Stephen Leacock

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Stephen Leacock 1913

Stephen Butler Leacock (born December 30, 1869 in Swanmore near Bishop's Waltham , Hampshire , United Kingdom , † March 28, 1944 in Toronto , Ontario , Canada ) was a Canadian political scientist , economist , writer and humorist .

Leacock was Professor of Political Science at McGill University in Montreal and a member of the Royal Society of Canada .

He has published more than 40 books, including specialist literature, numerous novels and satires as well as biographies on Mark Twain and Charles Dickens . Leacock is referred to as the Canadian equivalent of Mark Twain and the leading Canadian author of the early 20th century.

Life

Leacock's father Walter Peter (1849-1940) came from a wealthy family who had made their fortune in Madeira and lived on an estate on the Isle of Wight. When he secretly married the pregnant Agnes Emma Butler, who was three years his senior, in 1867 at the age of 18, his family disowned him and he tried his hand at running a farm in Swanmore, an English village in Hampshire. Stephen Leacock was born there in 1869 as the third of eleven children.

His older brothers were Thomas James, born in 1867 and Arthur Murdock, born in 1868. Brother Charles John Gladstone was born in 1871, daughter Agnes Arabella in 1873 and Edward Peter in 1875.

When the young family of eight ran into economic difficulties, they emigrated to Canada in 1875, where they bought a farm in Ontario near Lake Simcoe with financial help from Leacock's grandfather . George David Young was born there in 1877, Carline Theresa Frances in 1878, Maymee Douglas in 1880, Rosamond Mary in 1884 and Margaret Lushington in 1886.

The new beginning in Canada also failed, Peter Leacock increasingly became an alcoholic.

Stephen Leacock was a good student and was sent by his grandfather, as well as his two older brothers, to Upper Canada College , an elite private school in Toronto , which he attended from 1882 to 1887.

In 1887 there was an uproar with his father; Leacock and his two older brothers expelled the father of the house. There are various accounts of the cause and course of the dispute. Walter Peter Leacock went to Argentina and never returned. He is said to have stopped drinking, become a ship owner and assumed the pseudonym Captain Lewis. There he lived with a woman named Annie, with whom he is said to have had a son who died at the age of 17. There are also different representations regarding the role and influence of Leacock's uncle Edward Phillip Leacock (1853-1927), called "EP", to whom Leacock dedicated the book My remarkable Uncle in 1942 and which he also mentions in other essays. He is said to have brought Leacock's father and eldest brother to Winnipeg in 1880 as director of the Westbourne and North West Railway Company . When the father had no economic success there, unlike his uncle, he became an alcoholic. However, a clear separation between fiction and truth is almost impossible in this regard.

In 1887, 17-year-old Leacock began studying modern and classical languages ​​and literature at the University College of the University of Toronto , which was accompanied by constant financial difficulties. A year later he left the university temporarily to earn money through tutoring and schooling in Strathroy , Uxbridge and finally Toronto . When he became a teacher at Upper Canada College, his alma mater , he was able to attend lectures at the university at the same time, thus completing his political science studies in 1891.

In 1900 he married the actress Beatrix Hamilton, called Trix, a niece of Sir Henry Pellatt , who built Canada's largest private residence with Casa Loma from 1911 to 1914 . It was not until August 15, 1915, after 15 years of marriage, that the couple had their only child, Stephen Lushington, whom they called Stevie and who was born with a disability, a lack of growth hormones. He was only four feet tall.

In 1903 he submitted his dissertation The Doctrine of Laissez-faire completed and took up his work at McGill University, where he received a professorship in 1908, which he held until 1936.

In 1925 Leacock's wife Trix died. He did not enter into a new marriage.

Stephen Leacock's summer home on Lake Simcoe.

