Strangely there is no national heritage site exclusively dedicated to Mazo and her work. L.M. Montgomery has a national heritage site: Green Gables Heritage Place in Prince Edward Island National Park. Stephen Leacock has a national heritage site: the Leacock Museum in Orillia, Ontario. Yet, although Parks Canada has officially designated Mazo as a person of national significance in the arts, only locally administered heritage sites commemorate her.
In 1995, the first local museum partly dedicated to commemorating Mazo was opened: Benares Historic House in Mississauga, Ontario. Benares is administered by the City of Mississauga. In 1996, the second local museum partly dedicated to commemorating Mazo was opened: Sovereign House in Bronte, Ontario. Sovereign House is administered by the Bronte Historical Society.
Perhaps some day a national museum or other such heritage site will be dedicated exclusively to Mazo de la Roche, her life, and her work.
Chronology of Mazo de la Roche (1879–1961)
Compiled by Clarence Karr
MAZO DE LA ROCHE AND HER TIMES CANADA AND THE WORLD
1812 1812
John and Titus Willson, great-great-uncles of Mazo de la Roche, take part in the War of 1812 on the British side; John Willson fights in the Battle of Queenston Heights and receives a medal for bravery. The United States declares war on Britain.
British General Isaac Brock dies in battle at Queenston Heights on the Niagara Peninsula and becomes a Canadian hero.
1814 1814
Mazo de la Roche’s paternal grandfather, John Richmond Roche, is born in Limerick County, Ireland. He will emigrate to North America as a young man. The Treaty of Ghent is signed on 14 December, ending the war between Britain and the United States. The major battles occurred on British North American soil in what are now the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
The Battle of Lundy’s Lane takes place near the Niagara farm of William Lundy, a first cousin of Mazo’s great-great-grandfather, Enos Lundy.
MAZO DE LA ROCHE AND HER TIMES CANADA AND THE WORLD
1826 1826
Sarah Bryan, Mazo’s paternal grandmother, is born in Dublin, Ireland. Her parents bring her to British North America as a baby. Construction begins on the Rideau Canal, a British military project linking Bytown and Kingston. Prior to Confederation Bytown is renamed Ottawa as the capital of the United Canadas.
1827
Daniel Lundy, Mazo’s maternal grandfather, is born in Whitchurch Township, York County, Upper Canada, now the province of Ontario.
1831 1831
Louise Willson, maternal grandmother of Mazo, is born in East Gwillimbury Township, York County. The Willsons are members of a breakaway Quaker group, the Children of Peace. Susanna Strickland marries John Dunbar Moodie in London, England. The next year the family, with one child, moves to Upper Canada.
The Children of Peace complete the building of Sharon Temple.
1852 1852
William Roche, father of Mazo de la Roche, is born, probably in Belleville, Canada West, now the province of Ontario. Susanna Moodie publishes what will become her best-known book, Roughing It in the Bush. It records her experiences in the transition from a middle-class life in England to the frontier life of a settler in the backwoods of Upper Canada.
1853 1853
Louise Willson marries Daniel Lundy. Moodie’s sequel, Life in the Clearings, which depicts town life in Belleville, appears in print.
1854 1854
Alberta Lundy, mother of Mazo, is born to Louise and Daniel Lundy. A Reciprocity Treaty inaugurates free trade between the British North American colonies and the U.S.
1857
Atlantic Monthly is founded and quickly assumes a position as the most respected literary periodical in the U.S.
1865 1865
John Roche, grandfather of Mazo, is living in Baltimore, Maryland. His wife and children are living in Whitby, Ontario. Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States, is assassinated.
The U.S. Civil War ends.
1867
The British North America Act establishes the Dominion of Canada, uniting Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. John A. Macdonald is elected prime minister and is knighted by Queen Victoria.
1868
Agnes Fitzgibbon and Catharine Parr Traill publish Canadian Wild Flowers, one of the first coloured depictions of this aspect of Canadian nature.
