Authors: Mazo de la Roche
Tags: #FIC045000 – FICTION / Sagas
| 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 in 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. |
| 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. |