In 1928 he had a lavish property built on a large piece of land at Old Brewery Bay on the north shore of Lake Simcoe, which he had acquired some 20 years earlier , which he used as a summer house during his teaching activities and in which he spent the last years of his life. Today the Stephan Leacock Museum is housed there. His hometown Orillia and Lake Simcoe are the template for the locality "Mariposa" and "Lake Wissanotti" in his Sunshine Sketches .

Leacock was well acquainted with Pelham Edgar George Washington Johnson Rudyard Kipling , who had become an honorary citizen of McGill University in 1899.

In 1935 Leacock was awarded the Mark Twain Medal and in 1937 the Lorne Pierce Medal .

In 1936 he retired .

He died in 1944 and, if he wished, was buried in the cemetery at Sibbald's Point of St. George the Martyr in Sutton, Ontario. The place is on the other side of the lake, exactly opposite his summer house. His sister Rosamond Mary Butler Leacock (1889-1949), who was a pediatrician in Toronto, and his brother Charles John Cladstone (1871-1951) were also buried in this family grave.

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His first work appeared while he was a student, Leacock wrote for The Varsity , the University of Toronto's weekly campus newspaper. His first satire was published in 1894 by Toronto's Grip magazine and the US magazine Truth and Life and led to numerous other articles in Canadian and US magazines.

His oeuvre was unusually broad and ranges from non-fiction books on political science, economics and history to humorous stories with mild ironizations of the Anglo-Canadian petty bourgeoisie, essays and satires on the nature of European peoples and novels dealing with the economic depression of the 1930s to Mark Twain and Charles Dickens biographies.

His first book, Elements of Political Science , was published in 1906 and became a standard work. It has been translated into nine languages. In 1907 he went on a lecture tour in North America and Europe. In spite of the good sales results that he also achieved with his prose , it was to remain the book during his lifetime that brought him the greatest economic success.

In 1910 he published his first humorous work, Literary Lapse , with the financial help of one of his brothers . It became such a huge success that he quickly published Nonsense Novels (1911), Sunshine Sketches of a Small Town (1912), Arcadian Adventures With the Idle Rich (1914), Moonbeams From the Larger Lunacy (1915), Winsome Winnie (1920) and My Discovery of England (1922).

In Canada: The Foundations of Its Future from 1941, he covers the history of Canada from the discovery of the Norseman to the rediscovery and colonial era to the founding of the state of Canada. In his 1930 book Economic Prosperity in the British Empire , he examines the economic situation in the United Kingdom compared to the economic development of the United States and North America.

Leacock knew Europe well enough to write about the essence of the English in his satires Winsome Winnie and in Die Hohenzollern in Amerika to portray the German colonization of North America by Wilhelm II and its failure due to the mentality there .

Leacock was barely able to assert himself in the German-speaking world, he was best known for his Sunshine sketches of a little town , a series of stories written with a sharp pen that is a parody of small-town life in Ontario. The first translations of his works into German appeared around 1925, were reviewed by Kurt Tucholsky , among others, and lasted until the 1950s. From 1987 to 1989 the Fackelträger-Verlag published three new humorous works.

Despite his success as a humorist and satirist, Elements of Political Science was to remain his best-selling work.

Numerous quotes have come down from him, such as:

  • Humor is the kind consideration of the inconsistencies in life.
  • The savage who cracked his enemy over the head with a tomahawk and shouted ha, ha , was the first humorist. (The savage who pulled a tomahawk over the head of his enemy and yelled Haha! Was the first humorist.)
  • Some men who are in love with a dimple make the mistake of marrying the whole girl.
  • Advertising can be described as the science of locking up human intelligence until you get money from it.

Reception and honors

Shortly after his death in 1944, his niece Barbara Nimmo wrote My Remarkable Uncle , his first comprehensive biography being presented in 1953 by Ralph L. Curry . Another of Leacock's nieces, Elisabeth Kimball, published her memoirs in 1970 under the title The man with the Panama Hat . Alan Anderson followed in 1983 with Remembering Leacock . David M. Legate, Albert and Theresa Moritz and David Staines also published biographies, Timothy Findly , Erika Ritter and Guy Vanderhaeghe dedicated essays to him and numerous others dedicated articles and memoirs to him. One of the most recent works on Leacock is two books by Alan Bowker .

