Maurice Gee | |
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 Gee in 2018 | |
| Born | Maurice Gough Gee (1931-08-22)22 August 1931 (age 93) Whakatāne, New Zealand |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Alma mater | University of Auckland |
| Notable works |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
Maurice Gough Gee (born 22 August 1931) is a New Zealand novelist. He is one of New Zealand's most distinguished and prolific authors, having written over thirty novels for adults and children, and has won numerous awards both in New Zealand and overseas, including multiple top prizes at theNew Zealand Book Awards, theJames Tait Black Memorial Prize in the UK, theKatherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, theRobert Burns Fellowship and aPrime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement. In 2003 he was recognised as one of New Zealand's greatest living artists across all disciplines by theArts Foundation of New Zealand, which presented him with anIcon Award.
Gee's novelPlumb (1978) was described by theOxford Companion to New Zealand Literature to be one of the best novels ever written in New Zealand.[1] He is also well-known for children's and young adult fiction such asUnder the Mountain (1979). He has won multiple top prizes at theNew Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and in 2002 he was presented with the prestigiousMargaret Mahy Award by the Children's Literature Foundation in recognition of his contributions to children's literature.
Gee was born inWhakatāne, and brought up inHenderson, a suburb of Auckland, a location that frequently features in his writing.[1][2][3][4] His mother, Harriet Lyndahl Gee (née Chapple), was a socialist and an aspiring writer who had some of her work published, including a children's picture book calledMihi and the Last of the Moas (1943),[5] and his father, Leonard Gee, was a carpenter. He was the middle child of their three sons.[6] Gee was also the grandson of controversial Presbyterian-turned-Unitarian ministerJames Chapple, later to be the inspiration for Gee's character George Plumb in hisPlumb trilogy (1978).[6][7]
Gee attendedHenderson Primary School andAvondale College, and completedBA andMA degrees at theUniversity of Auckland, which subsequently recognised him with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998, and an honoraryDoctorate of Literature in 2004.[8] He also received an honorary Doctorate of Literature fromVictoria University of Wellington in 1987.[9]
Gee began writing at university, and had short stories published in New Zealand journalsLandfall andMate.[1] After finishing his MA he taught in the secondary department ofPaeroa District High School for about 18 months, starting in February 1955, but resigned in July 1956 to focus on his writing.[10][11] In January 1960 and December 1961 he was awarded literary grants by the New Zealand Literary Fund.[12][13]
His first published novel wasThe Big Season (1962),[14] a novel about a rugby player who becomes interested in a burglar and the burglar's girlfriend. It had themes of violence and tension, and was described byThe New Zealand Herald as "not always pleasant, but certainly forceful and sincere". Gee himself was a keen rugby player and the games in the novel were inspired by his own experiences.[1] In 1964, Gee was the sixth recipient of theRobert Burns Fellowship at theUniversity of Otago, one of New Zealand's most prestigious literary awards.[15] During this fellowship he wrote his second novel,A Special Flower (1965).[16] After the fellowship he trained as a librarian and in the 1960s and 1970s worked at theAlexander Turnbull Library, theNapier library and several libraries in Auckland.[5]
His third novel,In My Father's Den, a mystery novel, was published in 1972.[17] This novel was later adapted into the critically acclaimedfilm of the same name by directorBrad McGann in 2004. Gee followed this novel with a collection of short stories,A Glorious Morning, Comrade (1974),[18] which won the prize for fiction at the 1976New Zealand Book Awards,[19] and a further novelGames of Choice (1976).[20]
Gee's novelPlumb, published in 1978, is his best-known work for adults, and is considered one of the best novels ever written in New Zealand.[1] In 2018, fifty New Zealand literary experts voted it to be the best novel of the last fifty years.[7] Gee has described it as his "grandfather novel", with the character George Plumb closely based on his mother's father James Chapple, particularly his early life and his trials forheresy andseditious utterance.[7][21] It won theJames Tait Black Memorial Prize in the UK,[22] and the top prize for fiction at both theGoodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards and the New Zealand Book Awards in 1979.[19] The novel and its two sequels,Meg (1981) andSole Survivor (1983), explore the impacts of history, politics and religion on one family from the perspectives of different members.[23]Meg won the top prize for fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards in 1982.[19]
At this time Gee also published his first children's novel,Under the Mountain (1979), a science fiction story set in Auckland, New Zealand, about 11-year-old twins who discover aliens under volcanicLake Pupuke. It has remained in print since it was published and is considered a New Zealand classic.[24] It has been adapted into a1981 television miniseries, a2009 film and a stage show.[25] In 2004Under the Mountain was the recipient of theGaelyn Gordon Award, awarded annually to a "much-loved" New Zealand children's book that did not win any awards at the time of its publication.[26] It was followed by other children's books, including notably the science fiction trilogy beginning withThe Halfmen of O (1982),[27] which won theAIM Children's Book Awards Book of the Year Award in 1983,[28] andMotherstone (1985), which was awarded theEsther Glen Award byLIANZA.[29]
In order to improve his income, Gee began working in television writing, including writing for 11 episodes of soap operaClose to Home and episodes of police dramaMortimer's Patch.[21][30] Two of his children's books,The Fire-Raiser (1986) andThe Champion (1989) originated as television projects.[30]The Champion was shortlisted for the 1990 Esther Glen Award.[29] In 1987 he was recognised byVictoria University of Wellington with the award of an honorary Doctorate of Literature, and in 1989 he held a Victoria University writing fellowship.[9] Around this time he wrote two adult novels set inNelson:Prowlers (1987)[31] andThe Burning Boy (1990).[32]The Burning Boy was awarded the top prize for fiction at the 1991 New Zealand Book Awards.[19]
