Laurence, Margaret, 1926-1987

Jean Margaret Laurence, née Wemyss, was born on July 18, 1926, in Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada.

She was a Canadian novelist and short-story writer. Having decided as a child on a career as a writer, she contributed to school and college magazines, using the invented name ‘Manawaka’ in a story for a Winnipeg Free Press contest (1939). In 1947, she graduated from Winnipeg's United College and worked as a reporter for the Winnipeg Citizen. In 1949, she moved with her husband, a civil engineer, to England. From 1950 to 1957, they lived in Africa, in the British Protectorate of Somaliland (now Somalia) and Ghana. Laurence developed an admiration for Africa and its various populations, which found expression in her writing. She published "A Tree for Poverty" (1954), an essay on and collection of Somali poetry and prose, and her Somali memoir, "The Prophet's Camel Bell" (1963). After living in England for ten years, she became a writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto in 1969. In 1971, she was named a Companion of the Order of Canada. Laurence served as Chancellor of Trent University in Peterborough from 1981 to 1983. Two of her novels, "A Jest of God" (1966) and "The Diviners" (1974), won the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. She spent the last decade of her life writing and speaking on issues such as nuclear disarmament, the environment, and literacy. In 2016, she was named a National Historic Person. Her home in Lakefield is now a museum.

In 1947, she married John Fergus (Jack) Laurence (1916-2014) and divorced in 1969. She died on January 5, 1987, in Lakefield, Ontario.