de la Roche, Mazo, 1885-1961, Canadian novelist, b. Toronto. Her popular novel, Jalna (1927), was followed by a series depicting the history, through 150 years, of the vigorous Whiteoak family who lived at "Jalna." The series includes 16 novels; among them are Whiteoaks (1929), Finch's Fortune (1931), Young Renny (1935), Whiteoak Harvest (1936), Growth of a Man (1938), The Building of Jalna (1944), and Mary Wakefield (1949). Her dramatization of Whiteoaks was staged in London and New York. De la Roche also wrote plays, children's books, a history of Quebec, and an autobiography, Ringing the Changes (1957).

(born Jan. 15, 1879, Newmarket, Ont., Can.—died July 12, 1961, Toronto) Canadian author. She is best known for a series of novels centred on the Whiteoak family of Jalna, an estate in her native Ontario. These sagas of the family's history, more popular in the U.S. and Europe than in Canada, were the basis of a film, Jalna (1935), and a play, Whiteoaks (1936). She also wrote children's stories, travel books, drama, and an autobiography.

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