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Leacock, photograph by Yousuf Karsh (credit: © Karsh — Rapho/Photo Researchers)

(born Dec. 30, 1869, Swanmore, Hampshire, Eng. — died March 28, 1944, Toronto, Ont., Can.) British-born Canadian writer and lecturer. He immigrated to Canada with his parents at age six. Though he taught economics and political science at McGill University (1903 – 36) and wrote extensively on history and political economy, his true calling was humour. His fame rests on his many books of lighthearted sketches and essays, beginning with Literary Lapses (1910) and Nonsense Novels (1911). His humour is typically based on a comic perception of social foibles and the incongruity between appearance and reality in human conduct.

For more information on Stephen Butler Leacock, visit Britannica.com.

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