1876 1876
Daniel Lundy moves his wife and children from Bradford, Ontario to Newmarket, Ontario. Danford Roche moves his mother and brothers from Whitby to Newmarket. Danford opens a dry goods store. His brother William works in the store and courts Alberta Lundy, whom he will soon marry. Famed Canadian soprano Emma Albani, from Quebec, continues to impress audiences in Europe. It is only a year ago that she first sang at Covent Garden, London.
Dr. Emily Stowe founds the Toronto Women’s Literary Club.
1878 1878
Caroline Louise Clement is born to Martha and James Clement on April 4 in Innisfil Township. George Reid, eighteen years old, moves to Toronto to study at the Ontario School of Art under Robert Harris.
Sir John A. Macdonald and his Conservative party win the general election. He promises a new national policy involving completion of the Pacific railway, tariff protection, and increased immigration.
1879 1879
Mazo Louise Roche, later changed to de la Roche, is born to Alberta and William Roche on January 15 in the home of her maternal grandparents in Newmarket, Ontario. Her mother will suffer from ill health for most of her life. Grandmother Louise Lundy will handle most of the parental responsibilities. Ethel Barrymore, actress and film star, is born in New York City. She will play the leading role in the New York production of Whiteoaks, based on a Mazo de la Roche novel.
The world’s first artificial ice surface opens in Madison Square Gardens in New York.
1880 1880
Grandfather John Roche dies of heat prostration in Baltimore, Maryland. Danford Roche brings his father’s body and books to Newmarket. A contract for the construction of a railway from Montreal to the Pacific is awarded to the Canadian Pacific Railway syndicate. Upon its completion five years later, the railway becomes a central link in the forging of a national market. This is especially important for the book trade. Salesmen from Torontobased publishers call upon their retail stores twice a year.
1887 1887
Mazo Roche and Caroline Clement meet for the first time. Because of adverse family circumstances they will spend most of the rest of their childhoods together in the Lundy household. The two will live together as adults until the death of Mazo. In the Canadian federal election John A. Macdonald and the Conservatives are returned with a reduced majority.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show opens in London, England on May 9.
1888
The Lundy household moves to Orillia.
1890 1890
Mazo and Caroline are attending a private school in Orillia. William Arthur Deacon, who will become dean of Canadian literary critics, is born in Pembroke, Ontario.
1891 1891
Mazo moves to a Galt, Ontario hotel with her mother and father. Caroline remains in Orillia, living temporarily with her parents. Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald dies in office.
Frederick Banting, co-discoverer of insulin for the control of diabetes, is born at Alliston, Ontario.
1892 1892
Mazo and her mother return to Orillia and the household of Daniel Lundy. Mazo’s father drifts from job to job and place to place. Movie actress Mary Pickford is born in Toronto.
The Toronto Star newspaper is founded.
1894 1894
The Lundy household, including Mazo and her parents, moves to the Parkdale district of Toronto. Mazo will attend Parkdale Collegiate and study piano at the Metropolitan School of Music. In England, Hugh Eayrs, future president of Macmillan Canada, is born.
Caroline rejoins the Lundy household. Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author of Treasure Island, The S
trange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and other classics, dies.
1897 1897
Mazo and Caroline are enjoying most of the normal activities of young women their age. Wilfrid Laurier, prime minister of Canada, is knighted as part of the Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
George A. Reid is elected president of the Ontario Society of Artists.
1899 1899
Mazo is taking occasional classes at the University of Toronto A Canadian bestseller fiction list begins on a monthly tally basis. Bestseller lists in both Britain and the U.S. have preceded the Canadian one by four years.
The Boer War begins in South Africa. Canadian men will volunteer to serve in the British army.
1900
Daniel Lundy dies. Mazo’s father, William Roche, moves the Lundy household from Parkdale to fashionable Jarvis Street in central Toronto.
1901 1901
William Roche returns to his pattern of moving from place to place in the Toronto region. Now Alberta, Mazo, and Caroline go with him. In Britain, Queen Victoria dies and is succeeded by her son, Edward VII.
Mazo attends classes at the Ontario School of Art under the direction of George A. Reid. Canadian author Gilbert Parker achieves a number four position on the American bestseller list for fiction with The Right of Way.
