This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.
Some of the letters of the alphabet, in this ongoing project, are no-brainers. I already know who ‘M’ is going to be, and I suspect you do too if you read this blog. And I knew who would step forward for L – it had to be my boy Stephen Leacock. Look at that towering pile of Canada’s finest.
How many books do I have by Stephen Leacock?
There are TWENTY-SEVEN Leacock books there, though that does include a couple of ‘best ofs’ that I think replicate content found in the others. I’ve no idea how many books Leacock wrote, and I’ve only actively sought out one of these books – My Discovery of England – relying on serendipity to find the others. He is one of those authors who turns up often, almost always (in this country) in 1910s-30s editions that speak to a popularity he once had.
How many of these have I read?
I have almost no idea. Because so many of them are collections of essays/sketches, the titles don’t always clue you in to their contents. According to my LibraryThing, where I mark whether or not I’ve read a book, I have read 14 of them. But the bulk of my Leacock reading was pre-blog, around 2004-6, so I don’t have a firm recollection of how accurate that is. I still read one every year or two, so I can keep going for a bit.
How did I start reading Stephen Leacock?
I think I was lent some by my aunt, but it’s also possible that I discovered him in the same place I discovered E.M. Delafield – a 1940 volume of sketches called Modern Humour. As I say above, I was on a bit of a blitz of reading him 15 or so years ago, and whenever I pick one up I’m reminded why I enjoy him so much.
General impressions…
What a joyful writer Leacock is. His essays and sketches tend to be ironic or dry, or sometimes openly pastiching some well-known writing of the day, and he has a taste for the surreal that almost always lands on the right side of too far. He is an exemplary judge of that – of being careful with the absurdities to make them still enjoyable. Among the books in that pile are some more serious things, I think, but I’ve only dabbled in them.
When I went to Canada in 2017, I was keen to fill some Leacock gaps – and to visit his house, which was a wonderful experience. It was a novelty to see editions of his works that were printed in the past 70 years, and a couple of the paperbacks up the top of the pile came from that trip. I don’t think Leacock is much read anymore, even in Canada, but he should be.
It’s so sad that the Leacock Building at McGill university is being renamed — after a wealthy donor. He wasn’t just a great writer, he was a great man.
Oh, that is a shame! Yes, he seems like a wonderful person
Really?! I was just about to write that I am 40 years overdue reading Leacock. I studied English Literature at McGill, and most of my classes were in the Leacock Building. I will read some Leacock soon, and I am sorry that the building is being renamed!
That’s a lot of Leacock! I guess you know that Renard Press recently reprinted some of his work?
Yes! One of the reasons I was so impressed by their output
WOW, that is some collection. I am tremendously impressed. I’ve got two, I think. Maybe three. Have you read any of Robertson Davies? His Samuel Marchbanks books are kind of Leacockian in spirit.
I haven’t – thanks for the recommendation
Hello, I came upon your blog while researching a book by Stephen Leacock, that was found in Lee Harvey Oswald’s possessions in 1964: “Perfect Lovers Guide and other stories”. I was intrigued and wanted to know what it was about. I had never heard of Leacock but did some googling and found he was a famous Canadian humorist and author, ala Mark Twain, and that that book was published in Moscow in 1958. However, I couldn’t find a synopsis of it anywhere. There are some copies for sale on Russian used book seller sites. I was wondering if you have read it, and if so if you could summarize it? Amazingly, it’s not in the list of his books on his Wikipedia page. Thanks! Do a find for “Leacock” in this Warren Commission document: https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/pdf/WH25_CE_2557.pdf