Margaret Laurence was born Jean Margaret Wemyss on July 18, 1926, in the small town of Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada, to Robert Wemyss and Verna Simpson Wemyss. Like Jason Currie, Hagar's father in The Stone Angel, Laurence's father was of Scottish protestant ancestry. And just as Hagar is raised without a mother, Laurence's mother died when Laurence was four. She was raised by her aunt, Margaret Campbell Simpson.

In 1944 Laurence won a scholarship to study English at United College in Winnipeg, where she published poetry and stories in the college paper. After graduation she worked as a reporter for The Winnipeg Citizen, and in 1949 she married Jack Laurence, a civil engineer. In 1950 her husband's work took him to the British protectorate of Somaliland (now Somalia) in Africa. In 1954, Laurence published a translation of Somali poetry, A Tree for Poverty. After living in Ghana from 1952 to 1957, the Laurences returned to...