The Stone Angel (36 page)

Finally, on 20 September, 1963:

“They (Knopf) don’t like ‘Hagar’ either, and have suggested either ‘Mrs. Shipley’ or ‘Old Lady Shipley,’ both of which are so terrible, in my opinion, that they don’t bear thinking about. Macmillan had felt some doubt about ‘Hagar,’ too, so when this letter arrived with Knopf’s suggestions, I brooded violently over the whole thing, and was suddenly struck by the obviously right title, and I now prefer it to ‘Hagar,’ and am astonished that it did not occur to me six months ago, as it is an image which occurs in the first sentence of the novel and recurs throughout the book, and it is completely suitable, etc. ‘The Stone Angel’ – do you think it okay?”

MARGARET LAURENCE
was born in Neepawa, Manitoba, in 1926. Upon graduation from Winnipeg’s United College in 1947, she took a job as a reporter for the
Winnipeg Citizen
.

From 1950 until 1957 Laurence lived in Africa, the first two years in Somalia, the next five in Ghana, where her husband, a civil engineer, was working. She translated Somali poetry and prose during this time, and began her career as a fiction writer with stories set in Africa.

When Laurence returned to Canada in 1957, she settled in Vancouver, where she devoted herself to fiction with a Ghanaian setting: in her first novel,
This Side Jordan
, and in her first collection of short fiction,
The Tomorrow-Tamer
. Her two years in Somalia were the subject of her memoir,
The Prophet’s Camel Bell
.

Separating from her husband in 1962, Laurence moved to England, which became her home for a decade, the time she devoted to the creation of five books about the fictional town of Manawaka, patterned after her birthplace, and its people:
The Stone Angel, A Jest of God, The Fire-Dwellers, A Bird in the House
, and
The Diviners
.

Laurence settled in Lakefield, Ontario, in 1974. She complemented her fiction with essays, book reviews, and four children’s books. Her many honours include two Governor General’s Awards for Fiction and more than a dozen honorary degrees.

Margaret Laurence died in Lakefield, Ontario, in 1987.

Hubert Aquin

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