Stephen Butler Leacock, Ph.D , FRSC (30 December 1869 Р28 March 1944) was a Canadian writer and economist. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Royal Society of Canada, (French: La Soci̩t̩ royale du Canada) The Canadian Academy of the Sciences and Humanities, is the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars. ... December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 1 day remaining. ... 1869 (MDCCCLXIX) is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (88th in leap years). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Paul Samuelson, Nobel Prize in Economics winner. ...

Early life

Born in Swanmore, Hampshire, England, at age six he and his family moved to Canada, settling on a farm in Egypt, Ontario, near the shores of Lake Simcoe. While the family had been comfortable in England, the farm in Georgina Township of York County was not a success and Leacock's family was quite poor. His father Peter suffered from alcoholism, becoming a violent alcoholic. The signpost in the center of the village Swanmore is a small rural village situated in the Meon Valley, Hampshire, England. ... Hampshire (abbr. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq... Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Official languages English (French has some legal status but is not fully co-official) Flower White Trillium Tree Eastern White Pine Bird Common Loon Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman Premier Dalton McGuinty... Lake Simcoe is a lake in southern Ontario, Canada, the fourth largest lake in the province. ... Georgina and other communities on Lake Simcoe, Ontario Georgina, town in south-central Ontario, in the Regional Municipality of York in the Greater Toronto Area on Lake Simcoe. ... York County is a historic county in the Canadian province of Ontario. ... Alcoholism is the consumption of, or preoccupation with, alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the drinkers normal personal, family, social, or work life, and may lead to physical or mental harm. ...

Leacock, always of obvious intelligence, was sent to the elite private school of Upper Canada College in Toronto, where he was top of the class and so popular he was chosen as head boy. His father left the house in 1887 and never returned. The same year, seventeen year-old Leacock started at University College at the University of Toronto, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity, but found he could not resume the following year due to financial difficulties. Private schools, or independent schools, are schools not administered by local, state, or national government, which retain the right to select their student body and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students tuition rather than with public (state) funds. ... Upper Canada College (UCC) is an all-male elementary and secondary school in Toronto, Canada, the oldest independent school in the province of Ontario, and the third oldest school in Canada. ... Template:Hide = Motto: Template:Unhide = Diversity Our Strength Image:Toronto, Ontario Location. ... The University of Toronto (U of T) is a coeducational public research university in Toronto, Ontario. ... The Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America Inc. ...

He left university to earn money as a schoolteacher - a job he disliked immensely - at Strathroy, Uxbridge and finally in Toronto. As a teacher at Upper Canada College, his alma mater, he was able to simultaneously attend classes at the University of Toronto and, in 1891, earn his degree through part-time studies. It was during this period that his first writing was published in The Varsity, a campus newspaper. Strathroy (2001 population 12,978) is a community in southwestern Ontario, Canada. ... Uxbridge, township in south-central Ontario, in the Regional Municipality of Durham in the Greater Toronto Area. ... The Varsity is the second oldest student newspaper in Canada. ...

Academic and political life

Disillusioned with teaching, in 1899 he began graduate studies at the University of Chicago where he received a doctorate in political science and political economy. He moved from Chicago, Illinois to Montreal, Quebec where he became a lecturer and long-time acting head of the political economy department at McGill University. The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. ... Political science is an academic and research discipline that deals with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 606. ... Official language(s) English Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Area  Ranked 25th  - Total 57,918 sq mi (149,998 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 390 miles (629 km)  - % water 4. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Motto: Je me souviens (French: I remember) Official languages French Flower Blue Flag Iris (Iris versicolor Linné) Tree Yellow Birch Bird Snowy Owl Capital Quebec City Largest city Montreal Lieutenant-Governor Lise Thibault Premier Jean Charest (PLQ) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 75 24 Area Total  - Land  - Water  (% of... McGill University is a publicly funded, non-denominational, co-educational research university located in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ...

