Jean Margaret Laurence (née Wemyss, 18 July 1926 – 5 January 1987) was a Canadian writer.
She attended Winnipeg’s United College, where she took courses in English, History, Ethics, and Psychology, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature in 1947. Laurence worked as a journalist at the independent newspaper the Winnipeg Citizen. After marriage, she and her husband moved to England, in 1949; then to the then-British protectorate of British Somaliland, from 1950 to 1952; to the British colony of the Gold Coast (now Ghana), from 1952 to 1957; and, finally, moved back to Vancouver, British Columbia, where they stayed for five years. In 1962, she separated from her husband and moved to London for a year. In 1969, she became writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto, and later, she moved to Lakefield, Ontario.
In 1986, Laurence was diagnosed with lung cancer, and committed suicide at her home in 1987.
Awards
- Governor General’s Award for her novel A Jest of God (1966)
- Companion of the Order of Canada (1972)
- Governor General’s Award for her novel The Diviners (1974)
- National Historic Person (2016)
Books
Novels
- This Side Jordan (1960)
- The Stone Angel (1964)
- A Jest of God (1966)
- The Fire-Dwellers (1969)
- The Diviners (1974)
Short story collections
- The Tomorrow-Tamer (1963)
- A Bird in the House (1970)
Children’s books
- Jason’s Quest (1970)
- Six Darn Cows (1979)
- The Olden Days Coat (1980)
- The Christmas Birthday Story (1982)
Non-fiction
- A Tree for Poverty (1954, anthology of Somali poetry and folk stories)
- The Prophet’s Camel Bell (1963, non-fiction account of Laurence’s life in British Somaliland)
- Long Drums and Cannons: Nigerian Dramatists and Novelists 1952-1966 (1968)
- Heart of a Stranger (1976, essays)
- Dance on the Earth: A Memoir (1989)
Books about her
- The Life of Margaret Laurence, by James King (1998)
- Alien Heart: The Life and Work of Margaret Laurence, by Lyall Powers (2004)
- Margaret Laurence: the Writer and Her Critics, by W. H. New, ed. (1977)
- Margaret Laurence, by Clara Thomas (1969)
- The Manawaka World of Margaret Laurence, by Clara Thomas (1975)
- A Place To Stand On: Essays By and About Margaret Laurence, by George Woodcock, ed. (1983)
