1930 1930
Mazo publishes Portrait of a Dog, about her beloved Scottish terrier, Bunty. Sinclair Lewis receives the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the first American to be so honoured.
1931 1931
Mazo’s third Jalna novel, Finch’s Fortune, is published. It reaches number seven on the American bestseller list. Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth leads the American bestseller list.
Mazo and Caroline adopt two small children, a girl Esmée and a boy René. The family moves to The Rectory, Hawkchurch, Devon. Willa Cather’s Shadow on the Rocks, set in New France, is both a bestseller and a selection of the Book of the Month club.
1932 1932
Mazo publishes Whiteoaks of Jalna to popular and critical acclaim. British novelist John Galsworthy wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1933 1933
Macmillan releases The Master of Jalna. It reaches ninth place on the American bestseller list. In the U.S., President Roosevelt implements the New Deal, a program designed to alleviate the effects of unemployment caused by the Great Depression.
Mazo, Caroline, and the children spend the summer in Canada, at Springfield Farm near Trail Cottage. In Germany, Adolph Hitler is appointed Chancellor and within a few months becomes a dictator. He suppresses labour unions and harasses Jews.
1934 1934
While writing another Jalna novel, Mazo also begins working on a play called Whiteoaks. RKO Radio Pictures of Hollywood releases its movie Anne of Green Gables based on the novel by L.M. Montgomery.
Mazo provides Queen Mary, wife of King George V, with a signed copy of Jalna at the Queen’s request.
1935 1935
Mazo, Caroline, and the children are living in England’s Malvern Hills. Pelham Edgar, Professor of English at the University of Toronto and a friend of Mazo, becomes president of the Canadian Authors Association.
Young Renny is published.
RKO Hollywood studio releases a movie based on Jalna. Charles G.D. Roberts becomes Sir Charles when he is knighted by King George V.
1936 1936
Mazo’s play, Whiteoaks, becomes the first Canadian play to be mounted on a professional London stage. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is created.
The sixth Jalna novel, Whiteoak Harvest, is published. The Canadian Authors Association inaugurates the Governor General’s Awards for Canadian literature. Initially there are two categories: fiction and non-fiction.
1937 1937
Mazo purchases Vale House, near Windsor Castle. The Canadian Authors Association adds a poetry or drama category to the Governor General’s Literary Awards. E.J. Pratt wins the first award for poetry. Laura Salverson wins the fiction category for The Dark Weaver, and Stephen Leacock the non-fiction for My Discovery of the West.
The Very House, Mazo’s second book about her children, is published.
1938 1938
Mazo is awarded the Lorne Pierce Medal by the Royal Society of Canada. In Europe, Hitler marches into Austria.
Mazo’s Growth of a Man is published. In Canada, Emily Carr has her first solo exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
A Broadway production of Whiteoaks opens, with Ethel Barrymore starring. A nylon bristle toothbrush is now available for purchase. This is the world’s first product made of nylon.
1939 1939
Mazo, Caroline, and the children move back to Canada, near Toronto. The Second World War begins.
Canadian poet and novelist Margaret Atwood is born in Ottawa.
1940 1940
Whiteoak Heritage is published. Winston Churchill becomes prime minister of Britain.
RKO studio releases the movie Anne of Windy Poplars, based on L.M. Montgomery’s novel.
1941 1941
Wakefield’s Course is published. Emily Carr wins a Governor General’s Literary Award for Klee Wyck in the non-fiction category.
1944 1944
Mazo’s new novel, The Building of Jalna, is published. The British Literary Guild selects it as a book of the month. Mazo receives a cheque for $20,000. J.F.B. Livesay publishes Peggy’s Cove, a book that assists this Nova Scotia site in becoming a tourist destination. Dorothy Livesay publishes Day and Night, a book of poetry that wins a Governor General’s Literary Award.
Mazo is the only Canadian author known in Europe. Her Jalna novels represent a free way of life to those oppressed by Hitler and Stalin. Ethel Barrymore wins an Academy Award for None But the Lonely Heart, in which she plays opposite Cary Grant.
1945 1945
Mazo’s non-fiction book, Quebec: Historic Seaport, is published. The Second World War ends. The founding conference of the United Nations is held in San Francisco.
Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan wins the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.