Two of his short stories were produced as films by the National Film Board of Canada , Gerald Potterton as My Financial Career and The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones .

The Stephen Leacock Award for Humor has been presented by the Leacock Association since 1947 .

Every year in July, the Stephan Leacock Museum organizes a literature festival.

Named after Leacock:

  • Stephen Leacock Theater in Keswick, Ontario
  • Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Ontario

Stephen Leacock's name is also given to a number of university buildings, a few museums and a hotel.

In 1969 the government of Canada issued a 6 cent stamp in his honor. In 1970 a mountain in the Elias chain was named after him.

bibliography

During his lifetime

  • Elements of Political Science (1906)
  • Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks: Responsible Government (1907)
  • Practical Political Economy (1910)
  • Literary Lapses (1910) including The New Food
  • Nonsense Novels (1911)
  • Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912)
  • Behind the Beyond (1913)
  • Adventurers of the Far North (1914)
  • The Dawn of Canadian History (1914)
  • The Mariner of St. Malo (1914)
  • Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich (1914)
  • Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy (1915)
  • Essays and Literary Studies (1916)
  • Further Foolishness (1916)
  • Frenzied Fiction (1918)
  • The Hohenzollerns in America (1919)
  • Winsome Winnie (1920)
  • The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice (1920)
  • My Discovery of England (1922)
  • College Days (1923)
  • Over the Footlights (1923)
  • The Garden of Folly (1924)
  • Mackenzie, Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks (1926)
  • Winnowed Wisdom (1926)
  • Short Circuits (1928)
  • The Iron Man and the Tin Woman (1929)
  • Economic Prosperity in the British Empire (1930)
  • The Economic Prosperity of the British Empire (1931)
  • The Dry Pickwick (1932)
  • Afternoons in Utopia (1932)
  • Mark Twain (1932)
  • Charles Dickens: His Life and Work (1933)
  • Humor: Its Theory and Technique, with Examples and Samples (1935)
  • Hellements of Hickonomics in Hiccoughs of Verse Done in Our Social Planning Mill (1936)
  • Funny Pieces (1936)
  • The Greatest Pages of American Humor (1936)
  • Here Are My Lectures (1937)
  • Humor and Humanity (1937)
  • My Discovery of the West (1937)
  • Model Memoirs (1938)
  • Too Much College (1939)
  • Our British Empire (1940)
  • Canada: The Foundations of Its Future (1941)
  • My Remarkable Uncle (1942)
  • Our Heritage of Liberty (1942)
  • Montreal: Seaport and City (1942)
  • Happy Stories (1943)
  • How to Write (1943)
  • Canada and the Sea (1944)
  • While There Is Time (1945)
  • Last Leaves (1945)
  • The Boy I Left Behind Me (1946)
  • Wet Wit and Dry Humor
  • Laugh with Leacock
  • Back to prosperity
  • The Greatest Pages of Charles Dickens
  • Essays and Literary Studies

Posthumously

  • Last Leaves. 1945
  • While There Is Time: The Case Against Social Catastrophe. 1945
  • The Boy I Left Behind Me. 1946
  • The Doctrine of Laissez-faire. 1997

