Jean Margaret (Peggy) Wemyss was born in Neepawa,
Manitoba on July 18, 1926 to Robert Harrison Wemyss, a
lawyer, and his wife Verna Jean, nee Simpson. Verna died
when Peggy was 4 years old, and Robert later married
her sister, Margaret Campbell Simpson, a teacher and
later a librarian, who was throughout the years one of
Peggy's "greatest encouragers." After Robert Wemyss'
death, when Peggy was 9 and her brother still a baby,
the family went to live with Grandfather Simpson in his
big brick house on First Avenue. In a letter written by
Margaret, she stated "I was an extremely fortunate child.
As someone who has always been interested in reading and in writing (which I began
to do in about Grade 2 or 3), I always had someone there who encouraged me." That
encouragement was Ms. Musgrove, her high school English teacher. Peggy wrote for
and was an editor of the Black and Gold, the Neepawa Collegiate paper. When she
was in Grades Eleven and Twelve, she had several articles published in the Neepawa
Press.
After graduating from high school in 1944, Margaret attended United College, (now
the University of Winnipeg), and was assistant editor of the college paper, Vox.
Jean Margaret Wemyss graduated from United College with a Bachelor of Arts degree
in 1947, and married John Fergus Laurence on September 13,
1947, in the Neepawa United Church. She then worked for a
time as a reporter for the Winnipeg Citizen.
In 1950, after living a short time in England, Margaret and
her husband, a civil engineer, moved to British Somali land.
While there, she wrote a translation of Somali prose and
poetry, A Tree for Poverty. Laurence said that it was at that
time that she "began seriously to write." A travel book, The
Prophet's Camel Bell, written some years later describes the
Laurences' experience in Somali land.
They moved to Accra, Ghana in 1952, with their 2 month old
daughter, Jocelyn, who was born in England. During their
subsequent 5 years in Africa Margaret produced her first
novel, This Side Jordan, which won the 1961 Beta Sigma Phi
Award for the best first novel by a Canadian. A collection of short stories, The
Tomorrow Tamer, written a few years later, is also set in West Africa. Out of her
African years came an interest in contemporary literature by Africans, which resulted
in her study of Nigerian fiction and drama. The Laurences' son, David, was born in
Ghana in 1955.
After leaving Africa, the family lived for five years in Vancouver, and during this time
Margaret wrote The Christmas Birthday Story, a children's book later rewritten.
After Vancouver, there followed seven years in England and the purchase of her
home, Elm Cottage, in Penn, Buckinghamshire, 30 miles from London. In the ten
year period 1964 - 1974 the Manawaka books were published.
Margaret Laurence received honorary degrees from more than a dozen Canadian
universities, was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1971, and had
numerous other honors bestowed upon her.
An hour- long documentary film, Margaret Laurence - First Lady of Manawaka was
produced by the National Film Board of Canada and premiered in Winnipeg on May 7,
1979. Adaptations of many of her works have been made for radio, television and
stage. Her books and other writings have been translated into several languages and
receive attention and praise from many countries.
She served as Writer in Residence at the Universities of Toronto
and Western Ontario and Trent University, and was appointed
Chancellor of Trent for the years 1981 - 1983.
While still living in England, Margaret established a summer
home on the Otonobee River in southern Ontario, which she
named Manawaka Cottage. Her return to Canada became
permanent in 1973, and she made her home in Lakefield,
Ontario. But, despite her years away from her birthplace,
Margaret Laurence continued to consider herself "...a Prairie
person, because I have always remained deeply just that."
The last decade of her life focused on promoting causes she
passionately supported - peace, social justice, the equality of
women, environmental protection - through letters, lectures,
essays and fundraising campaigns.
Margaret Laurence died on January 5, 1987 and at her request her ashes were
brought by her children, Jocelyn and David, to be interred in Riverside Cemetery,
Neepawa, on June 23, the day before the official opening of the Margaret laurence
Home, the former Simpson house where she had lived in her youth.
African Series
This Side Jordan
The Prophet's Camel Bell
The Tomorrow Tamer
Manawaka Series
The Stone Angel
A Jest of God
Fire Dwellers
A Bird in the House
The Diviners
Childrens' Books
Six Darn Cows
The Olden Days Coat
Memoirs and Other Books by Margaret Laurence
Dance on the Earth
A Tree for Poverty (Somali Poetry and Prose collected by M.L.)
Cook's Tour (Cookbook created by M.L. and friend Clara Thomas)
A Very Large Soul (Selected letters from M.L. to Canadian Writers)
A Friendship in Letters (Selected letters of M.L. and Al Purdy)
Embryo Words (A Book of Margaret's early writings)
Publications by Other Authors
Crossing the River (Essays in Honour of M.L.)
Writer in Residence (Anecdotes about M.L. collected by Dorothy Campbell
Henderson)
Margaret's Special Places in Neepawa (collected by Dorothy Campbell
Henderson)
The Life of Margaret Laurence (by James King)