Canada's Master Humorist Will Brighten Your Day

Gary North

I first learned of Stephen Leacock when I was in seminary back in 1963. A Canadian student, Ben Short, invited me to a small group. There, he read one of Leacock stories, "The Maritime Excursion of the Knights of Pythias." It is better known as "The Sinking of the Mariposa Belle." From that reading, I gained a lifelong appreciation of Leacock.

I began buying Leacock's books in used book stores. I even bought his textbook on political economy -- what academic economics was called in the late nineteenth century. Leacock once wrote this about the field: "It's called political economy because it has nothing to do with either politics or economy." It is a dull book, as he suspected. Leacock was a popular lecturer. He sometimes would ask his audiences this: "Has anyone here read my textbook on political economy?" He reported that no one ever put up his hand. Anyway, that's how I recall the story. I donated the book to the Mises Institute, along with 13,000 other volumes.

The Wikipedia entry on Leacock says this:

Stephen P. H. Butler Leacock, FRSC (30 December 1869 – 28 March 1944) was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist. Between the years 1915 and 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humorist in the world. He is known for his light humour along with criticisms of people's follies. . . .

Disillusioned with teaching, in 1899 he began graduate studies at the University of Chicago under Thorstein Veblen, where he received a doctorate in political science and political economy. He moved from Chicago, Illinois to Montreal, Quebec, where he eventually became the William Dow Professor of Political Economy and long-time chair of the Department of Economics and Political Science at McGill University. . . .

Early in his career, Leacock turned to fiction, humour, and short reports to supplement (and ultimately exceed) his regular income. His stories, first published in magazines in Canada and the United States and later in novel form, became extremely popular around the world. It was said in 1911 that more people had heard of Stephen Leacock than had heard of Canada. Also, between the years 1915 and 1925, Leacock was the most popular humorist in the English-speaking world.

I like this: "It was said in 1911 that more people had heard of Stephen Leacock than had heard of Canada." This is quite Leacockian.

The American humorist most like Leacock today is (or was) Garrison Keillor. In his early years, so was Bill Cosby. So was Jean Shepherd, who wrote and narrated A Christmas Story. So was Will Rogers, a contemporary of Leacock's, although Rogers wrote one-liners in newspaper columns, not short stories. The original model was Mark Twain.

My favorite Leacock passage is this: "Lord Ronald said nothing; he flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions." This is from "Gertrude the Governess," a short story in Nonsense Novels (1911).

This is a beautifully written review of Leacock's humor. Read it. The author notes that Leacock's humor was the model for the British comedy radio show, The Goon Show. Peter Sellers got his breakthrough on The Goon Show. I was a huge fan of this show when I was in high school, long before I heard of Leacock, and only shortly after I had heard of Canada. The auhor also says that John Cleese admitted that Leacock influenced the creators of Monty Python. I don't see the connection, for Monty Python was in-your-face nihilistic. Leacock was a conservative in every respect. On his conservatism, see this article in The Canadian Encyclopedia.

For a good introduction to Leacock's writing, go here.

The copyrights have all lapsed. His books are on Gutenberg's site. They can be downloaded.

I plan to select pieces that amuse me. They may amuse you. Or not. You never know. Neither do I.

I first posted a Leacock story, "Eddie the Bartender," in December 2014. Read it here.

The latest posted story will be at the top. The list descends by chronological posting.