1946 1946
Mazo and Caroline move into a house on Russell Hill Road in Toronto. Canadian novelist Frederick Philip Grove publishes a memoir, In Search of Myself
Return to Jalna is published. Arthur Lower publishes a popular history of Canada, called Colony to Nation. Both books win Governor General’s Literary Awards.
1947 1947
In September Mazo begins to write again after a gap of a year and a half due to Caroline’s being seriously ill. Constance Beresford-Howe, a Canadian, is awarded the Dodd-Mead Intercollegiate Literary Fellowship prize for her first novel, The Unreasoning Heart, written while she was a student at McGill University.
Bonheur d’Occasion by French-Canadian writer Gabrielle Roy is published in English as The Tin Flute and featured as a selection of the American Literary Guild book club. The Tin Flute wins the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.
Dorothy Livesay receives the Lorne Pierce Medal and her second Governor General’s Literary Award for Poems for People.
1948 1948
Mazo is working on the manuscript that will become Mary Wakefield. The plot of this new Jalna novel is similar to the plot of Delight, written twenty-five years earlier. Montreal-based poet A.M. Klein wins a Governor General’s Literary Award for The Rocking Chair and Other Poems.
David Ben-Gurion becomes the first president of the State of Israel.
1949 1949
Mary Wakefield is published. The Canadian government led by Liberal Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent establishes a Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences, which becomes known as the Massey Commission after its chair, Vincent Massey.
1951 1951
Mazo wins a National Award medal from the University of Alberta. The Massey Commission Report is published. It recommends greater government support for the arts and the creation of an arts funding body in Canada.
She publishes Renny’s Daughter.
1952 1952
Mazo publishes a novella, A Boy in the House. Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, King George VI.
1953 1953
Mazo and Caroline move to their last house at 3 Ava Crescent in Toronto. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II takes place in London.
René and Esmée both marry. René’s first child is born. Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes president of the United States.
The Whiteoak Brothers is published.
1954 1954
Mazo is granted an honorary degree by the University of Toronto. Children receive the first Salk vaccine to prevent polio.
Variable Winds at Jalna is published. Mazo goes to England to help launch the book. Ernest Hemingway wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1957 1957
Mazo’s autobiography, Ringing the Changes, is published. The Canada Council is created by an act of Parliament to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The Canada Council will award financial grants to authors, orchestras, ballet, and drama companies and academics.
Mazo’s play, Whiteoaks, is broadcast on CBC television.
Mazo is often ill. Rheumatoid arthritis confi
nes her to bed indefinitely, but she keeps on writing.
Lester B. Pearson wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
John Diefenbaker wins the Canadian federal election and forms a minority Progressive Conservative government.
The U.S.S.R. launches Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite.
1958 1958
Centenary at Jalna is published. This is the fifteenth Jalna book. The saga now spans a century. Prime Minister Diefenbaker calls a Canadian general election. The Progressive Conservative party receives the largest majority ever achieved in the House of Commons.
Mazo makes her last trip to England.
1959 1959
Mazo turns eighty. She will spend much of her last two years of life in bed due to a variety of illnesses, including Parkinson’s Disease. She keeps on writing to the very end. The Canadian Authors Association hands over the administration of the Governor General’s Literary Awards to the Canada Council.
The St. Lawrence Seaway, jointly developed by Canada and the U.S., is opened by Queen Elizabeth and President Eisenhower.
1960 1960
Morning at jalna is published. American author Harper Lee publishes To Kill a Mockingbird.
1961 1961
Mazo de la Roche dies on July 12. She is buried in the graveyard of St. George’s Anglican Church beside Lake Simcoe, at Sibbald Point. In January, Robert Frost recites his poem “The Gift Out Right” at the inauguration of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Delight appears in the prestigious New Canadian Library series, published by McClelland and Stewart. In April, Yuri Gagarin of the U.S.S.R. is the first man to travel in space. In May, Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American man in space.
1963 1963
The executors of Mazo’s estate donate her papers to the University of Toronto. U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
1964
Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel is published.
The Canadian Parliament, under the guidance of Prime Minister Lester Pearson, reaches agreement on a new Maple Leaf flag for Canada.
1966 1966
Mazo de la Roche of Jalna, a biography by Ronald Hambleton, is published. Margaret Laurence receives a Canada Council grant.
In China, Mao Zedong launches the People’s Cultural Revolution.
