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Books : Biographies & Memoirs : People, A-Z : ( L ) : Laurence, Margaret
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In 1950, as a young bride, Margaret Laurence set out with her engineer husband to what was then Somaliland: a British protectorate in North Africa few Canadians had ever heard of. Her account of this voyage into the desert is full of wit and astonishment. Laurence honestly portrays the difficulty of colonial relationships and the frustration of trying to get along with Somalis who had no reason to trust outsiders. There are moments of surprise and discovery when Laurence exclaims at the beauty of a flock of birds only to discover that they are locusts, or offers medical help to impoverished neighbors only to be confronted with how little she can help them. During her stay, Laurence moves past misunderstanding the Somalis and comes to admire memorable individuals: a storyteller, a poet, a camel-herder. The Prophet’s Camel Bell is both a fascinating account of Somali culture and British colonial characters, and a lyrical description of life in the desert.
“The Prophet’s Camel Bell has a timeless feeling about it that sets the work quite apart from the usual books of travel and adventure in distant and exotic parts.”—Canadian Literature
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For anyone who loves great literature -- or aspires to write it -- this is an essential collection, full of insight, wisdom, humour, and candour from Canada's most important and beloved literary figures.
For the past twenty-five years, the Writers' Trust of Canada's annual lecture series, the Margaret Laurence Memorial Lecture, has invited some of Canada's most prominent authors to discuss the theme of "A Writer's Life" in front of their peers. Hugh MacLennan, Mavis Gallant, Timothy Findley, W.O. Mitchell, Pierre Berton, P.K. Page, Dorothy Livesay, Alistair MacLeod, and Margaret Atwood, among others, have shared the personal challenges they faced in forging their
own paths as writers, at a time when such a career was still unusual in this country. Intimate, frank, and revealing in tone, their lectures -- collected for the first time in celebration of the series' twenty-fifth anniversary -- provide a unique account of a period when a national writing community was just being formed, and give us unprecedented access to the heroes and heroines of Canadian literature as they share their insights into their work, the profession of writing, the growing canon of our literature, and the cultural history of our country.
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The magnificent and long-awaited biography of the beloved writer who gave us the Manawaka novels, including The Diviners and The Stone Angel.
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In a writing career spanning nearly three decades, Margaret Laurence became one of the most celebrated and widely read authors in the world.
In this, her final work, Margaret Laurence reveals the story of her fascinating life, the process of her writing, and the people and emotional journeys which accompanied it. She relates her experiences living in different cultures; the issues and causes she so passionately upheld; her personal battle against censorship. She also pays tribute to the three women from whom she drew important spiritual strength.
Including a selection of her articles, speeches, and letters – many never before published – and photographs selected by Margaret Laurence from her personal family albums, Dance on the Earth is a book of celebration and exploration in which Margaret Laurence speaks openly about her place in the world as a woman, a writer, and a concerned human being.
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Today, almost two decades after her death, Margaret Laurence remains one of Canada’s best-known and most beloved writers. Twice winner Canada’s prestigious Governor General’s Award for fiction, she was, as the late William French wrote, “more profoundly admired than any other Canadian novelist of her generation.”
Lyall Powers is both a respected scholar of literature and a lifelong friend of Laurence’s, having met her when they were students together in the 1940s. Alien Heart is the first full-length biography of Margaret that combines personal knowledge and insights about Laurence with a study of her work, which often paralleled the events and concerns in her own life.
Drawing upon letters, personal correspondence, journals, and interviews, Powers discusses the struggles and triumphs Laurence experienced in efforts to understand herself in the roles of writer, wife, mother, and public figure. He portrays a deeply compassionate and courageous woman, who yet felt troubled by conflicting demands. While Laurence’s work is not directly autobiographical, Powers illustrates how her writing expressed many of the same dilemmas, and how the resolution her characters achieved in the novels and short stories impacted Laurence’s own life.
Powers provides an in-depth analysis of all Laurence’s work, including the early African essays, fiction, translations, and her books for children, as well as the beloved Manawaka fiction. This study clearly shows the progression and expression of Laurence as a writer of great humanity and conscience.
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A stunning book that captures the spirituality and talent of one of Canada's most celebrated writers, Noelle Boughton's biography of Margaret Laurence communicates a great deal about the decency and complexity of both the author and Canadian culture. Like most authors, Margaret Laurence's work drew on the community in which she lived, and the culture of the area informed the tone and content of her work. This original work traces the spiritual core and growth of one of Canada's most powerful artists. Starting from her roots in a middle-class, United Church, small-town prairie milieu, this beautifully wrought book traces Laurence's connection with her home town and its people and explores the themes of community, spirituality and social justice as they were expressed in her life and work. This is an indispensable guide to the life and development of one of Canada's most treasured writers.
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Over a period of forty years, from 1947 to 1986, Margaret Laurence and Adele Wiseman wrote to each other constantly. The topics they wrote about were as wide-ranging as their interests and experiences, and their correspondence encompassed many of the varied events of their lives. Laurence's letters - of which far more are extant than Wisman's - reveal much about the impact of her years in Africa, motherhood, her anxieties and insecurities, and her developement as a writer. Wiseman, whose literary success came early in her career, provided a sympathetic ear and constant encouragement to Laurence.
The editors' selection has been directed by an interest in these women as friends and writers. Their experiences in the publishing world offer an engaging perspective on literary apprenticeship, rejection, and success. The letters reveal the important roles both women played in the buoyant cultural nationalism of the 1960s and 1970s.
This valuable collection of previously unpublished primary material will be essential to scholars working on Canadian literature and of great interest to the general reading. The introduction contextualizes the correspondence and the annotations to the letters help to clarify the text. The Laurence-Wiseman letters offer a fascinating glimpse into the lives and friendship of two remarkable women whose personal correspondence was written with verve, com
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This collection of letters from Margaret Laurence to thirty-three Canadian writers is an intensely personal articulation of her development as a writer, and of the accompanying growth of Canadian literature between 1962 and 1986.
Included are letters to Margaret Atwood, Don Bailey, George Bowering, Ernest Buckler, Silver Donald Cameron, Marian Engel, Hubert Evans, Timothy Findley, Gary Geddes, Graeme Gibson, Harold Horwood, Myrna Kotash, Robert Kroetsch, Dennis Lee, Norman Levine, Hugh MacLennan, Joyce Marshall, John Metcalf, Claire Mowat, Alice Munro, Frank Paci, Al Purdy, Janis Rapoport, Will Ready, Mordecai Richler, Gabrielle Roy, Andreas Schroeder, Glen Sorestad, David Watmough, David Williams, Budge Wilson, George Woodcock, and Dale Zieroth, with anecdotal or interpretive remarks.
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The books of Margaret Laurence and Gabrielle Roy are among the most beloved in Canadian literature. In 1976, when both were at the height of their careers, they began a seven-year written correspondence. Laurence had just published her widely acclaimed The Diviners, for which she won her second Governor-General’s Award, and Roy had returned to the centre of the literary stage with a series of books that many critics now consider her richest and most mature works.Although both women had been born and raised in Manitoba —Laurence in Neepawa and Roy in St. Boniface — they met only once, in 1978 at a conference in Calgary. As these letters reveal, their prairie background created a common understanding of place and culture that bridged the differences of age and language. Here Laurence and Roy discuss everything from their own and each other’s writing, to Canadian politics, housekeeping, publishing, and their love of nature. With a thoughtful introduction by Paul G. Socken, these lovely and intimate letters record the moving, affectionate friendship between two remarkable women.