Page 205 - DENG203_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_IV

Elective English—IV

Notes His first appointment was at Uxbridge High School, Ontario, but he was soon offered a post at
Upper Canada College, where he remained from 1889 through 1899. At this time, he also resumed
part-time studies at the University of Toronto, graduating with a B.A. in 1891. However, Leacock’s
real interests were turning towards economics and political theory, and in 1899 he was accepted
for postgraduate studies at the University of Chicago, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1903. In 1900,
Leacock married Beatrix Hamilton, an aspiring actress; the couple had one son, born in 1915.
Leacock was offered a post at McGill University, where he remained until he retired in 1936. In
1906, he wrote Elements of Political Science, which remained a standard college textbook for the
next twenty years and became his most profitable book. He also began public speaking and
lecturing, and he took a year’s leave of absence in 1907 to speak throughout Canada on the
subject of national unity. He typically spoke on national unity or the British Empire for the rest
of his life.
Leacock began submitting articles to the Toronto humour magazine Grip in 1894, and soon was
publishing many humorous articles in Canadian and American magazines. In 1910, he privately
published the best of these as Literary Lapses. The book was spotted by a British publisher, John
Lane, who brought out editions in London and New York, assuring Leacock’s future as a writer.
This was confirmed by Nonsense Novels (1911), and probably his best book of humorous
sketches, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912). Leacock’s humorous style was reminiscent
of Mark Twain and Charles Dickens at their sunniest. However, his Arcadian Adventures with
the Idle Rich (1914) is a darker collection that satirizes city life. Collections of sketches continued
to follow almost annually at times, with a mixture of whimsy, parody, nonsense, and satire that
was never bitter. Leacock was enormously popular not only in Canada but in the United States
and Britain.
In later life, Leacock wrote on the art of humour writing and also published biographies of
Twain and Dickens. After retirement, a lecture tour to western Canada lead to his book My
Discovery of the West: A Discussion of East and West in Canada (1937), for which he won the
Governor General’s Award. He also won the Mark Twain medal and received a number of
honorary doctorates. Other nonfiction books on Canadian topics followed and he began work
on an autobiography. Leacock died of throat cancer in Toronto in 1944. A prize for the best
humour writing in Canada was named after him, and his house at Orillia on the banks of Lake
Couchiching became the Stephen Leacock Museum.

11.1.6 Death and Tributes

Predeceased by Trix (who had died of breast cancer in 1925), Leacock was survived by Stevie,
who died in his fifties. In accordance with his wishes, after his death from throat cancer, Leacock
was buried in the St George the Martyr Churchyard (St. George’s Church, Sibbald Point), Sutton,
Ontario.
Shortly after his death, Barbara Nimmo, his niece, literary executor and benefactor, published
two major posthumous works: Last Leaves (1945) and The Boy I Left Behind Me (1946). His
physical legacy was less treasured, and his abandoned summer cottage became derelict. It was
rescued from oblivion when it was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1958 and ever
since has operated as a museum called the Stephen Leacock Memorial Home.
In 1947, the Stephen Leacock Award was created to recognize the best in Canadian literary
humour. In 1969, the centennial of his birth, Canada Post issued a six cent stamp with his image
on it. The following year, the Stephen Leacock Centennial Committee had a plaque erected at
his English birthplace and a mountain in the Yukon was named after him.
A number of buildings in Canada are named after Leacock, including the Stephen Leacock
Building at McGill University, Stephen Leacock Public School in Ottawa, a theatre in Keswick,
Ontario, and a school in Toronto.

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