1967
The Canadian Centennial is celebrated coast to coast. Montreal hosts millions of visitors at Expo 67 with the theme Man and His World.
The Canada Council initiates an artist-in-residence program.
In the U.S., 50,000 people demonstrate in Washington DC against the Vietnam War.
1968 1968
Caroline Clement turns ninety. She is living alone in the house she shared with Mazo on Ava Crescent in Toronto. Margaret Atwood receives a Canada Council grant.
Pierre Trudeau becomes leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and wins a general election.
1970 1970
George Hendrick’s biography, Mazo de la Roche, is published. Trudeau’s government invokes the War Measures Act during the FLQ crisis in Canada.
Margaret Atwood publishes The Journals of Susanna Moodie, a book of poetry inspired by Susanna Moodie’s life and works.
1972 1972
A thirteen-episode CBC television series, The Whiteoaks of Jalna, is broadcast. Canada launches the first communications satellite, Anik, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Anik will provide for the first satellite transmission of television.
Ronald Hambleton publishes a second biography of Mazo, The Secret of Jalna. Richard Nixon is the first U.S. president to visit Communist China.
Caroline dies on August 3 and is buried next to Mazo.
1973
The Writers Union of Canada is formed “to bring writers together for the advancement of their collective interests.”
1974
Margaret Laurence’s novel The Diviners is published and wins the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.
1984 1984
Mazo’s adopted son René dies. Brian Mulroney becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
1988
Margaret Atwood’s novel Cat’s Eye is published.
Canada signs a commercial free trade agreement with the U.S.
1989
In Germany, the Berlin Wall, built in 1961, falls.
1989 1993
Joan Givner publishes Mazo de la Roche: The Hidden Life. Carol Shields publishes The Stone Diaries, which wins Canada’s 1993 Governor General’s Literary Award for English-language fiction.
1994
Jalna, a multimillion-dollar France 2 TV mini-series based on the Whiteoaks saga, is broadcast.
1995 1995
A museum partly dedicated to Mazo de la Roche is opened: Benares Historic House in Mississauga, Ontario. Carol Shields wins the American Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Stone Diaries.
1996
Daniel Bratton publishes Thirty-Two Short Views of Mazo de la Roche.
A second museum partly dedicated to Mazo de la Roche is opened: Sovereign House in Bronte, Ontario.
Sources Consulted
BRATTON, Daniel L. Thirty-Two Short Views of Mazo de la Roche. Toronto: ECW Press, 1996.
CLEMENT, Caroline. Interviewed by Ronald Hambleton. Rec. 19 Feb. 1964. Audiotape. University of Toronto. Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. Mazo de la Roche Ms. Coll. 120, Box 3.
DAVIES, Robertson. The Well-tempered Critic. Ed. Judith Skelton Grant. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1981.
DAYMOND, Douglas. “Lark Ascending.” Canadian Literature 81 (1981): 172–78.
_____. “Whiteoak Chronicles: A Reassessment.” Canadian Literature 66 (1975): 48–62.
DE LA ROCHE, Mazo. Interviewed by Ronald Hambleton. Rec. Jan. 1955. Audiotape. University of Toronto. Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. Mazo de la Roche Ms. Coll. 120, Box 3.
_____. Beside a Norman Tower. Toronto: Macmillan, 1934.
_____. Portrait of a Dog. Toronto: Macmillan, 1930.
_____. Ringing the Changes. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1957.
DUFFY, Dennis. “Mazo de la Roche.” The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. Ed. William Toye. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1983.
GEORGET, Daniele. “Mazo de la Roche: Un Géant de la Littérature Romanesque.” Paris Match 7 July 1994:56–58.
GIVNER, Joan. Mazo de la Roche: the Hidden Life. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1989.
HAMBLETON, Ronald. Mazo de la Roche of Jalna. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1966.
_____. The Secret of Jalna. Toronto: General Publishing, 1972.
HENDRICK, George. Mazo de la Roche. New York: Twayne, 1970.
KELL, William [1859–1941]. “Cherry Creek as It Was about 1868.” Ms. 1932. Ed. William M. Kell [Barrie, Ont] 1993.
KIRK, Heather. “Fairytale Elements in the Early Work of Mazo de la Roche.” Wascana Review 22.1 (1987): 3–17.
