In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1926
- Died
- 1987
- Birthplace
- Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada
- Country
- Canada
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Manawaka fiction and writing for children
- Picturebook collaborator
- Muriel Wood
Why this life matters
Her fiction and work for children make different demands on the reader. The place remembered by a writer and the book jointly made with an illustrator should each retain their particular history.
Timeline
Key moments
Graduation
United College, English honours.
Manawaka fiction
The Stone Angel.
University service
Chancellor of Trent University.
Education and a wider world
Laurence grew up in Neepawa and graduated from United College in 1947 with honours in English. After marriage she lived in England, Somaliland and Ghana.
Those African years informed fiction, travel writing and her interest in other writers’ work.
The places of a working life should not be reduced to a list of settings. Travel changed what she could observe and whom she encountered, while the prairie childhood remained another important resource.
The Manawaka books
The Stone Angel (1964), A Jest of God (1966), The Fire-Dwellers (1969), A Bird in the House (1970) and The Diviners (1974) form the Manawaka sequence. The town is fictional rather than a direct documentary map.
A Jest of God and The Diviners received Governor General’s Awards.
Work beyond the familiar sequence
Her publications also include This Side Jordan, The Prophet’s Camel Bell and essays. Later titles include Six Darn Cows and The Olden Days Coat.
The library record for the latter names Muriel Wood as illustrator.
Writing for a younger audience is a change of creative problem, not simply a smaller version of an adult novel. Words and pictures can distribute information differently, and an illustrator’s contribution needs its own credit.
A later institutional life
In 1974 she moved to Lakefield, Ontario.
She served as Trent University’s chancellor from 1981 to 1983. She died in 1987; Dance on the Earth was published posthumously in 1989.
Teaching, speaking and university service extended her public presence beyond the production of an individual manuscript. Her varied output encourages readers to follow a particular work’s form and collaborators rather than assume that one celebrated sequence exhausts the career.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Margaret Laurence
- Who was Margaret Laurence?
- Margaret Laurence was a novelist and short-story writer. Her fiction and work for children make different demands on the reader. The place remembered by a writer and the book jointly made with an illustrator should each retain their particular history.
- What is Margaret Laurence best known for?
- Margaret Laurence is best known for manawaka fiction and writing for children.
- When and where was Margaret Laurence born?
- Margaret Laurence was born in 1926 in Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada.
- When did Margaret Laurence die?
- Margaret Laurence died in 1987.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Gabrielle Roy
Compare another writer whose work moved among places, languages and audiences.
- Alice Munro
Read another Canadian career shaped by the short story.
- Hugh MacLennan
Read another novelist who also wrote essays and taught.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.