born Sept. 22, 1903, Toronto, Ont., Can.
died Aug. 25, 1990, Toronto
Canadian novelist and short-story writer.
Callaghan received a law degree in 1928 but never practiced. He won acclaim for the short-story collection A Native Argosy (1929). His first novel, Strange Fugitive (1928), describes the destruction of a social misfit, a type that recurs in his fiction. Subsequent novels, including They Shall Inherit the Earth (1935) and The Loved and the Lost (1951, Governor General's Award), emphasize Christian love as an answer to social injustice. That Summer in Paris (1963) describes Callaghan's friendship with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway . Later works include A Fine and Private Place (1975) and A Time for Judas (1983).