The Memory of Mackenzie King: American Philanthropy, “a Canadian biography and Canadian History.” By Jeffrey D. Brison Associate Professor, Department of History Queen‟s University Ontario, Canada
[email protected] © 2010 by Jeffrey D. Brison On 6 April 1949 the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) announced that it was awarding McGill University $100,000 for the purpose of supervising “the production of studies in the public and private life of W.L. Mackenzie King....”1 The object of the grant, King noted in a statement to the press the following day, was to provide him with assistance in the collection and organization of his papers and thus to “expedite the writing and early publication of Memoirs....”2 Under its terms, King had “complete liberty in making arrangements for the use of these funds in the study and preparation of his materials.”3 The ultimate goal of this “quite exceptional expression of international friendship and good-will,” King informed the public, was to produce “a Canadian biography and Canadian history.”4 For its part, the RF saw the project as no less than “a significant opportunity to use the desire of a national and international leader to record his final views on the meaning of democracy.”5 Over the years the project was to take many turns –the most fundamental occurring with King‟s death on 22 July 1950. King‟s passing transformed the autobiography in-progress to official biography but did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the American philanthropists. King‟s old confidante, John D.