Stephen Leacock

a.k.a. Stephen Butler Leacock

Author Code: OSBL

Leacock's family emigrated to Canada when he was only seven. He was educated at Upper Canada College in Toronto and the University of Toronto from which he graduated in 1891. He initially took up teaching and was a member of the staff of Upper Canada College until 1899. He then moved to Chicago and attended the University of Chicago studying economics and political science. He received a Fellowship in political economy and took his PhD in 1903. He then took a position with McGill University as an assistant professor. He published his first book, Elements of Political Science, in 1906. Leacock then took a leave of absence for a year to go on a lecture tour of the British Empire promoting unity. When he returned, he was appointed full professor of Political Economy and the chairman of the Department of Economics and Political Science at McGill. He held the chair until his retirement in 1936. In 1910, he published Literary Lapses, a collection of his humourous stories, and followed in 1911 with Nonsense Novels. Both of these were extremely popular, but his masterpiece came with Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town in 1912, which was an international success. In 1914, he published Arcadian Adventures With the Idle Rich a provoking satire which won critical acclaim. In 1921 he helped to found the Canadian Author's Association. During the 1930's, Leacock devoted more time to the economy and political issues, publishing Economic Prosperity in the British Empire in 1930. He died of throat cancer while working on his autobiography in 1944. His other works include The Dawn of Canadian History (1914), Moonbeams From the Larger Lunacy (1915), Frenzied Fiction (1918), The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice (1920), My Discovery of England (1922), Short Circuits (1928), Wet Wit and Dry Humour (1931), Mark Twain (1932), Humour: Its Theory and Technique (1935), The British Empire (1940) and Last Leaves (1945 Posthumous).