Mazo de la Roche (; born Maisie Louise Roche; January 15, 1879 – July 12, 1961) was a Canadian writer who wrote the Jalna novels, one of the most popular series of books of her time.
Biography
Early life
thumb|Mazo de la Roche, in [[Clarkson, Mississauga|Clarkson 1928]]
De la Roche was born in Newmarket, Ontario, north of Toronto, on January 15, 1879. She was the only child of William Roche, a salesman, and Alberta (Lundy) Roche, who was a great-great-niece of David Willson, founder of the Children of Peace, through the latter's elder half-brother Hugh L. Willson. On her father's side of the family, her uncle Francis signed himself as "Francis J. de la Roche", claiming a descendancy from Sir Richard de la Roche (1199–1283) of Strongbow's army; Mazo eventually adopted the "de la Roche" surname, claiming that it was a nod to French heritage.
The Roche family moved frequently throughout Southern Ontario during her childhood because of her mother's ill health and her father's work as a travelling salesman. She was known locally as "Maisie Roach", Her novel Delight was based on her time there, A few years later in 1911, by now in her early thirties, de la Roche moved with Caroline and the Roches to Sovereign House in Bronte, Ontario, to try life as farm owners. By now, de la Roche had resumed writing and was placing stories in American magazines on an occasional basis.
William Roche, Mazo's father, died in 1915 of cirrhosis of the liver brought on by alcoholism. De la Roche, her mother Alberta and Caroline moved back to Toronto.
De la Roche continued to write, but at this juncture Caroline Clement was the main breadwinner of the household, working as a civil service clerk. (She eventually rose to become the province of Ontario's chief statistician.) During the summers, Clement lived in a Toronto boarding house while de la Roche and her mother stayed in a cottage near Lake Simcoe, several hours north of the city.
Alberta Roche died in 1920. After this, de la Roche's writing career began in earnest, and Clement and de la Roche were never again separated for any significant length of time. During most of the 1920s, they split their time between Toronto and a cottage they had built in Clarkson, Ontario.
Her first published book, Explorers of the Dawn, appeared in 1922, and was a fix-up of some previously published sketches, vignettes and stories rewritten to work within an overarching narrative framework. Her first two proper novels, Possession (1923) and Delight (1926), were romantic novels which were mild successes, but nevertheless earned her little in income or recognition. De la Roche also wrote plays and short stories through this period.
Her third novel, Jalna, was submitted to the American magazine Atlantic Monthly, where it won a $10,000 award. The award, and the novel's publication in 1927, brought de la Roche fame and fortune at the age of 48.
thumb|left|Benares Historic House and Bianca de la Roche. Mazo De La Roche & Caroline Clement, ca. 1930s
Jalna series
Jalna was an immediate sensation, with the public demanding sequels and prequels for the rest of de la Roche's life. Though she continued to write other works, the series known as the Jalna series or the Whiteoak Chronicles dominated the rest of her career. The series tells the story of one hundred years of the Whiteoak family from 1854 to 1954. The sixteen novels do not form a sequence, however, and each can be read as an independent story.
There are similarities and differences in the experiences of the Whiteoak family and that of de la Roche. While the lives and successes of the Whiteoaks rise and fall, there remained for them the steadiness of the family manor, known as Jalna. de la Roche's family endured the illness of her mother, the perpetual job searches of her father, and the adoption of her orphaned cousin while being moved 17 times. Several critics believe that Finch Whiteoak who majors in Finch's Fortune (1932) is a reflection of de la Roche herself. He was a somewhat tortured concert pianist with overtones of gayness. The names of many of the characters were taken from gravestones in a Newmarket, Ontario cemetery.
Bestselling author
The sudden bout of fame was not an immediate blessing for de la Roche, as the stress of the attendant publicity caused her to experience another breakdown in early 1928. She eventually recovered, and began writing a sequel to Jalna, which was published in 1929.
The income from Jalna and its sequels allowed de la Roche to become the main breadwinner of the household, after years of having been supported by Clement. The two made an extended trip to Europe beginning in 1929, living first in Italy, then in the United Kingdom. In 1931 they adopted the two orphaned children of friends of theirs. This was extremely unusual for the time, as adoptions by single women were technically not allowed in the UK during this era; the machinations by which de la Roche and Clement were able to do this are unknown.
The family returned to Toronto for a time in 1934–1935, heading back to England again in 1936 before returning to Toronto for good in 1939. She purchased a home at 3590 Bayview Avenue the same year, and eventually added two wings to what became a 17-room mansion. The film "lend(s) credence to the theory that its subject was a closeted lesbian", although several people in the film who knew de la Roche and Clement, including their adopted daughter Esmée, state on-camera that they believe the relationship between the two was close but ultimately platonic.
Death and legacy
De la Roche died on July 12, 1961. (Benares and Jalna are in fact both names of Indian cities.) It is now maintained by the Museums of Mississauga. A nearby park is named Whiteoaks in honour of the series, as is a nearby elementary school. Streets in the area also bear names such as "Mazo Crescent," "Jalna Avenue," "Roche Court," and "Whiteoaks Avenue."
Her house at 3590 Bayview Avenue in Toronto, Ontario was bought by The Zoroastrian Society of Ontario in 1978 and continues to serve as the society's community centre (as of February 2021). It is listed as a City of Toronto Heritage Property.
In 1990, a French-immersion public school in de la Roche's birthplace of Newmarket, Ontario was named in her honour.
