Before she was a literary icon, Margaret Laurence wrote under a bomber's name.

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Margaret Laurence, a titan of Canadian literature, began her career hiding behind the pseudonym Steve Lancaster—a nod to a powerful World War II bomber. Her journey from a small-town upbringing in Manitoba to international acclaim reveals a writer deeply shaped by her experiences in Africa and her commitment to craft.

Born Jean Margaret Wemyss in 1926, Laurence grew up in Neepawa, Manitoba, where she began writing short stories as a teenager. Her early academic life at United College in Winnipeg proved transformative. There, she joined an elite English Club, became an associate editor for the literary journal Vox, and immersed herself in the Social Gospel movement, a Christian socialist philosophy that would influence her for the rest of her life. By the time she graduated in 1947, she had already published numerous poems, short stories, and essays.

Laurence's global perspective was forged during her marriage to engineer Jack Fergus Laurence. Living in British Somaliland and the Gold Coast between 1950 and 1957, she developed a profound admiration for African oral traditions, compiling Somali poetry and prose in her 1954 work, A Tree for Poverty. Her time in Africa also sharpened her ethical concerns regarding colonial dynamics, themes that would permeate her later fiction. After returning to Canada and separating from her husband, she settled into a prolific period of writing, famously penning The Diviners in a cabin on the Otonabee River.

She is best known for her 'Manawaka' series, a collection of novels set in a fictional Manitoba town. The most celebrated, The Stone Angel (1964), follows the 90-year-old Hagar Shipley. Her work earned her two Governor General's Awards and established her as a foundational figure in Canadian literature. Following a terminal lung cancer diagnosis in 1986, Laurence chose to end her life at her home in Lakefield, Ontario, in January 1987. Today, her legacy is preserved through the Writers' Trust of Canada, the Margaret Laurence Memorial Lecture, and her designation as a National Historic Person.

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