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Mary Scott (novelist)

January 01, 1970

Mary Edith Scott (née Clarke; 23 September 1888 – 16 July 1979) was a New Zealand novelist, teacher and librarian. She was a prolific writer who specialised in romantic comedies set in rural New Zealand, and her books were widely read both in New Zealand and overseas. From 1953 to 1978 she wrote at a rate of at least one book per year.[1] She published over thirty novels, five detective novels written jointly with Joyce West, an autobiography, and three collections of plays.[2][1]

Mary Scott
Scott, c. 1959
BornMary Edith Clarke
(1888-09-23)23 September 1888
Waimate North, New Zealand
Died16 July 1979(1979-07-16) (aged 90)
Tokoroa, New Zealand
Resting placeAlexandra Cemetery, Pirongia
Pen nameMarten Stuart
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • teacher
  • librarian
EducationMA, Auckland University College
Period1935–1979
GenreRomantic comedy
Spouse
Walter Scott
​
​
(m. 1914; died 1960)​
Children4

Early life and education edit

Scott was born in Waimate North, Northland, New Zealand in 1888. She was the daughter of Marsden Clarke, a grazier, and his wife Frances Emily Stuart. She was a great-granddaughter of George Clarke, an early New Zealand missionary.[1]

After Scott's father died in 1889, her mother took her and her older siblings to Napier, New Zealand to live with their maternal grandfather, Edward Stuart, the second Bishop of Waiapu. She attended Napier Girls' High School for two years, after which the family moved to Auckland and she attended Auckland Girls' Grammar School. In 1905 she went to Auckland University College to study English, French and history. After a period of teaching at Gisborne High School, she completed a Masters of Arts with first-class honours, graduating in 1910.[1][3] After graduating she continued her teaching career. In around 1912 she climbed the mountain range of The Remarkables with her brother and was possibly the first woman to do so.[1]

Marriage and farm edit

In October 1914 she married Walter Scott, her sister's husband's brother, and they moved to a sheep farm on the slopes of Mount Pirongia in the King Country. They had four children together. The farming life was a difficult one and the family struggled with most of their cattle dying of bush sickness, and much of their property being destroyed by two fires in 1917 and 1918.[1][2] Years later she was to tell the story of their struggle to develop the property and raise a family in her autobiography, Days That Have Been (1966), and would also use these experiences as the basis for her novel The Unwritten Book (1957).[3] In 1927 the family moved to a new farm at Ngutunui, near Te Awamutu, and Scott took a job as a librarian in town.[1]

Literary career edit

Scott began writing in the late 1920s, in order to supplement the family's income. She wrote humorous sketches, based on her own life on the farm and starring the character "Barbara", a farmer's wife, for the Dunedin Evening Star, The New Zealand Herald and other newspapers on a weekly basis.[1][3] In 1930 the New Zealand Artists' Annual recognised her as its "Annual Discovery". She continued writing for newspapers in both New Zealand and the UK for the next fifty years, at times as many as fourteen articles a month.[1] Scott's first two novels, Where the Apple Reddens and And Shadows Flee were published under a pseudonym, Marten Stuart, in the mid-1930s.[1] Unlike her later novels, they were historical romances set in early nineteenth century New Zealand, and she was later to say that they were "better buried in oblivion".[3]

Her newspaper "Barbara" stories proved so popular that they were published in five collections over the next twenty years, beginning with Barbara and the New Zealand Back-blocks (1936),[3] and recorded for radio broadcast.[4] The first collection was published by Thomas Avery & Sons, New Plymouth and they were thereafter published by A.H. and A.W. Reed.[4][5] They were set on the New Zealand "backblocks", a term used in Australia and New Zealand to describe remote rural farmland.[4] In a review of Barbara Prospers, the Otago Daily Times said that her Barbara books were "a series of lively, intimate pictures, by turn uplifting or depressing, but never pessimistic or cheerless, of the everyday happenings of backblocks life".[6] The Manawatu Times said the first collection was "a gem which should be on the shelves of all collectors of New Zealand books", and warned readers that "the whole edition is likely to be sold out by Christmas".[7]

