John F. Hayes (author)


John Francis Hayes was a Canadian writer. He is known best for ten children's historical novels. Among them, A Land Divided and Rebels Ride at Night won the Governor General's Award for juvenile fiction as the year's best Canadian works of 1951 and 1953. Another, The Dangerous Cove, won the Canada Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award in 1959. For his body of work he was named the second recipient of the Vicky Metcalf Award, in 1964.

Life

Hayes was educated in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He took courses in advertising and writing and in 1930 entered the publishing business. By the mid-1950s he was Vice-President and General Manager of Southam Press Montreal, and Director of the Southam Company Limited.
In 1954 he was elected secretary of the Canadian Authors' Association.

Published books

Novels

All ten novels are historical fiction originally published by Copp Clark Publishing Company. The first nine were illustrated by Fred J. Finley, the last by J. Merle Smith.