From Amazon
In collaboration with her daughter, Jocelyn, Margaret Laurence was able to complete this stirring memoir of her literary life before her death in 1987. Published posthumously in 1989, it traces her development as a writer through the influences of three women: her own mother, who died when Laurence was only four; her aunt, who raised her and who later married her father; and her mother-in-law, who provided invaluable support after the breakup of Laurence's marriage. As well as these memorable portraits, it contains pleas for greater environmental responsibility and passionate diatribes against war, the nuclear arms race, and racism.
Readers looking for deeper insight into the hows and whys of Laurence's literary life, particularly answers to why Laurence stopped writing fiction after The Diviners, will be disappointed. Dance on the Earth does, however, capture Laurence's voice, in a memoir that is at once chatty, intimate, philosophical, angry, emotional, and often funny. It is a book that gave Margaret Laurence a chance to sum up her career as a woman, a mother, and an artist, to remember and pay tribute and celebrate the time that she had to dance on the earth. --Jeffrey Canton
Review
“A memoir in the true sense of the term. The secrets Laurence shares…are the most important ones: the secret of who she was, the secret of how she survived.”
–Kingston Whig-Standard
“An impressive last testament and fitting memorial to a remarkable woman.”
–Globe and Mail
“As a powerful celebration of life, Dance on the Earth is cause for jubilation.”
–Calgary Herald
–Kingston Whig-Standard
“An impressive last testament and fitting memorial to a remarkable woman.”
–Globe and Mail
“As a powerful celebration of life, Dance on the Earth is cause for jubilation.”
–Calgary Herald
Book Description
In a writing career spanning nearly three decades, Margaret Laurence became one of the most celebrated and widely read authors in the world.
In this, her final work, Margaret Laurence reveals the story of her fascinating life, the process of her writing, and the people and emotional journeys which accompanied it. She relates her experiences living in different cultures; the issues and causes she so passionately upheld; her personal battle against censorship. She also pays tribute to the three women from whom she drew important spiritual strength.
Including a selection of her articles, speeches, and letters – many never before published – and photographs selected by Margaret Laurence from her personal family albums, Dance on the Earth is a book of celebration and exploration in which Margaret Laurence speaks openly about her place in the world as a woman, a writer, and a concerned human being.
In this, her final work, Margaret Laurence reveals the story of her fascinating life, the process of her writing, and the people and emotional journeys which accompanied it. She relates her experiences living in different cultures; the issues and causes she so passionately upheld; her personal battle against censorship. She also pays tribute to the three women from whom she drew important spiritual strength.
Including a selection of her articles, speeches, and letters – many never before published – and photographs selected by Margaret Laurence from her personal family albums, Dance on the Earth is a book of celebration and exploration in which Margaret Laurence speaks openly about her place in the world as a woman, a writer, and a concerned human being.
From the Back Cover
“A memoir in the true sense of the term. The secrets Laurence shares…are the most important ones: the secret of who she was, the secret of how she survived.”
–Kingston Whig-Standard
“An impressive last testament and fitting memorial to a remarkable woman.”
–Globe and Mail
“As a powerful celebration of life, Dance on the Earth is cause for jubilation.”
–Calgary Herald
–Kingston Whig-Standard
“An impressive last testament and fitting memorial to a remarkable woman.”
–Globe and Mail
“As a powerful celebration of life, Dance on the Earth is cause for jubilation.”
–Calgary Herald
About the Author
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.
From the Paperback edition.
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.
From the Paperback edition.
