Katharine Susannah Prichard | |
|---|---|
 Katharine Susannah Prichard, Sydney, 1927-1928, May Moore | |
| Born | 4 December 1883 |
| Died | 2 October 1969 (aged 85) |
| Occupation | writer and political activist |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Citizenship | Australian |
| Notable works |
|
| Notable awards | World Council Peace Medal 1959 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Ric Throssell |
Katharine Susannah Prichard (4 December 1883 – 2 October 1969) was an Australian author and co-founding member of theCommunist Party of Australia.[1]
Prichard was born inLevuka,Fiji in 1883 to Australian parents. She spent her childhood inLaunceston, Tasmania, then moved toMelbourne, where she earned a scholarship toSouth Melbourne College.[1] Her father, Tom Prichard, was editor of the MelbourneSun newspaper. She was a governess and journalist in Victoria, then travelled to England in 1908.[1]
Her first novel,The Pioneers (1915),[2][3] won theHodder & Stoughton All Empire Literature Prize.[4]
After her return to Australia, the romanceWindlestraws[5] and her first novel of a mining community,Black Opal, were published.
Prichard moved with her husband, war heroHugo "Jim" Throssell,VC, toGreenmount, Western Australia, in 1920 where she lived for much of the rest of her life.[1] She wrote some of her later novels and stories in a weatherboard workroom near the house. In her personal life she usually referred to herself as Mrs Hugo Throssell. Her friends called her Kattie. They had a son,Ric Throssell,[1] later a diplomat and writer.[6]
Prichard was a founding member of theCommunist Party of Australia in 1921 and remained a member for the rest of her life. She worked to organise unemployed workers and founded left-wing women's groups. She campaigned in the 1930s in support of theSpanish Republic and other left-wing causes. Although she had frequent arguments with other Communist writers such asFrank Hardy andJudah Waten over the correct application of the doctrine ofsocialist realism to Australian fiction, she remained supportive of the Soviet Union and its cultural policies when many other intellectuals, such asEric Lambert andStephen Murray-Smith, left the party in the 1950s. Her public position as a communist and a female writer saw her harassed by Western Australian police and the federal government throughout her life.[7] The official surveillance files opened on Prichard in 1919 were not closed until her death in 1969.[7]
Prichard's commitment to her politics and her position as a woman in the public sphere also saw her socially isolated by the conservative social groups which dominated Perth in this period. She was the subject of constant rumours and frequent anonymous tip offs to Western Australian police of any communist activity.[7] She was also part of a new community of free thinking public intellectuals who, among other things, challenged notions of acceptable sexuality.[7]
Her two major novels, which were to give her national and international prominence, written in Western Australia in the early years of her marriage, wereWorking Bullocks (1926)[8][9] which dramatised the physical and emotional traumas of timber workers in thekarri country of Australia's south-west, andCoonardoo (1929),[10][11] a novel which became notorious for its candid portrayal of relationships between white men and Australian Aboriginal women in the north-west.
The far north-west of Australia provided inspiration and setting for her daring playBrumby Innes.[12]
Most of the short stories in the first of her four collections,Kiss on the Lips (1932),[13] were also from the 1920s, her decade of great creative activity. During this time she wrote her most adventurous novels, stories and plays.
While she was visiting the Soviet Union in 1933, her husband Jim Throssell committed suicide when his business failed during theGreat Depression.[14][15]
In 1934 her membership of the Communist Party of Australia and theMovement Against War and Fascism led her to lead theEgon Kisch welcome committee, which rapidly metamorphosed into a committee to defendKisch from exclusion from Australia.
The novelIntimate Strangers (1937)[16][17] was a turning point in her life. She had left the initial draft of the novel with her husband while she travelled to Russia collecting material for a new work. After his suicide, and her return to Australia, she changed a major incident in the novel – the suicide of a main character – as she feared that the novel may have influenced her husband.[1]
Her extended workThe Goldfields Trilogy – The Roaring Nineties (1946),[18]Golden Miles (1948),[19] andWinged Seeds (1950)[20] is a notable reconstruction of social and personal histories in Western Australia'sgoldfields from the 1890s to 1946.
Her autobiographySubtle Flame, published a few years before her death, exhibited the complex legacy she left behind.[21]
Prichard died at her home inGreenmount in 1969. Her ashes were scattered on the surrounding hills.
Her sonRic Throssell committed suicide when his wife Dodie died in 1999. He had fought for many years to clear his name, after being accused of passing classified information to his mother, or actively spying for the Soviet Union. His 1989 book covering this was calledMy Father's Son.[22]
The centenary of Prichard's birth was celebrated by UWA academics in a collection of essays.[23]
The home has now become the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre, a foundation promoting humanitarianism, the study of Katharine Susannah Prichard, and encouraging writing in Western Australia, where Prichard spent most of her life.[24]
The Shire of Mundaring public library branch in Greenmount is named after her as well.[25]
The 1996 Australian filmShine depicts the close correspondence between Prichard and Australian pianistDavid Helfgott. She was played byGoogie Withers. Prichard helped to raise money for Helfgott, to enable him to go to London to study music.
A house at Abbotsleigh, a private school on Sydney's North Shore, has been named after her.
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