Scott's novels were mainly light and contemporary romantic comedies set in the King Country, published both in London and New Zealand.[3][1] They were described by Joan Stevens as "certainly readable; they follow an easily foreseen pattern, evoke the expected reactions, and provide comedy without ever stretching the faculties too far".[8] Stevens highlighted One of the Family (1958) as one of the most successful of the novels, about an English uncle visiting New Zealand.[8] They did, however, have an undercurrent of seriousness, due to Scott's family's experiences in the Great Depression; many of her stories featured themes of debt and poverty, or the failure of being forced to leave the backblocks and return to living in town.[4] She also published three volumes of plays,[9][10] and in the 1960s collaborated with fellow New Zealand writer Joyce West on five detective novels starring the character Inspector Wright.[11]

In 1940 Scott was asked how she managed to find time to run a farm, a family and a home as well as write. In response, she said that her husband would be annoyed if she said she ran the farm, that nobody could be said to "run" a family, and that her home ran itself.[12]

Scott was a household name in New Zealand during her lifetime.[2] New Zealand academic Terry Sturm wrote that she was "the first popular novelist to set all her fiction in New Zealand and to think of her readership as primarily a New Zealand one".[3] Her books had better New Zealand sales figures than any other New Zealand author.[13] Her novels were also popular overseas and translated into several European languages. In Germany she had several bestsellers;[1][14] her book Breakfast at Six, first published in 1953 and the most popular of her novels,[3] was translated into German and published as Frühstück um Sechs by Goldmann in 1956,[15] and a new edition was published by Weltbild in 2001.[16] An article in The Press in 1957 noted that very few other New Zealand authors had had works translated into foreign languages at that time, save Katherine Mansfield and Ngaio Marsh.[13]

Selected works edit

  • (As Marten Stuart) Where the Apples Redden (1934)
  • (As Marten Stuart) As Shadows Flee (1936)
  • Barbara and the New Zealand Back-Blocks (1936)
  • Barbara Prospers (1937)
  • Life With Barbara (1944)
  • Five Little Plays (1946)
  • More Little Plays (1949)
  • Five Barbara Plays (1950)
  • Barbara on the Farm (1953)
  • Breakfast at Six (1953)
  • Yours to Oblige (1954)
  • Barbara Sees the Queen (1954)
  • Pippa in Paradise (1955)
  • Dinner Doesn't Matter (1957)
  • The Unwritten Book (1957)
  • Families are Fun (1957)
  • One of the Family (1958)
  • The White Elephant (1959)
  • No Sad Songs (1960)
  • Tea and Biscuits (1961)
  • It's Perfectly Easy (1962)
  • The Long Honeymoon (1963)
  • A Change from Mutton (1964)
  • Freddie (1965)
  • Days That Have Been – An Autobiography (1966)
  • What Does It Matter? (1966)
  • Yes, Darling (1967)
  • Turkey at Twelve (1968)
  • Strictly Speaking (1969)
  • Haven't We Met Before? (1970)
  • If I Don't, Who Will? (1971)
  • Shepherd's Pie (1972)
  • First Things First (1973)
  • It Was Meant (1974)
  • Strangers for Tea (1975)
  • Away From It All (1977)
  • Board but no Breakfast (1978)

With Joyce West (1908–1985):

  • Fatal Lady (1960) Hamilton NZ: Paul's Book Arcade
  • Such Nice People (1962) Hamilton NZ: Paul's Book Arcade. Sydney: Angus & Robertson
  • Mangrove Murder (1963) Auckland NZ: Paul's Book Arcade. London: Angus & Robertson
  • No Red Herrings (1964) Auckland, NZ: Paul's Book Arcade. London: Angus & Robertson
  • Who Put it There? (1965) Hamilton NZ: Blackwood & Janet Paul