The publication of Gee's tenth novel,Going West (1992),[34] cemented his reputation as one of the best writers in New Zealand.[21] It is the most autobiographical of Gee's fictional novels, and the fictional town of Loomis, in which the novel is set, has many similarities to Henderson, Auckland, where Gee grew up.[3][1] The novel was the inspiration for theGoing West Books & Writers Festival, Auckland's first literary festival, which has been held since 1996.[35] It won the top prize for fiction at the 1993 Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards.[19] In 1993,Andro Linklater, writing in British newspaperThe Sunday Times, said that "Gee deserves to be regarded as one of the finest writers at work, not only in New Zealand ... but in the English speaking world".[36][21]
Gee was the 1992 recipient of theKatherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, a literary fellowship that enables the recipient to work inMenton, France, for part of the year, whereKatherine Mansfield herself lived and worked in the early 20th century.[3] During his time in Menton, Gee wrote the novelCrime Story,[21] which was published in 1994.[37] A decade later it was adapted byLarry Parr into the 2004 filmFracture. The film was praised by Christchurch newspaperThe Press as "competent, confident and complex".[30]
The Fat Man (1994)[38] won the AIM Children's Book of the Year award and the Esther Glen Award.[28][29] It was controversial for its content and portrayal of violence, with Gee himself describing it as a "psychological thriller for children".[39] In 1998 he publishedLive Bodies, a novel for adults that was awarded both the top prize for fiction and the Deutz Medal at theMontana New Zealand Book Awards that year.[19] Other notable works in the late 1990s included the children's booksOrchard Street (1998) andHostel Girl (1999).[19] His contributions to New Zealand children's literature were recognised by the Children's Literature Foundation in 2002 which presented him with the prestigiousMargaret Mahy Award.[19][40][41]
In the early 2000s, Gee's novels includedEllie and the Shadow Man (2001), which was short-listed for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2002, andThe Scornful Moon (2003), which was short-listed for Best Book in the South Pacific & South East Asian Region of the 2004Commonwealth Writers' Prize and a runner-up in the fiction category at the 2004 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.[3] Gee also received two prestigious awards: in 2003 he was named as one of New Zealand's greatest living artists by theArts Foundation of New Zealand through the presentation of anIcon Award (recipients being limited to a living circle of 20),[4] and in 2004 he received aNZ$60,000Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement for fiction.[42] His 2005 novelBlindsight won the Deutz Medal, the top prize for fiction and (jointly) the Readers' Choice Award at the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.[19] His 2007 novelSalt won the award for young adult fiction at theNew Zealand Post Children's Book Awards.[19]Salt and its sequel,Gool, were both listed asStorylines Notable Young Adult Fiction Books.[3] The third novel in the trilogy,The Limping Man (2010), was a finalist in the young adult fiction category at theNew Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.[3] In 2012, he was the inaugural Honoured New Zealand Writer at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.[43]
In 2015,Rachel Barrowman's biography of Gee,Maurice Gee: Life and Work, was published byVictoria University Press. The book was critically well-received, and Gee said Barrowman's research was "thorough, unrelenting, illuminating — illuminating even for me".[3] Although Gee said in 2012 that he did not expect to write another novel,[44]The Severed Land was published in 2017, and received the top award for young adult fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in that same year.[19]
In 2018 Gee published his memoirMemory Pieces.[45] The memoir is in three parts: the first about his parents' lives, the second about his own childhood and adolescent years, and the third about his wife. He said it is "almost certainly" going to be his last book.[46] It was shortlisted for the Royal Society Te Apārangi Award for General Non-Fiction at the 2019Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.[47]
Gee's novels are commonly set in New Zealand, often in fictitious versions of Henderson, where he grew up.[30] His adult novels tend to be realistic portrayals of New Zealand life, often featuring dysfunctional families and relationships, while his children's and young adult novels tend to be fantasies or science fiction.[30][11] Even in his children's novels, his writing often features bleak or tragic moments.[48] TheOxford Companion to New Zealand Literature (2006) said that each of Gee's novels "bountifully gives us a rich vision of some region and aspect of New Zealand life, and of human life in general ... Yet there is always an awareness of living at the edge of an abyss: one false move and we shall leave this abundance for nothingness."[1]
Gee had a seven-year relationship with Hera Smith, with whom he had a son, Nigel, in September 1959. They separated in the 1960s.[49][50]
Gee married his wife Margareta in 1970, having met in 1966 at theAlexander Turnbull Library where she worked.[6][51] They have two adult daughters together, Abigail andEmily. Abigail works as an animator,[52] and Emily is a writer who has published fantasy and historical novels.[46] Gee said in 2018 that meeting Margareta changed his life: "I was 38 when we got together and was drifting and wasting my time and only pretending to be a writer. She brought stability of every kind into my life – and as I point out inRunning on the Stairs, two novels and a handful of stories before meeting her, more than 30 novels since."[6]
As of 2020[update] he lives in Nelson with his wife and considers himself to be retired from writing.[33]Gee considers himself anevolutionary humanist.[5] He is an Honorary Associate of theNew Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists.[53]
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