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Death of Margaret Laurence

Broadcast Date: Sept. 20, 1966

She wrote words that have become part of Canada's national psyche.
Margaret Laurence, the author behind such classics as The Stone Angel and The Diviners, took her own life at her home in Lakefield, Ont. on Jan. 5, 1987. She was 60 years old.
Laurence was best-known for her series set in the fictional town of Manawaka, Man. She spoke to CBC's Adrienne Clarkson in 1966 about growing up in the Prairies.

The interview took place right after the publication of A Jest of God, Laurence's second novel in the acclaimed Manawaka series. Despite the countless awards and accolades, Laurence had long suffered from depression and alcoholism. At the time of her death, the media reported that Laurence had died of lung cancer, with which she was diagnosed in 1986.
It wasn't until 1997, with the publication of James King's biography The Life of Margaret Laurence that the world learned of her suicide.

Death of Margaret Laurence

• Margaret Laurence was born Jean Margaret Wemyss on July 18, 1926.
• She and her husband Jack Laurence lived in Africa from 1950 to 1957. Their two children, Jocelyn and David, were born in Africa.
• After separating from her husband in 1962, Laurence moved to England with her two children. Over the next decade she would publish four of her five novels in the Manawaka series.

• The five novels that make up the Manawaka series are The Stone Angel (1964), A Jest of God (1966), The Fire-Dwellers (1969), A Bird in the House (1970) and The Diviners (1974).
• Laurence won two Governor General's Awards: First for A Jest of God and the second for The Diviners.
• Laurence was made Companion of the Order of Canada in 1971.

Also on January 5:
•1839: Gallows are erected in London, Upper Canada, for the province's first hanging, of Hiram Benjamin Lynn of Michigan on Jan. 7.
•1910: Le club athletique Canadien hockey team – forerunner of the Canadiens – plays its first game in Montreal.
•1997: Montreal solo sailor Gerry Roufs disappears in the Southern Ocean during the Vendée Globe round-the-world, single-handed, non-stop yacht race. His boat, Groupe LG2, is found on the coast of Chile in July 1997.

Death of Margaret Laurence

Medium: Television

Program: Take 30

Broadcast Date: Sept. 20, 1966

Guest(s): Margaret Laurence

Host: Adrienne Clarkson

Duration: 5:19

Last updated:
April 25, 2008