More than seventy-five years after his death Dr. Norman Bethune is still the most widely known Canadian in China. This presentation will cover highlights of his amazing life as surgeon, inventor, and social activist, and explain his heroic work in China (1938-39) during the Sino-Japanese War.
Roderick Stewart, a former teacher of history, is the author of Bethune (New Press, 1973), the first full-length documented biography of Norman Bethune. He is also the author of The Mind of Norman Bethune a compilation of Bethune’s writings and of many photographs, and Norman Bethune, a biography intended for high school students. With Jesus Majada, his Spanish co-author, Stewart wrote Bethune en Espana, published in Madrid in 2009. Two years later he and his wife Sharon wrote Phoenix the Life of Norman Bethune, the most comprehensive biography to date of this intriguing historical figure.