Born in Wellingborough, England on May 14, 1939, Max Wyman studied piano and theory as a youth and began his career in journalism with the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph at 14. Max Wyman came to Canada in 1967 and began writing for Vancouver Sun in 1968, later specializing in dance criticism while married to dancer and choreographer Anna Wyman. He later married former Sun music critic Susan Mertens. The couple moved to Lions Bay in 1978 and he became a naturalized Canadian in 1979.

Wyman has edited a collection of essays on Vancouver, an appreciative biography of Vancouver jeweller Toni Cavelti and produced numerous books on dance. Dance Canada: An Illustrated History was named one of the "165 Great Canadian Books of the Century" by the Vancouver Public Library in 2000. He was appointed to serve as a member of the Canada Council in 1995. He later received the Order of Canada for his services to the arts, and an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University. He was appointed President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO in 2001. The Defiant Imagination: Why Culture Matters (D&M, 2004) is a passionate argument for the return of the arts and culture to the centre of the public agenda. In 2005 Max Wyman was elected as mayor of Lions Bay and remained as such until 2008. He wrote the introduction to The Life & Art of Frank Molnar, Jack Hardman & LeRoy Jensen by Eve Lazarus, Claudia Cornwall & Wendy Newbold Patterson (Mother Tongue, 2009). Wyman was founding chair of the Metro Vancouver Regional Cultural Committee.

Mayor Gregor Robertson declared April 18, 2017, as Max Wyman Day in the City of Vancouver in conjunction with a public event at the Vancouver Playhouse, spearheaded by Yosef Wosk, whereby more than 400 people gathered for a tribute to Wyman. Wosk simultaneously endowed a new Max Wayman Award for Cultural Commentary to be given bi-annually to recognize the importance of critics in the art world. Wyman himself was named as the first laureate for the Max Wyman Award for Cultural Commentary.

BOOKS:

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet: The First Forty Years (1978)
Dance Canada: An Illustrated History (Douglas & McIntyre, 1989).
Evelyn Hart: An Intimate Portrait (1991)
Vancouver Forum: Old Powers, New Forces (D&M, 1992)
Revealing Dance (Dance Collection Danse, 2001)
Toni Cavelti: A Jeweller's Life (D&M, 1996)
The Defiant Imagination: Why Culture Matters (D&M, 2004)
The Compassionate Imagination: How the arts are central to a functioning democracy (Cormorant Books, 2023) $19.95 9781770866997

[LITHIS / BCBW 2023] "Dance" "Biography"