Editing Pierre Berton (section)

==Early years==
Berton was born on July 12, 1920, in [[Whitehorse, Yukon]], where his father had moved for the 1898 [[Klondike Gold Rush]].<ref name="obit">{{Cite news
 | last = Gerard
 | first = Warren
 | title = He was 'all fire and sparkling with ideas'
 | newspaper = [[Toronto Star]]
 | location = Toronto
 | pages = A08–A09
 | publisher = [[Torstar]]
 | date = December 1, 2004
 }}</ref> His family moved to [[Dawson City, Yukon]] in 1921.<ref name="obit"/> His mother, Laura Beatrice Berton (maiden name Laura Beatrice Thompson), was a schoolteacher in [[Toronto]] until she was offered a job as a teacher in [[Dawson City]] at the age of 29 in 1907. She met Frank Berton in the nearby mining town of Granville shortly after settling in Dawson and teaching kindergarten. Laura Beatrice Berton's autobiography of life in the Yukon entitled ''I Married the Klondike'' was published in her later years and gave her what her son Pierre describes as "a modicum of fame, which she thoroughly enjoyed."<ref name="Starting Out">
{{Cite book
|title=Starting Out, 1920–1947
|last=Berton
|first=Pierre
|year=1987
|publisher=[[McClelland and Stewart]]
|location=Toronto
|isbn=0-7710-1342-6
|url=https://archive.org/details/startingout1920100bert
|url-access=registration
}}</ref> At the time, Dawson City was a highly remote place. After visiting Dawson City in the summer of 1939 to see some old friends, it took Berton a week to go from Dawson City to Whitehorse as the only means of a transport was an old paddle-wheeler named the ''Casca'' that moved slowly down the Yukon river.{{sfn|McKillop|2011|p=101}} Growing up in Dawson City, which had briefly during the Klondike gold rush of the 1890s been one of Canada's largest cities, left Berton with an eye for the colourful.{{sfn|McKillop|2011|p=290}} During his childhood he encountered numerous eccentric people who had gone north during the gold rush and ended up staying in Dawson City after the gold rush ended.{{sfn|McKillop|2011|p=290}}
[[File:Pierre Berton Home.JPG|thumb|left|Pierre Berton's childhood home in Dawson City]]

Berton's family moved to [[Victoria, British Columbia]] in 1932. At age 12, he joined the Scout Movement. Berton later wrote that "The Scout Movement was the making of me". He credited Scouting with keeping him from becoming a juvenile delinquent. He started his journalism career in scouting and later wrote that "the first newspaper I was ever associated with was a weekly typewritten publication issued by the Seagull Patrol of St. Mary’s Troop." He remained in scouting for seven years and wrote about his experiences in an article titled "My Love Affair with the Scout Movement".<ref name="Scouting">
{{Citation
|title=My Love Affair with the Scout Movement
|last=Berton
|first=Pierre
|date=1962-02-27
|newspaper=Toronto Star
|location=Toronto
}}</ref> Like his father, Pierre Berton worked in [[Klondike, Yukon|Klondike]] [[mining camp]]s during his years as a history major at the [[University of British Columbia]],<ref name="Publishers2002">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ncaoq19ajkC&pg=PA42|title=Writers|last=Parker|first=Janice|date=January 1, 2002|publisher=[[Weigl Educational Publishers Limited]]|isbn=978-1-896990-90-3|editor=Craats, Rennay|page=42|access-date=March 2, 2011}}</ref> where he also worked on the student paper ''[[The Ubyssey]]''.<ref name="Brettell1999">{{cite book|last=Brettell|first=Caroline|title=Writing against the wind: a mother's life history|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWtDWGwCXGAC&pg=PA27|access-date=March 2, 2011|date=May 1999|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8420-2783-0|page=27}}</ref>