Background
Laurence, Margaret was born on July 18, 1926 in Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada. Daughter of Robert Harrison and Margaret Campbell (Simpson) Wemyss.
(Between 1964 and 1975, Margaret Laurence wrote not only h...)
Between 1964 and 1975, Margaret Laurence wrote not only her Manawaka cycle, but also this collection of essays chronicling her travels and revealing how they inspired her fiction. Nora Foster Stovel's new introduction explores how Laurence's experiences in Somalia, Nigeria, Greece, Egypt, England and Scotland influenced and informed her Canadian fiction.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/077104710X/?tag=2022091-20
(The ten stories gathered together in The Tomorrow-Tamer a...)
The ten stories gathered together in The Tomorrow-Tamer are Margaret Laurence’s first published fiction. Set in raucous and often terrifying Ghana, where shiny Jaguars and modern jazz jostle for eminence against fetish figures, tribal rites, and the unchanging beat of jungle drums, the stories tell of individuals, European and African, trying to come to terms with the frightening world brought about by the country’s new freedom. With the same compassion and understanding she would bring to her later fiction set in Canada, Laurence succeeds brilliantly in capturing the atmosphere of a continent and of individual men and women struggling for survival under the impact of the wind of change.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0771091702/?tag=2022091-20
( Best known for her novels about the Canadian prairie, M...)
Best known for her novels about the Canadian prairie, Margaret Laurence began her career writing about West Africa. Based on her experience living with her husband on the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in the years just before independence, This Side Jordan confronts issues of race relations, sexism, and colonial exploitation. This lyrical, vivid novel addresses all of the tensions of the time: the excitement, anticipation, and dread felt by both the Africans and the English as they confronted a new order. The book’s hero, a school teacher torn between duty to his tribe and aspirations for his country’s future in the modern world, names his son “Joshua” as a sign of hope that he will claim and enjoy his homeland. This Side Jordan anticipates many of the political and racial issues that were to plague Ghana over the next fifty years. Evocative and poignant, it is a subtle study of the effects of colonialism, culture clash, and the resilience of hope in new political identity. “Highly recommended as a good and timely read.”—Library Journal
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226469980/?tag=2022091-20
("Those darn cows!" said Tod. "I wish they'd just get lost...)
"Those darn cows!" said Tod. "I wish they'd just get lost!" But when the cows do get lost, it's up to Tod Bean, his sister Jen Bean and their black dog Zip to find them and bring them home. Tod and Jen learn that on a farm, everyone helps. Short chapters and easy-to-read text make this story a perennial favorite.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1552777197/?tag=2022091-20
(Novel set in Canada centers on a repressed woman who find...)
Novel set in Canada centers on a repressed woman who finds the strength to free herself. Story was later made into a movie starring Joanne Woodward.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002C6CISC/?tag=2022091-20
(Truly a classic by one of Canada’s finest authors Ten-ye...)
Truly a classic by one of Canada’s finest authors Ten-year-old Sal is disappointed when she and her parents spend Christmas at her grandmother’s house, instead of at home, like they did before Grandpa died. In order to pass the time, Sal explores the contents of an old trunk. Searching through the old photographs she comes across a little girl’s winter coat, tries it on, and finds herself transported into the past where she makes an unexpected connection to her heritage and her grandmother. This model tale of time travel was one of Margaret Laurence’s few forays into children’s literature and has remained a favourite of children of all ages. New art by the original illustrator makes this a beautiful book for Christmas and for all seasons. A special treat for Margaret Laurence fans. From the Hardcover edition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887767044/?tag=2022091-20
(Book Description Publication Date: June 17 2011 | Series...)
Book Description Publication Date: June 17 2011 | Series: Kids of Canada "Those darn cows!" said Tod. "I wish they'd just get lost!" But when the cows do get lost, it's up to Tod Bean, his sister Jen Bean, and their black dog Zip to find them and bring them home. Tod and Jen learn that on a farm, everyone helps. Short chapters and easy-to-read text make this story a perennial favorite.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007SLNLOG/?tag=2022091-20
( In The Diviners, Morag Gunn, a middle aged writer who l...)
