Mordecai Richler writer and author

On my Remembrance Day walk at Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal, I discovered the grave of one of Canada’s greatest writers and critical thinkers, Mordecai Richler.

Born on January 27, 1931, in Montreal, Richler was raised on St. Urbain Street, a vibrant hub for Jewish families who had immigrated from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century.

He graduated from Baron Byng High School, the same school that produced luminaries like William Shatner, poet Irving Layton, and Giller Prize founder Jack Rabinovitch. Richler later enrolled at Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University) but left before completing his degree.

Baron Byng High School, Montreal.

At just 19, he moved to Paris, inspired by the “Lost Generation” of the 1920s — writers and artists, many from the U.S., who found creative freedom abroad. This period abroad planted the seeds for some of his most celebrated novels.

The “Lost Generation” (Gertrude Stein) of the 1920s in Paris. 

Beyond fiction, Richler was a keen observer and commentator, contributing to renowned publications such as The Atlantic Monthly, Look, The New Yorker, The National Post, and GQ.

Mordecai Richler died in Montreal on July 3, 2001. He was 70.

The inscription on his grave reads as follows:

…so that eventually we may be beside each other in death, as we lay so happily in life.

1931-2001