Stephen Leacock

When Charles Dickens died in 1870, The Times of London successfully campaigned for his burial in Westminster Abbey, the final resting place of England's kings and heroes. Thousands flocked to mourn the best recognized and loved man of nineteenth-century England. His books had made them laugh, shown them the squalor and greed of English life, and also the power of personal virtue and the strength of ordinary people. In his last years Dickens drew adoring crowds, had met presidents and princes, and had amassed a fortune. Yet like his heroes, Dickens trod a hard path to greatness. His young life was overturned when his profligate father was sent to debtors' prison and Dickens was forced into harsh factory work--but this led to his remarkable eye for all that was absurd, tragic, and redemptive in London life. This biography gives full measure to Dickens's stature--his virtues both as a writer and as a human being--while observing his failings in both respects with an unblinking eye.--From publisher description.

Compilation of material gleaned from books of fiction and non-fiction Leacock published.

“The author of this book offers it to the public without apology,” Leacock boldly asserts in the Preface before launching into a slew of riotous stories. In this book you’ll find:Maddened by Mystery: or, The Defective Detective”Q.” A Psychic Pstory of the PsupernaturalGuido the Gimlet of Ghent: A Romance of ChivalrySorrows of a Super Soul: or, The Memoirs of Marie MushenoughAn amusing assortment of satire, Nonsense Novels was first published in 1911.

This is humourous description of his 10 years as a teacher in Strathroy, Uxbridge and finally, Upper Canada College, all in Ontario, Canada. Originally published in MacLean's Magazine. Illustrated by Charles William Jefferys, the Canadian historian, artist and illustrator.

The prudent husbandman, after having taken from his field all the straw that is there, rakes it over with a wooden rake and gets as much again. The wise child, after the lemonade jug is empty, takes the lemons from the bottom of it and squeezes them into a still larger brew. So does the sagacious author, after having sold his material to the magazines and been paid for it, clap it into book-covers and give it another squeeze.