Marconi transmits telegraphic radio messages from Cornwall, England to Newfoundland.
1902 1902
Mazo tries writing. She publishes a short story in Munsey’s magazine. The Boer War ends with a hard-fought British victory.
1903 1903
During this period Mazo experiences a nervous collapse. In the U.S., Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully fly their airplane, Kitty Hawk. Henry Ford founds the Ford Motor Company. Lou Gehrig, American baseball player, is born. His name will be used for a fatal disease of the nervous system.
1905 1905
Mazo’s father purchases a hotel in Acton, Ontario and his family moves to that town. The Macmillan publishing house sends Frank Wise to Toronto to establish a branch of the New York office.
British author Ethel C. Mayne publishes her influential biography of Romantic poet, Lord Byron.
1906 1906
Mazo and Caroline are often seen driving around Acton in a twowheeled cart pulled by a Shetland pony. Mazo is writing stories. British writer John Galsworthy publishes The Forsyte Saga, the first in a series of novels centred on the lives of the Forsyte family.
1907 1907
Mazo publishes a short story called “Canadian Ida and English Nell” in The Metropolitan. Rudyard Kipling, famed British poet and storyteller, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Canadian author Ralph Connor’s novel, The Doctor, reaches eighth position on the American bestseller list.
1909
George A. Reid becomes Director of the Central Ontario School of Art and Design.
Poet Dorothy Livesay is born in Winnipeg.
The Canadian bestseller list for this year includes Nellie McClung’s Sowing Seeds in Danny in number four position, L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables number six, and her Anne of Avonlea in eighth place.
Canadian poet A.M. Klein is born in the Russian Ukraine to an orthodox Jewish family.
1910 1910
Mazo publishes a short story called “Spirit of the Dance” in The Canadian Magazine. L.M. Montgomery’s Kilmeny of the Orchard reaches number two position on the Canadian bestseller list.
In Britain, King Edward VII dies and is succeeded by his son George V.
1911 1911
William Roche leases a fruit farm near Bronte beside Lake Ontario. He, Alberta, Mazo, and Caroline move to this location and try farming. Marie Curie wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
Mazo publishes a short story in H.L. Mencken’s avant-garde magazine, Smart Set.
Mazo’s paternal grandmother, Sarah Roche, dies in Newmarket.
1912 1912
Mazo meets a young French engineer named Pierre Fritz Mansbendel, who is boarding with Mazo’s Aunt Eva in Toronto. Pierre and Mazo will remain lifelong friends. Hugh Eayrs arrives in Toronto from England to work for the publishing house Macmillan Co. of Canada.
Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is in tenth place on the Canadian bestseller list.
1913 1913
Mazo’s maternal grandmother, Louise Lundy, dies in Toronto. Woodrow Wilson becomes President of the United States.
1914 1914
William Roche gives up the farm. This experiment has ended in bankruptcy. The First World War begins.
The Panama Canal opens.
Mazo publishes a story in Atlantic Monthly magazine. A new edition of Susanna Moodie’s Roughing It in the Bush reaches number eight on the Canadian non-fiction bestseller list.
Pierre Fritz Mansbendel marries Mazo’s Aunt Eva and moves to New York City.
1915 1915
William Roche dies in Bronte. Mazo, Alberta, and Caroline move to Toronto, where Caroline begins working as a clerk in the provincial parliament buildings to support the family. L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of the Island is number eight on the Canadian bestseller list.
In Belgium, Canadian troops fight their first major battle at Ypres.
1917 1917
Caroline becomes a statistician in the Fire Marshall’s office of the Ontario government. The Russian Revolution overthrows the imperial government of the czar and places the Bolsheviks in power.
1918
The First World War ends.
1919 1919
Mazo is writing humorous short stories. J.F.B. Livesay, husband of Florence and father of Dorothy, publishes a best-selling volume on the First World War entitled Canada’s Hundred Days. He becomes general manager of the Canadian Press news service.
Mazo and Caroline spend their first summer in their newly constructed cottage in Clarkson. Mazo works on her third novel, Delight.
