Stephen Leacock

de James Doyle

Stephen Leacock, Canada's foremost literary humorist, enjoyed a huge popular success in his time, and a number of his comic works, especially Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, still have the power to delight today's readers. But Leacock accomplished much more. He was also a professor of political science and economics; he produced 61 works in several fields; he wrote more than 90 scholarly articles. James Doyle explores both the private and public lives of this prominent and prolific writer. Highlights of this illustrated biography include Leacock's hardworking life as a child growing up on a farm in a "lost corner of Ontario"; the university years which resulted in a PhD in economics and political science from the University of Chicago; the motivations behind Leacock's dual commitment to social commentary and comic writing; and his conservatism - his ardent belief in the British empire - and how it affected his increasingly active career on the international lecture circuit.