Responding to an enquiry on the pronunciation of her name, her secretary told The Literary Digest: "Her Christian name is pronounced may'zo, and Roche is pronounced rosh, to rhyme with Foch."
Works
Novels
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ The following table can be sorted to show Mazo de la Roche's novels in chronological order,<br />or arranged alphabetically by title, by publisher, or by series.<br />
! Year !! Title !! Publisher !! Series !! (Order) !! Notes
|-
|1922
|Explorers of the Dawn
|Knopf
|
|
|
|-
|1923
|Possession
|Macmillan
|
|
|Reprinted, C. Chivers, 1973.
|-
|1926
|Delight
|Macmillan
|
|
|Reprinted with introduction by Desmond Pacey, McClelland and Stewart, 1961
|-
|1927
|Jalna
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|7
|
|-
|1929
| Whiteoaks of Jalna
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|8
|Also published as Whiteoaks, Macmillan, 1929
|-
|1930
| Portrait of a Dog
|Little, Brown
|
|
|Immortalizes the author's beloved Scottish Terrier
|-
|1932
| Finch's Fortune
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|9
|
|-
|1932
| Lark Ascending
|Little, Brown
|
|
|
|-
|1932
| The Thunder of the New Wings
|Little, Brown
|
|
|
|-
|1933
| The Master of Jalna
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|10
|
|-
|1934
| Beside a Norman Tower
|Little, Brown
|
|
|
|-
|1935
|Young Renny
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|4
|
|-
|1936
| Whiteoak Harvest
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|11
|
|-
|1937
| The Very Little House
|Little, Brown
|
|
|
|-
|1938
| Growth of a Man
|Little, Brown
|
|
|
|-
|1940
| Whiteoak Heritage
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|5
|
|-
|1941
| Wakefield's Course
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|12
|
|-
|1942
| The Two Saplings
|Macmillan
|
|
|
|-
|1944
| Building of Jalna
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|1
|
|-
|1946
| Return to Jalna
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|13
|
|-
|1949
| Mary Wakefield
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|3
|
|-
|1951
| Renny's Daughter
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|14
|
|-
|1953
| Whiteoak Brothers
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|6
|
|-
|1954
| Variable Winds at Jalna
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|15
|
|-
|1955
| The Song of Lambert
|Macmillan
|
|
|Juvenile
|-
|1958
| Centenary at Jalna
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|16
|
|-
|1958
| Bill and Coo
|Macmillan
|
|
|Juvenile
|-
|1960
| Morning at Jalna
|Little, Brown
|Jalna
|2
|
|-
|}
Plays
- Low Life: A Comedy in One Act (first produced as Low Life in Toronto, Ontario, at Trinity Memorial Hall, May 14, 1925), Macmillan, 1925.
- Come True (first produced in Toronto at Trinity Memorial Hall, May 16, 1927), Macmillan, 1927.
- The Return of the Emigrant (first produced in Toronto at Trinity Memorial Hall, March 12, 1928.) Collected in Low Life and Other Plays (contains Low Life, Come True, and The Return of the Emigrant), Little, Brown, 1929.
- (With Nancy Price) Whiteoaks: A Play (adapted from Whiteoaks of Jalna; first produced in London, England, at Little Theatre in the Adelphi, April 13, 1936; produced on Broadway, 1938), Macmillan, 1936.
thumb|Bain News Service/LOC ggbain.24645. Mazo De La Roche
- Mistress of Jalna, first produced in Bromley, Kent, England, at New Theatre, November 12, 1951.
Short story collections
- The Sacred Bullock and Other Stories of Animals, Little, Brown, 1939.
- A Boy in the House, and Other Stories, Little, Brown, 1952.
- Selected Stories of Mazo de la Roche, edited and introduced by Douglas Daymond, University of Ottawa Press, 1979.
Non-fiction
- Quebec: Historic Seaport (non-fiction), Doubleday, 1944.
- Ringing the Changes: An Autobiography, Little, Brown, 1957.
- (Author of introduction) George F. Nelson, editor, Northern Lights: A New Collection of Distinguished Writing by Canadian Authors, Doubleday, 1960.
Related works
- Jalna 1935 film based on the novel. IMDb
- The Whiteoaks of Jalna 1972 CBC TV series based on the Jalna series. IMDb
See also
- Lorne Pierce Medal
References
Further reading
- Virginia Careless Mazo De La Roche: Mistress of Jalna 1879-1961. Retrieved June 23, 2005.
- Mazo de la Roche Public School (2004). History - Mazo de la Roche (1879-1961). Retrieved June 23, 2005.
- The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition (2004). de la Roche, Mazo. Retrieved June 23, 2005.
- Ontario Museum Association (2005). Benares Historic House. Retrieved June 23, 2005.
- James H. Marsh, ed. (1990). The Junior Encyclopedia of Canada. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers Ltd.. .
- Ellie Friedman & Joyce Y. Carter (1995). The Jalna Series; or, The Whiteoak Chronicles by Mazo de la Roche. Retrieved June 26, 2005.
- "Biography - de la Roche, Mazo (1879-1961)" (2004). Contemporary Authors. Thomson Gale.
- D. M. Daymond (1976). "Nature, Culture and Love: Mazo De La Roche's Explorers of the Dawn and The Thunder of New Wings". Studies in Canadian Literature, 1.2.
- Joan Doig (1980). "Mazo de la Roche's Delight: An Unexpected Source". Studies in Canadian Literature, 5.2.
External links
- Mazo de la Roche's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
- Google map of Benares Historic House
- Ontario Plaques - Mazo de la Roche