Home · Arts & Entertainment · Literature · Margaret Laurence: Canada's Divine Writer
Topic spans: 1926 - 1987
Margaret Laurence: Canada's Divine Writer
Margaret Laurence was one of Canada's most esteemed and beloved writers. She is best known for her Manawaka novels — The Stone Angel, A Jest of God, The Fire Dwellers and The Diviners — which are considered classics of Canadian literature. Yet few know the facts of Laurence's extraordinary and sometimes difficult life.
Portrait by Harold Town. Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. R5740-60
5 television clips
5 radio clips
A difficult childhood
Broadcast Date: Sept. 10, 1997
Margaret Laurence is born Jean Margaret Wemyss to Robert and Verna Wemyss in the town of Neepawa, Man. on July 18, 1926. Laurence has an especially difficult childhood. Shortly after her fourth birthday, her mother dies. Only two years later she loses her father. Laurence's profound grief is intensified by life with her strict grandfather. Sad and alone, she finds refuge in writing. Her imagination proves as limitless as the Prairie sky.A difficult childhood
• Neepawa comes from the Cree word nepa, which means "rest" or "sleep." The first residents of Neepawa were the Assiniboine and the Cree who lived there in seasonal cycles. Throughout the 1800s, English, Irish and Scots settled in the area. In the early 20th century, Eastern European immigrants arrived from Ontario and other parts of Canada. Neepawa's cultural history inspires Laurence's fictional town of Manawaka.A difficult childhood
Medium: Television
Program: The National Magazine
Broadcast Date: Sept. 10, 1997
Guest(s): Robert Fulford, Mona Meredith
Host: Hana Gartner
Duration: 1:18
Last updated:
Dec. 7, 2003
Activez le Javascript sur votre navigateur...
10 clips in this topic . page
Television
29:09
May 9, 1997
A year after the release of her wildly successful debut novel Fall on your Knees, MacDonald chats with Pamela Wallin in 1997.
Topic
A master of the short story, Alice Munro is one of Canada's most acclaimed literary treasures. With characters and settings that often mirror her own background and memories, her unadorned yet emotionally...
A difficult childhood.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: Dec. 7, 2003.
[Page consulted on Feb. 15, 2012.]