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wevers, Lydia. "Mary Edith Scott". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Williams, Lyn (21 July 2017). "Mary Scott 1888–1979". Waikato Times. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Sturm, Terry (2006). "Scott, Mary". In Robinson, Roger; Wattie, Nelson (eds.). The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-1917-3519-6. OCLC 865265749. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d Stafford, Jane (21 June 2016). "Literary cartography in the backblocks". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  5. ^ "New Zealand Sketches". Evening Post. 24 October 1936. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  6. ^ "Life in the Backblocks". Otago Daily Times. 18 December 1937. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  7. ^ ""Barbara of the New Zealand Backblocks"". Manawatu Times. 18 December 1936. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  8. ^ a b Stevens, Joan (1966). "Mary Scott". The New Zealand Novel 1860–1965. Wellington, New Zealand: Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd. p. 45. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  9. ^ "Plays by Mary Scott". Evening Post. 12 January 1946. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  10. ^ "Five Barbara plays / by Mary Scott". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  11. ^ Stevens, Joan (1966). "Crime Fiction". The New Zealand Novel 1860–1965. Wellington, New Zealand: Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd. p. 115. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  12. ^ "Amusing Speeches". Evening Post. 13 March 1940. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  13. ^ a b "Successful Author: Works Translated in Europe". The Press. 31 July 1957. p. 2. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  14. ^ "Ergebnis der Suche nach: "118612379"". Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek (in German). Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  15. ^ "Ergebnis der Suche nach: "118612379": Treffer 156 von 162". Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek (in German). Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  16. ^ "Ergebnis der Suche nach: "118612379": Treffer 1 von 162". Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek (in German). Retrieved 18 December 2020.

External links edit

  • Mary Scott reading a letter she wrote for the Countrywoman's newsletter, 1949, hosted by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
  • Profile of Mary Scott for the Evening Star, December 1936