He was closely associated with Sir Arthur Currie, former commander of the Canadian Corps in the Great War and principal of McGill from 1919 until his death in 1933. In fact, Currie had been a student observing Leacock's practice teaching in Strathroy in 1888. In 1936, Leacock was forcibly retired by the McGill Board of Governors -- an unlikely prospect had Currie lived. General Sir Arthur William Currie, KCMG , CB (December 5, 1875 - November 30, 1933) was the first Canadian commander of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (a corps of four divisions) on the Western Front during World War I and one of the most successful Allied generals of the war and in Canadian... The Canadian Corps was a World War I Canadas soldiers in September of 1915 after the arrival of the 2nd Canadian Division in France. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

Leacock was both a social conservative and a partisan Conservative. He opposed women's rights and disliked non-Anglo-Saxon immigration. He was, however, a supporter of social welfare legislation. He was a champion of the British Empire, and went on lecture tours to further the cause. Social conservatism is a belief in traditional morality and social mores and the desire to preserve these in present day society, often through civil law or regulation. ... The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. ... The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ...

Although considered a federal candidate for his party, it declined to invite the author, lecturer and maverick to stand for election. Nevertheless, he would stump for local candidates at his summer home.

Literary life

Early in his career Leacock turned to fiction, humour, and short reports to supplement (and ultimately exceed) his regular income. His stories, first published in magazines in Canada and the United States and later in novel form became extremely popular around the world. It was said in 1911 that more people had heard of Stephen Leacock than had heard of Canada.

During the summer months, he lived at Old Brewery Bay in Orillia, across Lake Simcoe from where he was raised and also bordering Lake Couchiching. The cottage is now a museum and National Historic Site, and he also let a small farm. Gossip provided by the local barber, Jefferson Short, provided Leacock with the material which would become Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), set in the thinly-disguised Mariposa. One of his best known humorous essays is 'Gamesmanship' which was eventually transformed into a short film starring British comedian, Terry Thomas. The Welcome sign to Orillia Orillia (2004 population 32,692) is a city located in Simcoe County in south-central Ontario, Canada, on Lake Couchiching, where it flows from Lake Simcoe towards Georgian Bay (Lake Huron). ... Lake Couchiching is a small lake in southern Ontario separated from Lake Simcoe by a narrow channel. ... National Historic Site is a designation for a protected area of historic significance. ... Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is a sequence of stories by Stephen Leacock, first published in 1912. ... Mariposa is a fictional Canadian town created by Stephen Leacock as the setting for a series of short stories. ...

Although he did write learned articles and books related to his field of study, his political theory is now all but forgotten. Nevertheless, Leacock was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Lorne Pierce Medal in 1937, nominally for his academic work. The Royal Society of Canada, (French: La Société royale du Canada) The Canadian Academy of the Sciences and Humanities, is the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars. ... The Lorne Pierce Medal is awarded every two years by the Royal Society of Canada to recognize achievement of special significance and conspicuous merit in imaginative or critical literature written in either English or French. ...

Death and tributes

Leacock was predeceased by his wife and survived by his son Stephen Jr. In accordance with his wishes, after his death due to throat cancer, he was cremated and buried at Sibbald Point in Georgina Township near his boyhood home and across Lake Simcoe from his adult summer home. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Head and neck cancer. ...

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 in 1958 and ever since has operated as a museum called the Stephen Leacock Memorial Home. A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of the literary estate of an author who has died. ... National Historic Site is a designation for a protected area of historic significance. ...

In 1947, the Stephen Leacock Award was created to recognize the best in Canadian literary humour. In the 1960s, McGill University named an arts building and a library room after its well-known professor. 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. The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour (usually the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour or just the Stephen Leacock Award) is an annual award presented to the best work of humorous literature written in English by a Canadian. ... Canada Post (French: Postes Canada) is a Canadian postal service operated as an independent crown corporation. ... Motto: none Other Canadian provinces and territories Capital Whitehorse Largest city Whitehorse Commissioner Jack Cable Premier Dennis Fentie (Yukon Party) Area 482,443 km² (9th)  - Land 474,391 km²  - Water 8,052 km² (1. ...

A public high school in Scarborough, Ontario, Stephen Leacock Collegiate, is named after the author. It is joined to John Buchan Middle School. Motto: Location City Information Established: 1 January 1850 (township), 1 January 1967 (borough), June 1983 (city), 1 January 1998 (amalgamated) Area: 187. ... John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (August 26, 1875 - February 11, 1940), was a Scottish novelist and politician who served as Governor General of Canada. ...

