Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Ian Lancashire went to school at Churchill High School and received his B.A. Honours degree in English and Philosophy from the University of Manitoba in 1964. He received his M.A. (1965) and Ph.D. (1969) at the University of Toronto and became a lecturer in 1968 at Erindale College.
Born in Birmingham, England, on August 20, 1881, Edgar A. Guest settled with his family in Detroit in 1891. Starting in 1895 as a copy boy at the Detroit Free Press, Guest worked his way up as police reporter, exchange editor, and verse columnist.