, p. 89; October, 2005, Mick Herron, review of Woolf in Ceylon, p. 80.

Library Journal, May 1, 2004, Michael Rogers, review of Hemingway in Africa, p. 108.

Publishers Weekly, April 19, 2004, review of Hemingway in Africa, p. 50.

Spectator, October 22, 2005, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, review of Woolf in Ceylon, p. 59.