Margaret Laurence, born as Jean Margaret Wemyss on July 18, 1926, in Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada, was a celebrated Canadian author. She was known as "Peggy" during her childhood and was raised by her Aunt Margaret after her mother's early death. Laurence's professional writing career began in 1943 at the town newspaper, and she continued to write throughout her time at United College in Winnipeg and later as a reporter for The Winnipeg Citizen.
In 1947, Laurence married Jack Laurence, a civil engineer, and their travels to England, Somalia, and Ghana had a significant impact on her writing. It was during her time in Africa that she gained an appreciation for the storytelling traditions of its peoples and published her first book, "A Tree for Poverty," in 1954. After returning to Canada, she published a collection of short stories and a novel, both focusing on African subjects.
Laurence's writing shifted to Canadian subjects, and she published "The Stone Angel" in 1964, the first of her "Manawaka novels," a series of books set in a fictional prairie community modeled after her hometown of Neepawa, Manitoba. She received critical and commercial acclaim in Canada and was named a Companion to the Order of Canada in 1971.
In the early 1970s, Laurence returned to Canada and settled in Lakefield, Ontario. She continued to write and published several children's books, including "Jason's Quest," "The Olden-Days Coat," "Six Darn Cows," and "The Christmas Birthday Story." Her autobiography, "Dance On The Earth," was published in 1987, a year after her death on January 5, 1987, at her home in Lakefield, following a terminal lung cancer diagnosis. She is buried in Neepawa Cemetery, close to the stone angel that inspired her novel.