In The Diviners, Morag Gunn, a middle aged writer who lives in a farmhouse on the Canadian prairie, struggles to understand the loneliness of her eighteen-year-old daughter. With unusual wit and depth, Morag recognizes that she needs solitude and work as much as she needs the love of her family. With an afterword by Margaret Atwood. "Mrs. Laurence's novel is both poetic and muscular, and her heroine is certainly one of the more humane, unglorified, unpolemical, believable women to have appeared in recent fiction."—The New Yorker
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226469352/?tag=2022091-20
( The Stone Angel, The Diviners, and A Bird in the House ...)
The Stone Angel, The Diviners, and A Bird in the House are three of the five books in Margaret Laurence's renowned "Manawaka series," named for the small Canadian prairie town in which they take place. Each of these books is narrated by a strong woman growing up in the town and struggling with physical and emotional isolation. In The Stone Angel, Hagar Shipley, age ninety, tells the story of her life, and in doing so tries to come to terms with how the very qualities which sustained her have deprived her of joy. Mingling past and present, she maintains pride in the face of senility, while recalling the life she led as a rebellious young bride, and later as a grieving mother. Laurence gives us in Hagar a woman who is funny, infuriating, and heartbreakingly poignant. "This is a revelation, not impersonation. The effect of such skilled use of language is to lead the reader towards the self-recognition that Hagar misses."—Robertson Davies, New York Times "It is Laurence's admirable achievement to strike, with an equally sure touch, the peculiar note and the universal; she gives us a portrait of a remarkable character and at the same time the picture of old age itself, with the pain, the weariness, the terror, the impotent angers and physical mishaps, the realization that others are waiting and wishing for an end."—Honor Tracy, The New Republic "Miss Laurence is the best fiction writer in the Dominion and one of the best in the hemisphere."—Atlantic "Laurence demonstrates in The Stone Angel that she has a true novelist's gift for catching a character in mid-passion and life at full flood. . . . As Hagar Shipley daydreams and chatters and lurches through the novel, she traces one of the most convincing—and the most touching—portraits of an unregenerate sinner declining into senility since Sara Monday went to her reward in Joyce Cary's The Horse's Mouth."—Time "Laurence's triumph is in her evocation of Hagar at ninety. . . . We sympathize with her in her resistance to being moved to a nursing home, in her preposterous flight, in her impatience in the hospital. Battered, depleted, suffering, she rages with her last breath against the dying of the light. The Stone Angel is a fine novel, admirably written and sustained by unfailing insight."—Granville Hicks, Saturday Review "The Stone Angel is a good book because Mrs. Laurence avoids sentimentality and condescension; Hagar Shipley is still passionately involved in the puzzle of her own nature. . . . Laurence's imaginative tact is strikingly at work, for surely this is what it feels like to be old."—Paul Pickrel, Harper's
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226469360/?tag=2022091-20
( A thirty-four-year-old school teacher living with her m...)
A thirty-four-year-old school teacher living with her mother, Rachel Cameron feels trapped in an environment of small-town deceit and pettiness—her own and that of others. She longs for contact with another human being who shares her rebellious spirit. Finally, by confronting both love and death, Rachel earns the freedom she desperately needs. Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award, A Jest of God was also the basis of the movie Rachel, Rachel. "Mrs. Laurence tells her story unsparingly, with absolute authority, using her thorough understanding of Rachel to draw us into her anguish. We know Rachel, sympathize with her, and in a sense, become Rachel, so authentic is her voice. . . . A Jest of God has extraordinary clarity, beautiful detail, as well as the emotional impact of honest confession."—Joan J. Hall, Saturday Review "Laurence's rendition is close to faultless . . . reaffirming her ability to draw, without pathos, life-sized women. . . . Skillfully wrought and eloquently told."—Marilyn Gardner, Christian Science Monitor One of Canada's most accomplished writers, Margaret Laurence(1926-1987) was the recipient of many awards, including the prestigious Governer General's Litarary Award for The Diviners and A Jest of God.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226469522/?tag=2022091-20
( A Bird in the House is a series of eight interconnected...)
