Marshall McLuhan

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Lore & Background

McLuhan was born on July 21, 1911, in Edmonton, Alberta. After his father's real-estate business failed at the start of World War I, the family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where Marshall grew up and attended Kelvin Technical School before enrolling at the University of Manitoba in 1928. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1933, winning a University Gold Medal in Arts and Sciences, and a Master of Arts degree in English in 1934. He then studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, enrolling as an undergraduate 'affiliated' student in 1934, studying under I. A. Richards and F. R. Leavis. He received his bachelor's degree from Cambridge in 1936. While at Cambridge, he converted to Catholicism in March 1937, influenced by reading G. K. Chesterton, who 'prevented my despair from becoming a habit.' He taught at Saint Louis University from 1937 to 1944, where he tutored and befriended Walter J. Ong. He married Corinne Lewis on August 4, 1939, and they had six children: Eric, twins Mary and Teresa, Stephanie, Elizabeth, and Michael. He completed his doctoral dissertation on Thomas Nashe and the verbal arts, receiving his PhD in December 1943. He taught at Assumption College in Windsor, Ontario, from 1944 to 1946, then moved to the University of Toronto in 1946, joining St. Michael's College. In 1963, the University of Toronto created the Centre for Culture and Technology to keep him from moving to another institute. He was a fixture in media discourse in the late 1960s, though his influence began to wane in the early 1970s. In 1970, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. He suffered a stroke in September 1979 that affected his ability to speak, and died in his sleep on December 31, 1980. He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Markham, Ontario.

Reader's Guide

McLuhan's significance lies in his foundational contributions to media theory, particularly his insight that 'the medium is the message,' which he introduced in the first chapter of his book *Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man*. He also coined the term 'global village.' He predicted the World Wide Web almost 30 years before it was invented. His early work *The Mechanical Bride* (1951) examines the effect of advertising on society and culture. In the 1950s, he and Edmund Carpenter produced the academic journal *Explorations*, and together with Harold Innis, Eric A. Havelock, and Northrop Frye, they have been characterized as the Toronto School of communication theory. McLuhan wrote in 1964 that his book *The Gutenberg Galaxy* was 'a footnote to the observations of Innis on the subject of the psychic and social consequences, first of writing then of printing.' After his death, with the arrival of the Internet and the World Wide Web, interest was renewed in his work and perspectives. He remains a controversial figure in academic circles, but his work continues to be a cornerstone of media studies.

Did You Know?

• McLuhan was named 'Marshall' from his maternal grandmother's surname.
• He converted to Catholicism in 1937 after reading G. K. Chesterton, who he said 'prevented my despair from becoming a habit.'
• He had a lifelong interest in the number three, such as the trivium and the Trinity, and sometimes said the Virgin Mary provided intellectual guidance for him.
• McLuhan supervised the doctoral thesis of modernist writer Sheila Watson on the subject of Wyndham Lewis.
• In 1975, the University of Dallas hosted him from April to May, appointing him to the McDermott Chair.