About Hugh MacLennan
John Hugh MacLennan (March 20, 1907 – November 7, 1990) was a Canadian writer and professor of English at McGill University. He won five Governor General's Awards and a Royal Bank Award. == Family and childhood == MacLennan was born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, on March 20, 1907. His parents were Samuel MacLennan, a colliery physician, and Katherine MacQuarrie; Hugh also had an older sister named Frances. Samuel was a stern Calvinist, while Katherine was creative, warm and dreamy, and both parents would be large influences on Hugh's character. In 1913, the family spent several months in London while Samuel took on further study to become a medical specialist. On returning to Canada, they briefly lived in Sydney, Nova Scotia, before settling in Halifax. In December 1917, young Hugh experienced the Halifax Explosion, which he would later write about in his first published novel, Barometer Rising. From the ages of twelve to twenty-one, he slept in a tent in the family's backyard, even in the cold winter, possibly as an escape from his strict father. Hugh grew up believing in the importance of religion; he and Frances regularly went to Sunday school, and the family attended Presbyterian church services twice each Sunday.
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