This new book is a pictorial treasure, tracing the life of Canada's first and foremost man of letters, a legendary teacher and a world-renowned humorist. More than two hundred photographs are reproduced, drawn from the archives of the Stephen Leacock Museum, housed in the Leacock estate, "The Old Brewery Bay" in Orillia. Most are published for the first time. In this exclusive collection, we follow Stephen Leacock from a Lake Simcoe farm to Upper Canada College, to McGill University, and global acclaim that followed the publication of his first books of humour before World War I. Many are intimate family portraits; many are set at The Old Brewery Bay, the "farm" he established in 1908 on the shores of Lake Couchiching, where the greats of American and Canadian literary and academic life gathered and celebrated over the next thirty-five years.
Author Biography
James A 'Pete' McGarvey is a retired radio journalist who led the movement in the 1950s to acquire and restore the Leacock summer home in Orillia. His first-hand account of that venture, The Old Brewery Bay: A Leacockian Tale, was published in October 1994 by Dundurn Press. 'Pete' McGarvey, long active in Toronto radio, is retired to Orillia where he serves as 1998 chair of the Stephen Leacock Museum board. Since assuming the role of curator-director of the Stephen Leacock Museum, Orillia-born Daphne Mainprize has been a tireless promoter of the humorist who put Orillia on the map as Mariposa in his 1912 masterpiece Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. One of her proudest moments came in June 1994 with the designation of the Leacock estate as a National Historic Site. Orillia-born Daphne Mainprize has been a tireless promoter of the humorist who put Orillia on the map as Mariposa in his 1912 masterpiece Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. One of her proudest moments came in June 1994 with the designation of the Leacock estate as a National Historic Site. Daphne is part of a task force working to promote Orillia's Leacock legacy to world-wide importance through the creation of a Leacock foundation and national fund-raising.
