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Extraordinary Canadians
Stephen Leacock
MacMillan, Margaret
192 pages, Hardcover
First published March 31, 2009
3 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Margaret MacMillan
67 books766 followersMargaret Olwen MacMillan OC D.Phil. (born 1943) is a historian and professor at Oxford University where she is Warden of St. Antony's College. She is former provost of Trinity College and professor of history at the University of Toronto. A well-respected expert on history and current affairs, MacMillan is a frequent commentator in the media.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 21, 2018
I have read and admire a number of Margaret Macmillan's historical works including Women of the Raj, Paris 1919 and The War That Ended Peace and I enjoyed Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Small Town so I loved reading a blend of MacMillan's scholarship and Leacock's humour. Macmillan not only captures the essence of Leacock's personality with its blend of intellect, humour and melancholy but also gives a good overview of his times and Canada's gradual emergence from the British Empire. The narrative includes quotations from Leacock's famous and lesser known works, showing the range of his opinions and work as "a public intellectual in a country that was not yet used to having them." Highly recommended.
October 13, 2013
This is an insightful and affectionate portrait of Stephen Leacock as part of the series “Extraordinary Canadians” edited by John Ralston Saul.
Most Canadians remember Leacock as the humourist who wrote “Literary Lapses” published in 1910 and “Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town”, published in 1912 and still in print. The second book, about life in Mariposa, a small fictional town in Ontario, made him an international star. But Leacock was not just a humourist, he was also a teacher, a lecturer, and public intellectual engaged with the many important issues of his day. He pondered and lectured on a variety of subjects: government, fluctuating economies, war, political philosophy, and the age old question of what really constitutes a just society. This book provides us with an understanding of Leacock’s many accomplishments, as well as all the interesting details of his personal life.
Leacock was born in Britain, the son of a young couple who married without their parent’s consent. Agnes, Stephen’s mother was only 21 and his father Peter was only 17. Both came from wealthy middle class families, but their reckless decision to marry (Agnes was pregnant), was not appreciated, and they were sent off to become farmers, first to South Africa and then later to Kansas in the U.S. Both these attempts at a vocation they were neither prepared nor educated for, failed miserably. Later they left England once again, venturing to Ontario Canada to try farming once more. There the family, which eventually included eleven children, lived in great isolation, farming in the Lake Simcoe Valley. Peter, Stephen’s father got heavily into drink and eventually just disappeared and was not seen again.
Leacock’s mother tried valiantly to ensure her children had a good education and funds provided to her by her family allowed for a tutor and later enrollment at Upper Canada College. Stephen later attended the University of Toronto and studied modern languages, but when his funding failed, he took a qualifying year to become a teacher, and taught part time while completing his degree. He then left teaching for graduate school at the University of Chicago, earning his PhD in political science and economics.
In 1990 he met Beatrix Hamilton, a vivacious sporty woman who soon became his wife. He started teaching part time at McGill in 1901, and became full professor and chair of the economics and political science department in 1908.
Throughout his lifetime, Leacock juggled a career as an academic, a public intellectual, a serious writer and a humourist. He made good money publishing his stories and his books and was widely sought as a public speaker where he entertained his audience as well as delivering content on his subject matter.
He was an unusual character to say the least. He spent a lot on clothes but always appeared disheveled. If he couldn’t find what he wanted he grabbed what was available, whether it was a tie to hold up his trousers or a pin to attach his house key to his watch chain. He is famous for his ratty old raccoon coat which he wore for years and which had few if any buttons. He hated using the telephone, refused to learn to drive, and loved to entertain formally, even in the country where guests were required to dress for dinner. He was also kind and generous, known for helping those in need whether they were his students, his family or his friends.
Despite his sloppy personal habits, he was highly disciplined in his work, publishing over 60 books on a variety of subjects including biographies on Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. Although he was prolific, his lack of care in writing sometimes shows. He never edited or rewrote his work and sometimes boasted he could put out a short story in an hour or two. Many said he was capable of writing a great novel but as MacMillan states, it is probably better that he never did. He was always impatient and rushed to wrap things up and perhaps he was better fitted to writing short humourous pieces than the sustained and difficult work that a complicated plot in a novel requires.
MacMillan talks openly about some of Leacock’s qualities which in this day and time may rankle, including his dislike for the education and emancipation of woman. Yet even in these things he was inconsistent. For women he knew and cared for he acted differently, supporting his sister to become one of the first women physicians in Canada and providing for his niece to obtain her bachelor’s and masters degrees.
The birth of his son fifteen years after his marriage with Beatrix was both a gift and a cross to bear, as his on Stephen had physical illnesses and later a problem with alcohol.
In his later years he struggled against loneliness, depression and sleepless nights. He missed his wife Beatrix dearly after she died of breast cancer in 1925. He did have an intense and loving relationship with Fitz Shaw a married woman with whom he travelled and entertained after Beatrix’s death, but he never remarried.
This short volume is a great reminder of all that Leacock gave the land he so loved. He was Canadian through and through. He died of cancer in 1944.
This impressive series of books (I have now read six), never disappoints. Kudos to John Ralston Saul the editor, in terms of the choices he has made pairing authors and the heroes they write about, as well as the tight clear edit of the content.
