Stephen Leacock
Stephen Butler Leacock was a prominent Canadian humorist, born in England and later settling with his family on a farm in Ontario. He received his education at Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto, earning a B.A. in 1891. After teaching for a decade, he pursued graduate studies in political economy at the University of Chicago, completing his Ph.D. in 1903. Leacock then joined McGill University’s department of economics and political science, where he worked until his retirement in 1936.
Leacock’s literary career began with a humorous sketch in 1894, leading to his first major collection, *Literary Lapses*, published in 1910. He is best known for his works *Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town*, which captures life in a fictionalized version of Orillia, Ontario, and *Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich*, which contrasts rural and urban life. Beyond humor, Leacock also authored textbooks, biographies, and historical works. His perspectives, influenced by Victorian ideals, reflect the cultural context of his time. Leacock passed away in 1944 and remains a significant figure in Canadian literature, recognized for his contributions to humor and social commentary.
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Stephen Leacock
Canadian humorist
- Born: December 30, 1869
- Birthplace: Swanmore, Hampshire, England
- Died: March 28, 1944
- Place of death: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Biography
Stephen Butler Leacock (LEE-kahk) was a well-known Canadian humorist and writer. He was born in England and went to Canada as a young boy. The family settled on a farm in the Lake Simcoe region of Ontario. He attended Upper Canada College in Toronto and eventually the University of Toronto, where he received a B.A. degree in 1891. Following ten years’ work as a schoolteacher, principally at Upper Canada College, he entered graduate study in the field of political economy at the University of Chicago and received a Ph.D. degree from there in 1903. The same year, he accepted a full-time position in the department of economics and political science at McGill University in Montreal, where he remained until his retirement in 1936.
He began his career as a humorist in 1894 with the publication of a short sketch in a Toronto magazine. He continued to publish humorous pieces in American and Canadian magazines until his first collection, Literary Lapses, came out in 1910. From that point on, he continued to bring out regular collections of his work, much of which appeared first in newspapers and magazines and was polished on the public lecture circuit. His total output in the humor genre consists of twenty-seven volumes. The best known of these works is unquestionably Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, based on life in the small town of Orillia, Ontario (to which he gave the fictional name Mariposa), where he had connections originating in the 1890’s and later built a home. Among his other works in the genre, Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich also continues to be read for the contrasting portrait it provides of life in the big city.
In addition to humor, Leacock wrote biography, history, economics, political science, and literary criticism. His first published work was actually a textbook, Elements of Political Science, in 1906. The book remained in print for many years and is said to have outsold any of his other works during his lifetime. His principal biographical subjects were Mark Twain and Charles Dickens, and his historical writings dealt primarily with events and personages in Canadian history.
Leacock married Beatrix Hamilton of Toronto in 1900, and they had one son, Stephen Lushington, born in 1915. The marriage ended tragically when Leacock’s wife died of cancer in 1925 at the age forty-six. He did not remarry and died in 1944 at the age of seventy-four. Today, Leacock tends to be viewed by those who study him as a representative of an earlier time and culture. His outlook—on issues such as imperialism, the superiority of Anglo-Saxon culture and the role of women—was decidedly Victorian in character, and the prevailing tone of “kindliness” in his humor is thought to have impeded the development of a critical edge in his art. Still, as the author of two unquestioned masterpieces, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town and Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich, he continues to be read and remembered as an important figure in Canadian literary development.
Bibliography
Bush, Douglas. “Stephen Leacock.” In The Canadian Imagination: Dimensions of a Literary Culture, edited by David Staines. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977. An attempt to place the author within the broader context and development of Canadian literature.
Davies, Robertson. Stephen Leacock. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1970. A short introduction to the author and his work, written for the Canadian Writers series by a well-known Canadian novelist and critic.
Legate, David M. Stephen Leacock: A Biography. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1970. An early biography by a journalist, literary critic, and friend.
Lynch, Gerald. Stephen Leacock: Humour and Humanity. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1988. A study of Leacock’s political and literary ideas through the analysis of his two best-known works, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town and Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich.
Moritz, Albert, and Theresa Moritz. Stephen Leacock: His Remarkable Life. Markham, Ont.: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2002. An intellectual biography connecting Leacock to the major events and ideas of his time.
Spadoni, Carl. A Bibliography of Stephen Leacock. Toronto: ECW Press, 1998. The definitive bibliography of the author’s work.
Staines, David, ed. Stephen Leacock: A Reappraisal. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1986. A collection of critical essays on the man and his work.