He begins teaching modern languages at Uxbridge High School.

1889 Becomes language master at Upper Canada College, where he’ll teach for ten years, until July 1899. Meanwhile, he returns to university to study part time.

1891 Receives his honours B.A. from the University of Toronto.

1894 His first comic writing is published in Grip, a Toronto humour magazine.

1899 Begins graduate work at the University of Chicago in economics and political science, studying under Thorstein Veblen.

1900 Appointed sessional lecturer in political science at McGill University. On August 7 he marries Beatrix Hamilton in New York City.

1903 Receives a Ph.D. in political economy, and is appointed a full-time assistant professor in economics and political science at McGill.

1906 Publication of his first book, Elements of Political Science.

1907 Leacock embarks on a speaking tour of the British Empire to promote imperial unity. His book Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks: Responsible Government is published.

1908 Buys thirty-three acres of waterfront property on Lake Couchiching near Orillia, Ontario, which he dubs Old Brewery Bay. Appointed William Dow Professor of Political Economy and chairman of the Department of Economics and Political Science at McGill University—a position he’ll hold until his retirement almost thirty years later.

1910 Self-publishes his first book of humour, Literary Lapses, a collection of pieces previously published in magazines.

1911 Nonsense Novels is published. In the run-up to the Dominion election, Leacock campaigns for Conservative candidates and speaks out against free trade with the United States. The Liberal government of Wilfrid Laurier goes down to defeat over the issue of reciprocity.

1912 Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is first published serially in the Montreal Star, then in book form.

1914 Publication of Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich.

1915 Beginning in February and continuing throughout World War I, Leacock gives readings from his humorous work in aid of the Belgian Relief Fund. His only child, Stephen Lushington Leacock, is born on August 19. In October, Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy is published.

1920 Publication of The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice.

1921 He goes on a lecture and reading tour of Great Britain. The Canadian Authors’ Association is established, with Leacock as a founding member.

1925 Leacock’s wife, Beatrix, dies of breast cancer on December 14.

1928 The new and much larger house is built on Old Brewery Bay.

1932 Mark Twain, his biography of Mark Twain, is published.

1933 Publication of his biography of Charles Dickens, Charles Dickens: His Life and Work.

1935 Leacock is given the Mark Twain Medal. Publication of Humor: Its Theory and Technique.

1936 Reluctantly takes compulsory retirement from teaching at McGill. Embarks on last speaking tour of western Canada.

1937 My Discovery of the West: A Discussion of East and West in Canada is published and goes on to win the Governor General’s Award.

1940 Stephen Leacock Jr. graduates with a B.A. from McGill University.

1942 My Remarkable Uncle and Other Sketches is published.

1944 Leacock dies of throat cancer on March 28 in Toronto.

1945 Posthumous publication of Last Leaves and of While There Is Time: The Case Against Social Catastrophe.

1946 The Boy I Left Behind Me, Leacock’s unfinished autobiography, is published. The Leacock Society establishes an annual award, known as the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, for the best book of humour published in Canada.

SUGGESTED FURTHER READING

Anderson, Allan. Remembering Leacock: An Oral History. Ottawa: Deneau Publishers, 1983.

Cameron, Donald. Faces of Leacock. Toronto: Ryerson, 1967.

Curry, Ralph I. Stephen Leacock: Humorist and Humanist. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959.

Davies, Robertson. Stephen Leacock. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1970. Canadian Writers, no. 7.

Doyle, James. Stephen Leacock: The Sage of Orillia. Toronto: ECW Press, 1992.

Legate, David. Stephen Leacock: A Biography.