MacLennan, Hugh, 1907-1990

Novelist Hugh MacLennan was born in Glace Bay, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. After earning his B.A. from Dalhousie (1928), he went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (B.A., M.A. 1932) and finally to Princeton, where he received master's and doctoral degrees in classics in 1935. MacLennan taught classics at Lower Canada College from 1935 to 1945, when he joined the English Department at McGill. He retired as Emeritus Professor in 1980. MacLennan's novels explore universal themes through particular Canadian experiences, such as the Halifax explosion (Barometer Rising, 1941) or the relations of French and English in Québec (Two Solitudes, 1945). Other titles include the Watch that Ends the Night (1959), Each Man's Son (1951), and Return of the Sphinx (1967). MacLennan has also published essays and articles on the Canadian character, landscape, and history.