Article

Hubert Reginald Evans

Published Online April 2, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Hubert Reginald Evans, writer (b at Vankleek Hill, Ont 9 May 1892; d at Sechelt, BC 17 June 1986). He became a reporter in 1910 and, after service overseas in WWI, was a fisheries officer in northern BC.

Hubert Reginald Evans, writer (b at Vankleek Hill, Ont 9 May 1892; d at Sechelt, BC 17 June 1986). He became a reporter in 1910 and, after service overseas in WWI, was a fisheries officer in northern BC. In 1925 he decided to write full-time and in 1927 began supporting his family by writing articles, short stories, serials, radio plays and books for juveniles. His first novel, The New Front Line (1927), was about a returned veteran. Mist on the River (1954), described cultural conflicts in an Indian village.

While in his 80s he wrote 3 books of poetry and published a new novel, O Time in Your Flight (1979), about a boy in Ontario in 1899. Evans's writing career spanned 7 decades; Margaret Laurence called him the "elder of the tribe." In 1984 he received an honorary degree from Simon Fraser U, and BC Book Prizes gives an annual Hubert Evans Award.