_____. “Caroline Clement: The Hidden Life of Mazo de la Roche’s Collaborator.” Canadian Literature 184 (2005): 46–67.
_____. “The Lundys of Whitchurch as the Whiteoaks of Jalna.” Essays on Canadian Writing. (2006).
_____. “Who Were the Whiteoaks and Where Was Jalna?” Unpublished monograph, 2005.
LIVESAY, Dorothy. “The Making of Jalna: A Reminiscence.” Canadian Literature 23 (1965): 25–30.
_____. “Mazo Explored.” Canadian Literature 32 (1967): 57–59.
_____. “Foreword: Remembering Mazo.” Selected Stories of Mazo de la Roche. Ed. Douglas Daymond. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1979. 11–13.
“Melancholy Accident.” Newmarket Era 22 Jan. 1886: 2.
PACEY, Desmond. Introduction. Delight. By Mazo de la Roche. New Canadian Library 21. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1961. Vii-x.
PANOFSKY, Ruth. “At Odds: Reviewers and Readers of the Jalna Novels.” Studies in Canadian Literature 25.1 (2000): 57–72.
_____. “Don’t Let Me Do It: Mazo de la Roche and her Publishers.” International journal of Canadi
an Studies 11 (1995): 171–184.
SYMONS, Scott. “Mazo Was Murdered.” Review of Mazo de la Roche: The Hidden Life, by Joan Givner. The Idler Jan. & Feb. 1990: 53–56.
Sovereign House in Bronte, Ontario. Now a museum partly dedicated to Mazo de la Roche, Sovereign House was the setting of Possession, her first novel.
Mazo at about age thirty, on the Bronte shoreline beside Lake Ontario in winter.
Acknowledgments
I thank my husband, Jack Winzer, who helped in too many ways to list here. I also thank the previous biographers of Mazo de la Roche, on whose work I built, especially Ronald Hambleton and Joan Givner. I thank the estate of Mazo de la Roche for allowing me to quote from her work. (All quotations at the beginning of chapters are from Mazo de la Roche’s autobiography, Ringing the Changes.) I thank Kathy Lowinger of Tundra Books for recommending me for a Writers’ Reserve Grant from the Ontario Arts Council. I thank the Ontario Arts Council for its financial support. I thank Rhonda Bailey of XYZ Publishing for her admirable editing. I thank my writer friends for their encouragement.
I also thank the following people – many of them volunteers – who made special efforts to assist me with my research for this book: Bruce Beacock, Archivist, Simcoe County Archives, Midhurst, ON; Clark Bernat and other members of the Niagara Historical Society and Museum, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON; Susan Blue, Fergus, ON; Tony and Cathy Blue, Aurora, ON; Bill Bowman, Ontario Genealogical Society, Brantford, ON; Bonnie Bridge, Manitoba Genealogical Society, Winnipeg, MN; Sharon Bunn, Family History Center, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Barrie, ON; Leah Byzewski, Grand Forks County Historical Society, Grand Forks, ND; Haughton and Jean Clement, Toronto, ON; Keith and Patricia Clement, Thornhill, ON; Anne Corkett, Mono Centre, ON; Jean (Lundy) Daniels, Scarborough, ON.
I thank Bianca de la Roche, Guelph, ON.; Adele Dibben, Hastings County Historical Society, Cannifton, ON; Kenneth and Virginia Douglas, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON; Bob and Jan Drybrough, Churchill, ON; Ralph and Dorothy Featherstone, Hornby, ON; Marilyn Harry, OGS, Ameliasburg, ON.; Doreen Horton, Barrie, ON; Bert and Elsie Giles, Bronte, ON; Scott Gillies, Museums of Mississauga, Mississauga, ON; Joshua Hanzal, GFCHS, Grand Forks, ND; Anna Hudson, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON; Information Services Library Staff of the Aurora Public Library, Barrie Public Library, Belleville Public Library, Brantford Public Library, Mississauga Library System, Newmarket Public Library, and Orillia Public Library; Myrtle Johnson, OGS, North Augusta, ON; Roy Johnson and other members of the Niagara Peninsula Branch, OGS, St. Catherines, ON.
The Jalna Saga – Deluxe Edition: All Sixteen Books of the Enduring Classic Series & The Biography of Mazo de la Roche Page 552