In German

  • Übers. EL Schiffer-Williams: Humor and humbug. (Humor and Humanity) Williams, Charlottenburg 1925
  • Übers. EL Schiffer-Williams: The adventures of the poor rich. (Arcadian adventures with the idle rich) Williams, Charlottenburg 1925; again Eulenspiegel, Berlin 1955
  • Nonsense novels . Dodo Press, Wokingham 2007
  • Übers. Manfred Bartz: The lovely Winnie. (Winsome Winnie and other nonsense novels). Torchbearers, Hanover 1988
  • Übers. Beate Bartz: The Hohenzollern in America and other satires. (The Hohenzollern in America and other impossibilities). Torch bearer, Hannover 1989, ISBN 3-771-61501-1
  • Translated by Angela Uthe-Spencker: The Pythia Knights' water journey, in: Stories from Canada - Tales from Canada. Langewiesche-Brandt & dtv bilingual, 1969

literature

  • David Staines: Stephen Leacock, a reappraisal. University of Ottawa Press, 1986, ISBN 0-7766-0146-6 .
  • Alan Bowker: On the front line of life: Stephen Leacock. Dundurn Press Ltd., 2004, ISBN 1-55002-521-X .
  • Barbara Nimmo: My Remarkable Uncle. McClelland & Stewart, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7710-9414-9 .
  • Ralph L. Curry: Stephen Leacock, humorist and humanist. Leacock Museum, 2004, ISBN 1-55246-587-X .
  • Elisabeth Kimball: The man in the Panama hat: reminiscences of my uncle, Stephen Leacock. McClelland and Stewart, 1970
  • Heinz Antor : Tory humanism, ironic humor, and satire: Stephen Leacock's "The marine excursion of the Knights of Pythias " (1913), in Reingard M. Nischik Ed .: The Canadian short stories. Interpretative. Camden House, Rochester NY 2007, pp. 53-66

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elisabeth Kimball: The man in the Panama hat: reminiscences of my uncle, Stephen Leacock. P. 16.
  2. ^ Elisabeth Kimball: The man in the Panama hat: reminiscences of my uncle, Stephen Leacock. P. 17.
  3. Ted George Goertzel, Ariel Hansen: C radles of eminence: childhoods of more than seven hundred famous men and women. Great Potential Press, 2004, ISBN 0-910-70756-1 , p. 70
  4. David Staines: Stephen Leacock, a reappraisal. P. 124
  5. ^ Alan Bowker: On the front line of life: Stephen Leacock. P. 18.
  6. a b David Staines: Stephen Leacock, a reappraisal.
  7. Manitoba Historical Society: Edward Phillip Leacock.
  8. ^ Alan Bowker: On the front line of life: Stephen Leacock. P. 17.
  9. a b C.D. Merriman: Stephen Leacock.
  10. ^ Albert Frank Moritz, Theresa Anne Moritz: The Oxford illustrated literary guide to Canada. Oxford University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-195-40596-X . Pp. 134-178.
  11. ^ Walter Pache: Degeneration-Regeneration: Contributions to the literary and cultural history between decadence and modernity. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-8260-1688-2 , p. 57. ( limited preview in Google book search)
  12. David Staines: Stephen Leacock, a reappraisal. P. 5
  13. Find a grave - with a picture of the gravestone
  14. David Staines: Stephen Leacock, a reappraisal. P. 1
  15. a b Leacock Association
  16. Annemarie Stoltenberg: I'm not your tour guide: Tucholsky and his book reviews. Galgenberg, 1990, ISBN 3-92538-770-6 , p. 107. ( limited preview in Google book search)
  17. ^ Hoffmann and Campe, 1959 ( limited preview in Google book search)
  18. Quotes on the keyword 'in love' 1 - 30. In: gutzitiert.de. Retrieved January 9, 2015 .
  19. Klaus-J. Fink: 888 wisdoms and quotes for finance professionals. Gabler Verlag, 2007 ISBN 978-3-834-90692-2 , p. 125 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  20. ^ NFB - Collection - My Financial Career
  21. ^ NFB - Collection - The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones . This story is also available in German: The terrible fate of Melpomenus Jones , in: Canadian storytellers of the present , translator Armin Arnold. Manesse, Zurich 1967
  22. Stephen Leacock, Mask and "Mariposa" . colnect.com. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  23. Online-literature.com: Stephen Leacock