Stephen Leacock

Beloved Canadian author Stephen Leacock was the best-known humorist in the English-speaking world from 1915 to 1925. He wrote more than 60 books, including Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town and Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich.

Leacock studied languages at UC, then taught at Upper Canada College before earning a PhD in political economy at the University of Chicago. Returning to Canada, he joined the faculty at McGill University, where he remained until retirement. He was a prolific writer of humorous fiction, literary essays, and articles on social issues, politics, economics, science and history and claimed in his later years, “I can write up anything now at a hundred yards."

The leading award for humour in Canada is named after him, and his summer home in Orillia is now a museum which attracts thousands of visitors each year.