January 01, 1970
mary, scott, novelist, mary, edith, scott, née, clarke, september, 1888, july, 1979, zealand, novelist, teacher, librarian, prolific, writer, specialised, romantic, comedies, rural, zealand, books, were, widely, read, both, zealand, overseas, from, 1953, 1978,. Mary Edith Scott nee Clarke 23 September 1888 16 July 1979 was a New Zealand novelist teacher and librarian She was a prolific writer who specialised in romantic comedies set in rural New Zealand and her books were widely read both in New Zealand and overseas From 1953 to 1978 she wrote at a rate of at least one book per year 1 She published over thirty novels five detective novels written jointly with Joyce West an autobiography and three collections of plays 2 1 Mary ScottScott c 1959BornMary Edith Clarke 1888 09 23 23 September 1888Waimate North New ZealandDied16 July 1979 1979 07 16 aged 90 Tokoroa New ZealandResting placeAlexandra Cemetery PirongiaPen nameMarten StuartOccupationNovelistteacherlibrarianEducationMA Auckland University CollegePeriod1935 1979GenreRomantic comedySpouseWalter Scott m 1914 died 1960 wbr Children4 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Marriage and farm 3 Literary career 4 Selected works 5 References 6 External linksEarly life and education editScott was born in Waimate North Northland New Zealand in 1888 She was the daughter of Marsden Clarke a grazier and his wife Frances Emily Stuart She was a great granddaughter of George Clarke an early New Zealand missionary 1 After Scott s father died in 1889 her mother took her and her older siblings to Napier New Zealand to live with their maternal grandfather Edward Stuart the second Bishop of Waiapu She attended Napier Girls High School for two years after which the family moved to Auckland and she attended Auckland Girls Grammar School In 1905 she went to Auckland University College to study English French and history After a period of teaching at Gisborne High School she completed a Masters of Arts with first class honours graduating in 1910 1 3 After graduating she continued her teaching career In around 1912 she climbed the mountain range of The Remarkables with her brother and was possibly the first woman to do so 1 Marriage and farm editIn October 1914 she married Walter Scott her sister s husband s brother and they moved to a sheep farm on the slopes of Mount Pirongia in the King Country They had four children together The farming life was a difficult one and the family struggled with most of their cattle dying of bush sickness and much of their property being destroyed by two fires in 1917 and 1918 1 2 Years later she was to tell the story of their struggle to develop the property and raise a family in her autobiography Days That Have Been 1966 and would also use these experiences as the basis for her novel The Unwritten Book 1957 3 In 1927 the family moved to a new farm at Ngutunui near Te Awamutu and Scott took a job as a librarian in town 1 Literary career editScott began writing in the late 1920s in order to supplement the family s income She wrote humorous sketches based on her own life on the farm and starring the character Barbara a farmer s wife for the Dunedin Evening Star The New Zealand Herald and other newspapers on a weekly basis 1 3 In 1930 the New Zealand Artists Annual recognised her as its Annual Discovery She continued writing for newspapers in both New Zealand and the UK for the next fifty years at times as many as fourteen articles a month 1 Scott s first two novels Where the Apple Reddens and And Shadows Flee were published under a pseudonym Marten Stuart in the mid 1930s 1 Unlike her later novels they were historical romances set in early nineteenth century New Zealand and she was later to say that they were better buried in oblivion 3 Her newspaper Barbara stories proved so popular that they were published in five collections over the next twenty years beginning with Barbara and the New Zealand Back blocks 1936 3 and recorded for radio broadcast 4 The first collection was published by Thomas Avery amp Sons New Plymouth and they were thereafter published by A H and A W Reed 4 5 They were set on the New Zealand backblocks a term used in Australia and New Zealand to describe remote rural farmland 4 In a review of Barbara Prospers the Otago Daily Times said that her Barbara books were a series of lively intimate pictures by turn uplifting or depressing but never pessimistic or cheerless of the everyday happenings of backblocks life 6 The Manawatu Times said the first collection was a gem which should be on the shelves of all collectors of New Zealand books and warned readers that the whole edition is likely to be sold out by Christmas 7 Scott s novels were mainly light and contemporary romantic comedies set in the King Country published both in London and New Zealand 3 1 They were described by Joan Stevens as certainly readable they follow an easily foreseen pattern evoke the expected reactions and provide comedy without ever stretching the faculties too far 8 Stevens highlighted One of the Family 1958 as one of the most successful of the novels about an English uncle visiting New Zealand 