Caroline’s brother dies. Peter McArthur’s biography of Sir Wilfrid Laurier reaches number eight on the Canadian non-fiction bestseller list.
Ralph Connor’s Sky Pilot in No Man’s Land achieves number five position on the American bestseller list for fiction.
1920 1920
Mazo’s mother dies of influenza. The Group of Seven Canadian artists forms in Toronto. Members are: A.Y. Jackson; Frank Johnston; Lawren Harris; Franklin Carmichael; F.H. Varley; Arthur Lismer; and J.E.H. MacDonald.
1921 1921
Mazo begins writing a novel and some plays. The Canadian Authors Association is created in Montreal. Most Canadian authors, including Mazo de la Roche, will become members.
William Lyon Mackenzie King is elected prime minister of Canada.
Hugh Eayrs assumes the presidency of Macmillan of Canada.
1922 1922
Mazo publishes her first book, Explorers of the Dawn, a collection of stories. This book, published by Knopf, becomes a bestseller in the U.S. Nellie McClung’s highly political novel, Purple Springs, is number nine on the Canadian bestseller list.
Mazo visits Nova Scotia and writes her second novel, The Thunder of New Wings. W.A. Deacon begins his literary journalism career with Saturday Night magazine in Toronto.
Caroline and Mazo become friends of the Livesay family and purchase property beside the Livesay home in Clarkson, Ontario, just west of Toronto. The Ottawa Film Productions movie, The Man From Glengarry, based on the Ralph Connor novel, is released.
1923 1923
Mazo and Caroline spend (heir first summer in their newly constructed cottage in Clarkson. Mazo works on her third novel. Delight. Canadians Frederick Banting and John Macleod win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for the discovery of insulin, which extends and improves the lives of victims of diabetes.
Time magazine is launched.
In Britain, the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth are marriedjn Westminster Abbey.
1925 1925
Mazo’s play Low Life is produced. British dramatist George Bernard Shaw wins the Nobel Prize i
n Literature.
Mazo begins to write Jalna, the novel that will introduce the Whiteoak family. The Whiteoaks live in southern Ontario in a big, old, red-brick house called Jalna. W.A. Deacon creates a “Literary Section” in Saturday Night magazine.
1926 1926
Mazo publishes her novel Delight. Canadian novelist Margaret Laurence is born in Neepawa, Manitoba, a locale she will feature in much of her fiction.
Mazo and Caroline move into a flat owned by Gertrude Pringle, author of a book on etiquette.
Caroline is now Chief Statistician in the Fire Marshall’s office of the Ontario government. In the U.S., Sinclair Lewis wins the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Arrowsmith.
Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II, is born in London.
1927 1927
Mazo’s novel Jalna wins the $10,000 Atlantic Monthly-Little, Brown competition. The Canadian Authors Association gives her a gala banquet, hosted by Charles G.D. Roberts. Jalna reaches third position on the Canadian bestseller list and fifth on the American. Sinclair Lewis’s Elmer Gantry leads both the Canadian and the American bestseller lists.
Poet and animal-story writer Charles G.D. Roberts becomes president of the national Canadian Authors Association, a position he will hold for two years.
Mazo begins her next novel, Whiteoaks of Jalna.
1928 1928
The pressure of success leads to another breakdown for Mazo. Caroline resigns her civil service job to become Mazo’s nurse, editor, hostess, and secretary. Dorothy Livesay publishes Green Pictures, her first book of poems, with Macmillan.
John Galsworthy publishes Swan Song, another volume in his popular saga of the Forsyte family.
British writer Sir Hugh Walpole makes the American fiction bestseller list for the first time with Wintersmoon.
1929 1929
Mazo publishes Lark Ascending and The Thunder of New Wings. The Great Depression begins with the October stock market crash.
Mazo and Caroline travel to Italy and settle in Devon, England. Mazo meets Canadian actor Raymond Massey and a number of British authors, including Sir Hugh Walpole and Ethel C. Mayne. British author Ethel C. Mayne publishes her biography of Lady Byron.
The Jalna Saga – Deluxe Edition: All Sixteen Books of the Enduring Classic Series & The Biography of Mazo de la Roche Page 551