A theatre in Keswick, Ontario is also named after him. Keswick is a community in the south central portion of the Canadian province of Ontario. ...

Bibliography

• Elements of Political Science (1906)
• Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks: Responsible Government (1907)
• Practical Political Economy (1910)
• Literary Lapses (1910)
• Nonsense Novels (1911)
• Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912)
• Behind the Beyond (1913)
• Adventurers of the Far North (1914)
• The Dawn of Canadian History (1914)
• The Mariner of St. Malo (1914)
• Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich (1914)
• Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy (1915)
• Essays and Literary Sudies (1916)
• Further Foolishness (1916)
• Frenzied Fiction (1918)
• The Hohenzollerns in America (1919)
• Winsome Winnie (1920)
• The Unsolved Riddle of Social Injustice (1920)
• My Discovery of England (1922)
• College Days (1923)
• Over the Footlights (1923)
• The Garden of Folly (1924)
• Mackenzie, Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks (1926)
• Winnowed Wisdom (1926)
• Short Circuits (1928)
• The Iron Man and the Tin Woman (1929)
• Economic Prosperity in the British Empire (1930)
• The Economic Prosperity of the British Empire (1931)
• The Dry Pickwick (1932)
• Afternoons in Utopia (1932)
• Mark Twain (1932)
• Charles Dickens: His Life and Work (1933)
• Humour: Its Theory and Technique, with Examples and Samples (1935)
• Hellements of Hickonomics in Hiccoughs of Verse Done in Our Social Planning Mill (1936)
• Funny Pieces (1936)
• The Greatest Pages of American Humor (1936)
• Here Are My Lectures (1937)
• Humour and Humanity (1937)
• My Discovery of the West (1937)
• Model Memoirs (1938)
• Too Much College (1939)
• The British Empire (1940)
• Canada: The Foundations of Its Future (1941)
• My Remarkeable Uncle (1942)
• Our Heritage of Liberty (1942)
• Montreal: Seaport and City (1942)
• Happy Stories (1943)
• How to Write (1943)
• Canada and the Sea (1944)
• While There Is Time (1945)
• Last Leaves (1945)
• The Boy I Left Behind Me (1946)

Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is a sequence of stories by Stephen Leacock, first published in 1912. ...

Quotable quotes

• Professor Leacock has made more people laugh with the written word than any other living author. One may say he is one of the greatest jesters, the greatest humorist of the age. – A. P. Herbert

• Mr Leacock is as 'bracing' as the seaside place of John Hassall's famous poster. His wisdom is always humorous, and his humour is always wise. – Sunday Times

• He is still inimitable. No one, anywhere in the world, can reduce a thing to ridicule with such few short strokes. He is the Grock of literature. – Evening Standard

Sir Alan Patrick Herbert (September 24, 1890 - November 11, 1971) was a British humorist, Member of Parliament, barrister, and novelist. ... The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International which is in turn owned by News Corporation. ... Headlines of the Evening Standard on the day of London bombing on July 7, 2005, in Waterloo Station The Evening Standard is an English tabloid newspaper published and sold in London and surrounding areas. ...

References

• Legate, David M. Stephen Leacock: A Biography. 1970. Doubleday, Toronto.
• Moritz, Albert & Theresa. Leacock: A Biography. 1985. Stoddart Publishing, Toronto.
• Ferris, Ina. 1978. "The Face in the Window: Sunshine Sketches Reconsidered," Studies in Canadian Literature University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. [1].

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Stephen Leacock

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Stephen Leacock

• Stephen Leacock, A Biographical Sketch National Library of Canada
• Brief Chronology of Leacock's Life National Library of Canada
• Chronology of Leacock's writings National Library of Canada
• Commentary on Sunshine Sketches National Library of Canada
• Online Books by Stephen Leacock (Gutenberg texts)
• Ontario Plaques - Stephen Butler Leacock
• Many Stephen Leacock stories read in Mister Ron's Basement Podcast
• Works by Stephen Leacock at Project Gutenberg