8 They did however have an undercurrent of seriousness due to Scott s family s experiences in the Great Depression many of her stories featured themes of debt and poverty or the failure of being forced to leave the backblocks and return to living in town 4 She also published three volumes of plays 9 10 and in the 1960s collaborated with fellow New Zealand writer Joyce West on five detective novels starring the character Inspector Wright 11 In 1940 Scott was asked how she managed to find time to run a farm a family and a home as well as write In response she said that her husband would be annoyed if she said she ran the farm that nobody could be said to run a family and that her home ran itself 12 Scott was a household name in New Zealand during her lifetime 2 New Zealand academic Terry Sturm wrote that she was the first popular novelist to set all her fiction in New Zealand and to think of her readership as primarily a New Zealand one 3 Her books had better New Zealand sales figures than any other New Zealand author 13 Her novels were also popular overseas and translated into several European languages In Germany she had several bestsellers 1 14 her book Breakfast at Six first published in 1953 and the most popular of her novels 3 was translated into German and published as Fruhstuck um Sechs by Goldmann in 1956 15 and a new edition was published by Weltbild in 2001 16 An article in The Press in 1957 noted that very few other New Zealand authors had had works translated into foreign languages at that time save Katherine Mansfield and Ngaio Marsh 13 Selected works edit As Marten Stuart Where the Apples Redden 1934 As Marten Stuart As Shadows Flee 1936 Barbara and the New Zealand Back Blocks 1936 Barbara Prospers 1937 Life With Barbara 1944 Five Little Plays 1946 More Little Plays 1949 Five Barbara Plays 1950 Barbara on the Farm 1953 Breakfast at Six 1953 Yours to Oblige 1954 Barbara Sees the Queen 1954 Pippa in Paradise 1955 Dinner Doesn t Matter 1957 The Unwritten Book 1957 Families are Fun 1957 One of the Family 1958 The White Elephant 1959 No Sad Songs 1960 Tea and Biscuits 1961 It s Perfectly Easy 1962 The Long Honeymoon 1963 A Change from Mutton 1964 Freddie 1965 Days That Have Been An Autobiography 1966 What Does It Matter 1966 Yes Darling 1967 Turkey at Twelve 1968 Strictly Speaking 1969 Haven t We Met Before 1970 If I Don t Who Will 1971 Shepherd s Pie 1972 First Things First 1973 It Was Meant 1974 Strangers for Tea 1975 Away From It All 1977 Board but no Breakfast 1978 With Joyce West 1908 1985 Fatal Lady 1960 Hamilton NZ Paul s Book Arcade Such Nice People 1962 Hamilton NZ Paul s Book Arcade Sydney Angus amp Robertson Mangrove Murder 1963 Auckland NZ Paul s Book Arcade London Angus amp Robertson No Red Herrings 1964 Auckland NZ Paul s Book Arcade London Angus amp Robertson Who Put it There 1965 Hamilton NZ Blackwood amp Janet PaulReferences edit a b c d e f g h i j k l Wevers Lydia Mary Edith Scott Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Ministry for Culture and Heritage Retrieved 23 April 2017 a b c Williams Lyn 21 July 2017 Mary Scott 1888 1979 Waikato Times Retrieved 17 December 2020 a b c d e f g h Sturm Terry 2006 Scott Mary In Robinson Roger Wattie Nelson eds The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 acref 9780195583489 001 0001 ISBN 978 0 1917 3519 6 OCLC 865265749 Retrieved 16 December 2020 a b c d Stafford Jane 21 June 2016 Literary cartography in the backblocks National Library of New Zealand Retrieved 18 December 2020 New Zealand Sketches Evening Post 24 October 1936 Retrieved 17 December 2020 Life in the Backblocks Otago Daily Times 18 December 1937 Retrieved 17 December 2020 Barbara of the New Zealand Backblocks Manawatu Times 18 December 1936 Retrieved 18 December 2020 a b Stevens Joan 1966 Mary Scott The New Zealand Novel 1860 1965 Wellington New Zealand Reed Publishing NZ Ltd p 45 Retrieved 17 December 2020 Plays by Mary Scott Evening Post 12 January 1946 Retrieved 17 December 2020 Five Barbara plays by Mary Scott National Library of New Zealand Retrieved 18 December 2020 Stevens Joan 1966 Crime Fiction The New Zealand Novel 1860 1965 Wellington New Zealand Reed Publishing NZ Ltd p 115 Retrieved 18 December 2020 Amusing Speeches Evening Post 13 March 1940 Retrieved 17 December 2020 a b Successful Author Works Translated in Europe The Press 31 July 1957 p 2 Retrieved 22 September 2021 Ergebnis der Suche nach 118612379 Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek in German Retrieved 18 December 2020 Ergebnis der Suche nach 118612379 Treffer 156 von 162 Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek in German Retrieved 18 December 2020 Ergebnis der Suche nach 118612379 Treffer 1 von 162 Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek in German Retrieved 18 December 2020 External links editMary Scott reading a letter she wrote for the Countrywoman s newsletter 1949 hosted by Nga Taonga Sound amp Vision Profile of Mary Scott for the Evening Star December 1936 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Mary Scott novelist amp oldid 1164162654, 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