The Jalna Saga – Deluxe Edition: All Sixteen Books of the Enduring Classic Series & The Biography of Mazo de la Roche (676 page)

BOOK: The Jalna Saga – Deluxe Edition: All Sixteen Books of the Enduring Classic Series & The Biography of Mazo de la Roche
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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 confines 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

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