Famous Canadian Author from Manitoba

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Manitoba

Margaret Laurence was born Jean Margaret Wemyss in the small town of Neepawa, Manitoba, on July 18, 1926. He mother died when she was four and her father remarried a year later. Her father and step mother adopted a boy. Unfortunately Margaret’s father died of pneumonia in 1935 so the three of them moved in with her grandfather.

     When Margaret was eighteen she moved to Winnipeg to attend United College, an arts and theology college associated with the University of Manitoba. She quickly had some poems published in the university’s student newspaper, The Manitoban, under the name Steve Lancaster. She said she got the name from the Lancaster bomber, an airplane used during WWII.

     During her first year she joined the English Club, a student organization for writers. She also met with other students who were as enthusiastic about writing as she was at a place called Tony’s in the basement of the United College. She was also the associate editor of Vox, the college’s literary journal. She had more of her works featured in local publications as well. While pursuing her undergraduate studies she had one critical essay, three short stories and eighteen poems published.

     After her graduation Jean Margaret Wemyss married Jack Fergus Laurence, an engineer. Because of Jack’s job they moved to England for a year, then British Somaliland for two and onto the Gold Coast for five years. During this time Margaret grew to love Africa, its peoples, and its land and began recording and translating their folk tales and poetry. A tree for Poverty: Somali Poetry and Prose was published in 1954.

     Margaret and Jack had a daughter in 1952 and a son in 1955. The family moved to Vancouver, B.C. in 1957 where they lived for five years. During this time Margaret’s first novel, This Side Jordan, was published in 1960. This book plus, The Prophet’s Camel Bell (1963) and The Tomorrow Tamer (1963), were all based on her time in Africa. After her return to Canada she wrote The Stone Angel (1964), her best known novel. It is set in Manawaka, a fictional small town in Manitoba. The novel is about a ninety-year-old woman whose story alternates between her memories of the past and her present activities. For years the novel was required reading in many North American schools and colleges.

     Margaret filed for divorce from her husband in 1962 and moved to London, England for a year and then to Penn, Buckinghamshire. During this time she wrote A Jest of God (1966) for which she won a Governor General Award. The couple’s divorce was finalized in 1969 and Margaret returned to Canada to be writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto. After a few years she moved to Lakefield, ON and bought a cabin on the Otonabee River, near Peterborough, ON.

     In 1972 she was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada. While at the cabin she wrote The Diviners which was published in 1974 and which won her, her second Governor General’s Award. On March 3, 1976, Margaret, along with five fellow Canadian writers, founded the Writer’s Trust, a charitable organization which provides financial support to Canadian writers. After completing Heart of a Stranger, a collection of essays, (1977), Margaret began writing children’s stories.

     The National Film Board of Canada filmed a documentary titled Margaret Laurence: First Lady of Manawaka. It aired 1978. She served as Chancellor of Trent University in Peterborough from 1981 to 1983.

     In 1986, Margaret Laurence, one of Canada's most esteemed and beloved authors, was diagnosed with lung cancer. The disease had spread to other organs and there was no treatment offered except palliative care. All her novels were about strong women and rather than put herself and her family through needless suffering, Margaret Laurence took a drug overdose on January 5, 1987. She documented her decision in writing. She was buried in the Neepawa Cemetery, in Neepawa, Manitoba.

     Her novel, The Stone Angel, was made into a feature-length film staring Ellen Burstyn. It premiered in the fall of 2007

     In 2016, Jean Margaret Wemyss Laurence was named a National Historic Person.