Biography of Stephen Leacock
The Busy Life of an Author, Teacher and Public Speaker
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town was Leacock's best known work but his most financially rewarding effort was a text book which became a university standard for 20 years
Stephen Butler Leacock was an unlikely combination of humorist and political economist. Throughout his life he was able to successfully combine the roles of satirical and academic writer, university professor and public speaker.
Born in Swanmore, Hampshire, England on Dec 30, 1869 Leacock was the third of 11 children. The Leacocks immigrated to Canada in 1876 and settled in the Sutton area, north of Toronto. His father, Peter Leacock, left the family for extended periods of time. In 1887 he left and never returned.
Beginning in the mid 1890's the family began spending their summers in Orillia, Ontario where Leacock's mother had purchased a second home. Eventually Leacock would own his own home in Orillia at Old Brewery Bay. That house is now a museum and tourist attraction.
Leacock's mother managed to scrape together the tuition to send Stephen to Toronto's Upper Canada College where he graduated as Head Boy in 1887. He then spent the next year studying modern and classical languages as well as literature at the University of Toronto. In 1888 Leacock took a three month teaching course at Strathroy Collegiate Institute, he then began his career in teaching as a modern language teacher at Uxbridge High School in Uxbridge, Ontario.
His stay in Uxbridge was short as Leacock soon returned to Upper Canada College, as junior language master in 1889. At this time he also resumed his studies part-time at the University of Toronto, completing an Honors BA in 1891. Leacock became housemaster at Upper Canada College the same year.
In 1899 Leacock began his graduate studies at the University of Chicago and received his PhD in 1903. His dissertation was titled "The Doctrine of Laissez-faire."
While in his third year at the University of Chicago Leacock had begun lecturing at McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec as a special lecturer in political science and history. After receiving his PhD he became a full time assistant professor at McGill.
Leacock spent the next thirty years at McGill becoming a full professor in 1908 and held the positions of William Dow Professor of Political Economy and also Chair of the Department of Economics and Political Science. On May 31, 1936 Leacock reluctantly ended his teaching career at the age of 65 because of McGill's compulsory retirement rules.
Leacock's writing career began in 1894 when his first article was published in the Toronto humor magazine 'Grip'. During his career he penned more then 60 books on a wide range of topics including humor, political science and economics, biographies of Mark Twain and Charles Dickens, essays, parodies and short stories. His best known work is, of course, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town published in 1912, but in 1906, he published his first and most financially rewarding book, a text book, Elements of Political Science, which became a university standard for the next 20 years.
Leacock began public speaking in 1905. Over the next 31 years he lectured across North America and Europe on economics and political issues. In the fall of 1936 he spent a month in western Canada on his last speaking tour. He used the notes and speeches from this final tour to write his book 'My Discovery of the West: A Discussion of East and West in Canada". The book won the Governor Generals Award.
In the fall of 1943 he began his autobiography, 'The Boy I Left Behind Me'. When Leacock died of throat cancer on March 28, 1944 the book was unfinished. It was published posthumously in 1946.
The Stephen Leacock Medal for Humor has been awarded yearly since 1947. It is awarded to the best humorous book by a Canadian author.
In March of 1957 the city of Orillia purchased Stephen Leacock's home at Brewery Bay. The Stephen Leacock Memorial Home was opened to the public on July 5, 1958 and has been declared an historic site.
In 1998 Leacocks's doctoral dissertation "The Doctrine of Laissez-faire" was published by the University of Toronto Press, 94 years after its' submission to the University of Chicago.
Sources
collectionscanada.ca/leacock/index-e.html accessed Aug 7, 2007
leacock.ca/STEPHEN.htm accessed Aug 7, 2007
particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/bios/Leacock.html accessed Aug 7, 2007
