Stephen Leacock - Delphi Complete Works of Stephen Leacock (Illustrated) (Delphi Series Nine Book 21)

The Complete Works of

STEPHEN LEACOCK

(1869-1944)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2018

Version 1

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The Complete Works of

STEPHEN LEACOCK

By Delphi Classics, 2018

Complete Works of Stephen Leacock

First published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2018.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 406 1

Delphi Classics

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Delphi Publishing Ltd

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Swanmore, a village near Southampton in southern England Leacocks birthplace

The Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock was born in England in 1869. His father, Peter Leacock, and his mother, Agnes Emma Butler Leacock, were both from affluent families. The Leacock family, eventually consisting of eleven children, immigrated to Canada in 1876, settling on a one hundred-acre farm in Sutton, Ontario. Young Stephen was home-schooled until he was enrolled at Upper Canada College, Toronto. He became the head boy in 1887 and then entered the University of Toronto to study languages and literature. In spite of completing two years of study in one year, he was forced to leave the university when his father had abandoned the family. Instead, Leacock enrolled in a three-month course at Strathroy Collegiate Institute to become a qualified high school teacher.

His first appointment was at Uxbridge High School, Ontario, though he was soon offered a post at Upper Canada College, where he remained from 1889 to 1899. He also resumed part-time studies at the University of Toronto, graduating with a B.A. in 1891. However, Leacocks real interests were turning towards economics and political theory, and in 1899 he was accepted for postgraduate studies at the University of Chicago, where he earned his PhD in 1903.

Three years later, he wrote Elements of Political Science , which remained a standard college textbook for the next twenty years and became his most profitable book. He also began public speaking and lecturing, and he took a years leave of absence in 1907 to speak throughout Canada on the subject of national unity. He typically spoke on national unity or the British Empire for the rest of his life.

Leacock had begun submitting articles to the Toronto humour magazine Grip in 1894 and was soon publishing numerous humorous articles in Canadian and American magazines. In 1910, he privately published a choice selection of these pieces in Literary Lapses . The book was spotted by a British publisher, John Lane, who issued editions in London and New York, assuring Leacocks future as a writer. This was followed by Nonsense Novels (1911) probably his finest collection of humorous sketches and by the more sentimental favourite, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912). Leacocks humorous style is reminiscent of Mark Twain and Charles Dickens at their sunniest evidently shown in the satisfying work My Discovery of England (1922). Collections of Leacocks sketches continued to follow almost annually, providing an inimitable mixture of whimsy, parody, nonsense and satire that was never bitter.

The first edition

Leacock as a young man

W HEN I GO into a bank I get rattled. The clerks rattle me; the wickets rattle me; the sight of the money rattles me; everything rattles me.

The moment I cross the threshold of a bank and attempt to transact business there, I become an irresponsible idiot.

I knew this beforehand, but my salary had been raised to fifty dollars a month and I felt that the bank was the only place for it.

So I shambled in and looked timidly round at the clerks. I had an idea that a person about to open an account must needs consult the manager.

I went up to a wicket marked Accountant. The accountant was a tall, cool devil. The very sight of him rattled me. My voice was sepulchral.

Can I see the manager? I said, and added solemnly, alone. I dont know why I said alone.

Certainly, said the accountant, and fetched him.

The manager was a grave, calm man. I held my fifty-six dollars clutched in a crumpled ball in my pocket.