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First head of the Geography Department at UBC from 1953 to 1968, J. Lew Robinson was born in Leamington, Ontario on July 9, 1918. He was a high school track star in Ontario. Robinson completed his Ph.D from Syracuse University in 1942. He came to B.C. in September of 1946. He received various teaching awards. Prolific as an academic, he received honorary degrees from UBC in 1994 and University of Western Ontario in 1984. He wrote or co-wrote 14 books, contributed chapters to 17 others, and made entries for the Canadian Encyclopedia, Britannica, Funk and Wagnalls, American Peoples, Colliers Crowell-Colliers, World Book, Groliers Book of Knowledge, Arete; Chambers (England), Universalis (France) and Verlag Herder (West Germany). He died at age 90 on July 19, 2008. The J. Lewis Robinson Memorial Scholarship was named in his honour. One of his three children, David, co-founded Talonbooks, one of British Columbia's major publishing houses.
BOOKS:
An Outline of the Canadian Eastern Arctic--Its Geography, Peoples and Problems (Ottawa: Northwest Territories Admin., 1944)
The Geography of Canada (Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1950)
The Canadian Arctic, Information Bulletin #2, (Ottawa: Geographical Branch, 1952)
Resources of the Canadian Shield (Toronto: Methuen Publisher, 1969)
The Physical Environment of Canada and the Evolution of Settlement Patterns (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1982)
Concepts and Themes in the Regional Geography of Canada (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1983)
Concepts and Themes in the Regional Geography of Canada, revised edition (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1989)
Co-author:
British Columbia Geography Manual, with John D. Chapman, (Victoria: BC Department of Education, 1954)
The Anglo-American Realm, with Otis P. Starkey (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969)
British Columbia: One Hundred Years of Geographical Change, with Walter G. Hardwick (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1973)
The Anglo-American Realm, 2nd Edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975)
Canada, Vol. 6 in Series, Illustrated Atlas of Today's World. Editor of whole volume and author of text and maps, pp. 454-539 (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1963)
British Columbia, in Studies in Canadian Geography Series, for the International Geographical Union, Canadian Committee (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972)
The Gage World Atlas: A Canadian Perspective, co-editor with George Tomkins for whole atlas and authors of the Canadian Section, pp. 11-49 (Toronto: Gage International Publishers, 1972)
[BCBW 2008]
BOOKS:
An Outline of the Canadian Eastern Arctic--Its Geography, Peoples and Problems (Ottawa: Northwest Territories Admin., 1944)
The Geography of Canada (Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1950)
The Canadian Arctic, Information Bulletin #2, (Ottawa: Geographical Branch, 1952)
Resources of the Canadian Shield (Toronto: Methuen Publisher, 1969)
The Physical Environment of Canada and the Evolution of Settlement Patterns (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1982)
Concepts and Themes in the Regional Geography of Canada (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1983)
Concepts and Themes in the Regional Geography of Canada, revised edition (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1989)
Co-author:
British Columbia Geography Manual, with John D. Chapman, (Victoria: BC Department of Education, 1954)
The Anglo-American Realm, with Otis P. Starkey (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969)
British Columbia: One Hundred Years of Geographical Change, with Walter G. Hardwick (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1973)
The Anglo-American Realm, 2nd Edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975)
Canada, Vol. 6 in Series, Illustrated Atlas of Today's World. Editor of whole volume and author of text and maps, pp. 454-539 (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1963)
British Columbia, in Studies in Canadian Geography Series, for the International Geographical Union, Canadian Committee (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972)
The Gage World Atlas: A Canadian Perspective, co-editor with George Tomkins for whole atlas and authors of the Canadian Section, pp. 11-49 (Toronto: Gage International Publishers, 1972)
[BCBW 2008]
