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Federal Identifier for the National Library of Canada

Stephen Leacock image

Brief Chronology
1869 Stephen Butler Leacock is born on December 30 in Swanmore, Hampshire, England.
1876 The Leacock family emigrates to Canada and settles on a farm near the south shore area of Lake Simcoe, Ontario.
1882 Enters Upper Canada College, Toronto.
1887 Peter Leacock (Stephen's father) leaves his family.

Stephen Leacock graduates as Head Boy from Upper Canada College. Enters the University of Toronto and completes two years in one. Studies modern and classical languages as well as literature. For financial reasons, leaves at the end of the first year.

1888 Takes a three-month training course at the Stathroy Collegiate Institute in western Ontario, to qualify for teaching high school.

Finds a teaching position as a modern language teacher at Uxbridge High School, Uxbridge, Ontario, eighteen miles from the Leacock family farm.

1889 Offered a position as language master at Upper Canada College. Teaches there from February 1889 to July 1899. Returns to the University of Toronto, on a part-time basis.
1891 Receives his honours B.A. from the University of Toronto.
1894 Publishes his first humorous writing in the Toronto humor magazine, Grip. Reads The Theory of the Leisure Class, by Thorstein Veblen, a professor at the University of Chicago.
1899 Enters the graduate program at the University of Chicago in economics and political science.
1900 Marries Beatrix (Trix) Hamilton.

Appointed sessional lecturer at McGill University in economics and political science.

1903 Receives his Ph.D. in political science and political economy. Upon his graduation, he is appointed as a full-time assistant professor at McGill University.
1905 Begins public speaking primarily on the subject of the unity of the British Empire.
1906 Publishes his first book, Elements of Political Science, a standard university textbook for 20 years.
1907 Taking a leave of absence of one year from McGill University, Leacock begins a speaking tour of the British Empire to promote imperial unity under the auspices of the Cecil Rhodes Trust.
1908 Buys 33 acres of waterfront property a few miles from Orillia. He calls this property The Old Brewery Bay.

Appointed William Dow Professor of Political Economy and chairman of the Department of Economics and Political Science at McGill University. He holds this position till his retirement 30 years later.

With a group of colleagues, Leacock helps found the University Club of Montreal.

1910 Publishes his first book of humor, Literary Lapses, from a compilation of previous publications in magazines.
1911 Follows up his success with the publication of Nonsense Novels.
1912 Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is published.
1913 With the help of Dr. J.C. Hemmeon (a departmental associate), Leacock founds the Political Economy Club.
1914 Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich is published.
1915 Leacock's only child, Stephen Lushington Leacock, is born on August 19.
1920 The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice is published.
1921 Leacock is a founding member of the Canadian Authors' Association.
1925 Leacock's wife (Trix) dies of cancer on December 14.
1928 The cottage at Old Brewery Bay is demolished and Leacock replaces it with a 19-room house which includes a wine cellar and a billiard room.
1932 His biography of Mark Twain, Mark Twain, is published.
1933 His biography of Charles Dickens, Charles Dickens, His Life and Work, is published.
1934 Agnes Leacock (Stephen's mother) dies.
1935 Humor: Its Theory and Technique is published.
1936 Because of compulsory retirement at McGill University, Leacock retires from teaching on May 31.

Goes on his last speaking tour in the West of Canada.

1937 My Discovery of the West: A Discussion of East and West in Canada, is published and wins the Governor General's Award.
1940 Stephen Leacock Jr. graduates with a B.A. from McGill University.

Peter Leacock (Stephen's father) dies.

1944 Stephen Leacock dies of throat cancer on March 28 in Toronto.
1945 Two of Leacock's books are published posthumously: Last Leaves and While There Is Time: The Case Against Social Catastrophe.
1946 His unfinished autobiography, The Boy I Left Behind Me, is published.
1997 Ninety-four years after its submission to the University of Chicago, Leacock's Ph.D. dissertation "The Doctrine of Laissez-faire" is published by the University of Toronto Press.
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