Most Canadians remember Leacock as the humourist who wrote “Literary Lapses” published in 1910 and “Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town”, published in 1912 and still in print. The second book, about life in Mariposa, a small fictional town in Ontario, made him an international star. But Leacock was not just a humourist, he was also a teacher, a lecturer, and public intellectual engaged with the many important issues of his day. He pondered and lectured on a variety of subjects: government, fluctuating economies, war, political philosophy, and the age old question of what really constitutes a just society. This book provides us with an understanding of Leacock’s many accomplishments, as well as all the interesting details of his personal life.
Leacock was born in Britain, the son of a young couple who married without their parent’s consent. Agnes, Stephen’s mother was only 21 and his father Peter was only 17. Both came from wealthy middle class families, but their reckless decision to marry (Agnes was pregnant), was not appreciated, and they were sent off to become farmers, first to South Africa and then later to Kansas in the U.S. Both these attempts at a vocation they were neither prepared nor educated for, failed miserably. Later they left England once again, venturing to Ontario Canada to try farming once more. There the family, which eventually included eleven children, lived in great isolation, farming in the Lake Simcoe Valley. Peter, Stephen’s father got heavily into drink and eventually just disappeared and was not seen again.
Leacock’s mother tried valiantly to ensure her children had a good education and funds provided to her by her family allowed for a tutor and later enrollment at Upper Canada College. Stephen later attended the University of Toronto and studied modern languages, but when his funding failed, he took a qualifying year to become a teacher, and taught part time while completing his degree. He then left teaching for graduate school at the University of Chicago, earning his PhD in political science and economics.
In 1990 he met Beatrix Hamilton, a vivacious sporty woman who soon became his wife. He started teaching part time at McGill in 1901, and became full professor and chair of the economics and political science department in 1908.
Throughout his lifetime, Leacock juggled a career as an academic, a public intellectual, a serious writer and a humourist. He made good money publishing his stories and his books and was widely sought as a public speaker where he entertained his audience as well as delivering content on his subject matter.
He was an unusual character to say the least. He spent a lot on clothes but always appeared disheveled. If he couldn’t find what he wanted he grabbed what was available, whether it was a tie to hold up his trousers or a pin to attach his house key to his watch chain. He is famous for his ratty old raccoon coat which he wore for years and which had few if any buttons. He hated using the telephone, refused to learn to drive, and loved to entertain formally, even in the country where guests were required to dress for dinner. He was also kind and generous, known for helping those in need whether they were his students, his family or his friends.
Despite his sloppy personal habits, he was highly disciplined in his work, publishing over 60 books on a variety of subjects including biographies on Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. Although he was prolific, his lack of care in writing sometimes shows. He never edited or rewrote his work and sometimes boasted he could put out a short story in an hour or two. Many said he was capable of writing a great novel but as MacMillan states, it is probably better that he never did. He was always impatient and rushed to wrap things up and perhaps he was better fitted to writing short humourous pieces than the sustained and difficult work that a complicated plot in a novel requires.
MacMillan talks openly about some of Leacock’s qualities which in this day and time may rankle, including his dislike for the education and emancipation of woman. Yet even in these things he was inconsistent. For women he knew and cared for he acted differently, supporting his sister to become one of the first women physicians in Canada and providing for his niece to obtain her bachelor’s and masters degrees.
The birth of his son fifteen years after his marriage with Beatrix was both a gift and a cross to bear, as his on Stephen had physical illnesses and later a problem with alcohol.
In his later years he struggled against loneliness, depression and sleepless nights. He missed his wife Beatrix dearly after she died of breast cancer in 1925. He did have an intense and loving relationship with Fitz Shaw a married woman with whom he travelled and entertained after Beatrix’s death, but he never remarried.
This short volume is a great reminder of all that Leacock gave the land he so loved. He was Canadian through and through. He died of cancer in 1944.
This impressive series of books (I have now read six), never disappoints. Kudos to John Ralston Saul the editor, in terms of the choices he has made pairing authors and the heroes they write about, as well as the tight clear edit of the content.
July 20, 2023
Leave it to Margaret MacMillan to write a compact, effortless read that you can polish off in an hour...and yet walk away from it fully enlightened about the subject of the biography. I believe she may be a bit too lenient on his Victorian nature & nurture, but there is no denying that Stephen Leacock deserves to be remembered far more than he is in the early 21st century.
September 19, 2018
A well-written biography of this Canadian author, humourist and intellectual public speaker.
September 30, 2023
Not sure if it was the writer or the subject but this was boring. I also was put off by his chauvinistic views. I'm out!!
December 29, 2011
In relation to the authors of the other Extraordinary Canadians, I didn't feel Macmillan drove home Leacock's likely contribution to Canadian society enough. For me, most fascinating were the parallels between Leacock's personality and my own, particularly his rejection of "toeing the line" for what he perceived was mundane conformity. Nevertheless, the book provides an interesting peer into the life of an interesting man that I previously knew nothing about.
August 5, 2014
I am finding in these ‘Extraordinary Canadians’ books that the history of my country which frames the biographies is often just as interesting as the life story of the featured person. The Stephen Leacock book is like that. Really, his story is not particularly that interesting; but his time and place in Canada are. He wrote a lot and I have never read him much, so I think I will now because it interests me to see what his thoughts and insights might have been 100 years ago.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews