Stephen Leacock
(1869-1944):

Born in England, Leacock came to Canada at a young age and grew up on a farm in the Lake Simcoe area of Ontario. Before moving on to teaching at a university, Leacock - it should be a prerequisite of all university professors - taught in a regular school system for ten years. In 1906, Leacock wrote his first book, Elements of Political Science; it was to become a standard college textbook. In 1908, he went to Montreal's McGill, heading up its new department of Political Economy; he continued his association with McGill until his death.

A humorous, -- of the Haliburton, Dickens and Twain vein -- Leacock wrote his first humorous work, Literary Lapses in 1910; he subsequently wrote a humorous book, once a year, for the rest of his life. He spent his summer vacations on the shores of Lake Couchiching in Orillia, Ontario, his Mariposa, the little town in the Sunshine Sketches.

Leacock had the gift, as he described it, of "liquefied loquacity" and he strove always to apply it to the life he saw around him "the genial corrective of the humorous point of view." As Professor Lomer pointed out in his index of Leacock's writings, Leacock touched upon an astonishing number of topics, including the "pompous politician and the bulky businessman." More known for his humerous work, the work of his I enjoyed best was one of his small books on a political theme (Our Heritage of Liberty); his vocation was, afterall, a political economist.