A Bird in the House is a series of eight interconnected short stories narrated by Vanessa MacLeod as she matures from a child at age ten into a young woman at age twenty. Wise for her years, Vanessa reveals much about the adult world in which she lives. "Vanessa rebels against the dominance of age; she watches her grandfather imitate her aunt Edna; and her rage at times is such that she would gladly kick him. It takes great skill to keep this story within the expanding horizon of this young girl and yet make it so revealing of the adult world."—Atlantic "A Bird in the House achieves the breadth of scope which we usually associate with the novel (and thereby is as psychologically valid as a good novel), and at the same time uses the techniques of the short story form to reveal the different aspects of the young Vanessa." —Kent Thompson, The Fiddlehead "I am haunted by the women in Laurence's novels as if they really were alive—and not as women I've known, but as women I've been."—Joan Larkin, Ms. Magazine "Not since . . . To Kill a Mockingbird has there been a novel like this. It should not be missed by anyone who has a child or was a child."—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette One of Canada's most accomplished writers, Margaret Laurence (1926-87) was the recipient of many awards including Canada's prestigious Governor General's Literary Award on two separate occasions, once for The Diviners.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226469344/?tag=2022091-20
( Convinced that life has more to offer than the tedious ...)
Convinced that life has more to offer than the tedious routine of her days, Stacey MacAindra yearns to recover some of the passion of her early romance. In this extraordinary novel, Margaret Laurence has given us yet another unforgettable heroine: smart, witty, but overwhelmed by the responsibilities of raising four children and trying to love her overworked husband. The Fire Dwellers helps us to rediscover all the richness of the commonplace, as well as the pain, beauty—and humor—of being alive. "Stacey's state of mind is revealed in a swift-flowing stream of dialogue, reaction, reproach, and nostalgia. . . . Laurence is the best fiction writer in the Dominion and one of the best in the hemisphere."—Atlantic
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226469514/?tag=2022091-20
(In 1957, the British colony of the Gold Coast broke free ...)
In 1957, the British colony of the Gold Coast broke free to become the independent nation of Ghana. Margaret Laurence’s first novel, This Side Jordan, recreates that colour-drenched world: a place where men and women struggle with self-betrayal, self-discovery, and the dawning of political pride. This Side Jordan transcends the traditional limits of the first novel. Its powerful and compassionate characterizations and its themes of exile and community anticipate the five later novels that make up Laurence’s acclaimed Manawaka series. A major work of lasting significance, This Side Jordan creates echoes in the mind of the reader as resonant as the drums of Ghana.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0771092261/?tag=2022091-20
Laurence, Margaret was born on July 18, 1926 in Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada. Daughter of Robert Harrison and Margaret Campbell (Simpson) Wemyss.
Bachelor, United College now University Manitoba, 1947. D. Little, McMaster University, 1971. D. Little honorary, Trent University, 1971.
D. Little honorary, University Toronto, 1971. D. Little honorary, Carleton University, 1974. D. Little honorary, University Brandon, 1974.
D. Little honorary, Mount Allison, 1976. D. Little honorary, University York, 1980. Doctor of Laws. honorary, Dalhousie University, 1971.
Writer in residence University Toronto, 1969-1970, University Western Ontario, 1973. Chancellor Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, 1981-1983.
(Truly a classic by one of Canada’s finest authors Ten-ye...)
( The Stone Angel, The Diviners, and A Bird in the House ...)
(One of Canada’s most accomplished authors combines the be...)
(Between 1964 and 1975, Margaret Laurence wrote not only h...)
( In The Diviners, Morag Gunn, a middle aged writer who l...)
( A thirty-four-year-old school teacher living with her m...)
( A thirty-four-year-old school teacher living with her m...)
( A Bird in the House is a series of eight interconnected...)
( Convinced that life has more to offer than the tedious ...)
( Convinced that life has more to offer than the tedious ...)
( Best known for her novels about the Canadian prairie, M...)
(The ten stories gathered together in The Tomorrow-Tamer a...)
(Book Description Publication Date: June 17 2011 | Series...)
(In 1957, the British colony of the Gold Coast broke free ...)
(The author's interpretation of Jesus' birth and the subse...)
(Novel set in Canada centers on a repressed woman who find...)
(This is a ex library book that has marker in the inside c...)
(Margaret Laurence was born in Neepawa, Manitoba, in 1926....)
("Those darn cows!" said Tod. "I wish they'd just get lost...)
(Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include compa...)
(paperbound)
Married John Fergus Laurence, 1947 (divorced 1969). Children: Jocelyn, David.