Figure 1 Publishing and Raincoast Books are pleased to announce the publication of Leaving Home: the Remarkable Life of Peter Jacyk. Written by renowned Canadian biographer and novelist John Lawrence Reynolds, Leaving Home recounts the inspiring life of one of Canada’s most successful immigrants, the late Toronto- based businessman Peter Jacyk.
Petro (Peter) Jacyk survived two of the most horrendous events of the twentieth century: the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s, instigated by Stalin and responsible for the deaths of untold millions; and waves of invasion and slaughter from Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Fleeing post-war Europe in 1949, he arrived in Canada with $7 in his pocket and horrific images in his memory.
His adopted country would inspire a deep and life-long love in Jacyk. Here at last, as he put it, he was “free to live and free to succeed.” Through the Toronto building and land development firm he founded, he established himself as an economic and cultural powerhouse. Exacting in his dealings with others, yet a generous mentor, he sought excellence in all of his pursuits.
In time, the man who had begun as a “poor-penny immigrant” became one of the country’s most prominent philanthropists. Jacyk donated substantial portions of his wealth to projects dedicated to Ukrainian history, language, and culture. Universities such as Harvard, Columbia, the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta benefited from his largesse. The programs Jacyk sponsored in Ukraine, and the enormous energy he devoted to them, earned him his homeland’s highest award of distinction.
Leaving Home celebrates the life of a remarkable man determined to make a positive impact on an often hostile world.
Leaving Home: the Remarkable Life of Peter Jacyk 978-0-9918588-1-1 Biography $29.95 September 2013 Published by Figure 1 Publishing Sales and Distribution by Raincoast Books Media inquiries to Fleur Matthewson, Raincoast Books (604) 448-7186,
