Leacock, Stephen Butler (1869-1944), is the most popular humorist in Canadian literature. He also wrote serious works and was a distinguished professor of economics and political science. Most of his humorous works poke fun good-naturedly at everyday people and events by treating them with mock seriousness.
The majority of Leacock’s humorous stories and essays first appeared in magazines and newspapers. The first collection of his works, Literary Lapses, was published in 1910. Leacock’s best-known book is Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), a charming portrait of life in a small town based on Orillia, Ontario. About 35 of Leacock’s more than 60 books were humorous. The others included biographies and works on political science, economics, history, and literary criticism.
Leacock was born on Dec. 30, 1869, in Swanmore, England, near Southampton. His family moved to a farm near Lake Simcoe, Ontario, when he was 7 years old. Leacock taught political science at McGill University from 1903 to 1936. He died on March 28, 1944. His unfinished autobiography, The Boy I Left Behind Me, was published in 1946, after his death.
