Park, Ruth (c. 1923—)

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Park, Ruth (c. 1923—)

New Zealand-born Australian author. Born around 1923 in Auckland, New Zealand; attended St. Benedict's College, Auckland University, and New Zealand University; married D'Arcy Niland (a writer), in 1942 (died 1967); children: Anne, Rory, Patrick, Deborah, Kilmeny.

Won The Sydney Morning Herald prize for The Harp in the South (1948); created "The Muddle-Headed Wombat" series for ABC Children's Session (beginning 1960s).

Selected writings—for adults:

The Harp in the South (1948), Poor Man's Orange (1949, published in the United States as 12½ Plymouth Street , 1951), The Witch's Thorn (1951), A Power of Roses (1953), Pink Flannel (1955), Der Goldene Bumerang (The Golden Boomerang, German, 1955), The Drums Go Bang! (autobiography, written with D'Arcy Niland, 1956), One-a-Pecker, Two-a-Pecker (1957, published in England as The Frost and the Fire , 1958), The Good-Looking Women (1961, also published as Serpent's Delight , 1962), Swords and Crowns and Rings (1977), A Fence around the Cuckoo (autobiography, 1992), Fishing in the Styx (autobiography, 1993); for children: The Hole in the Hill (1961), The Ship's Cat (1961), The Road Under the Sea (1962), "The Muddle-Headed Wombat" (series of 14 books, 1962–81), The Sixpenny Island (1968), Callie's Castle (1974), Come Danger, Come Darkness (1978), Playing Beatie

Bow (1980), When the Wind Changed (1980), The Big Brass Key (1983) My Sister Sif (1986), Callie's Family (1988).

One of the most prolific writers of Australian literature in the 20th century, Ruth Park spent her early years in isolated areas of New Zealand amid a storytelling family. After attending the University of Auckland and the University of New Zealand, she worked as a proofreader and editor of the children's page for the Auckland Star, followed by a position as editor of the children's page for Zealandia, in Auckland. During this time she received a letter from a young man in Sydney, Australia, D'Arcy Niland, who was seeking advice about making writing his profession. Shortly after the start of World War II Park took a vacation in Australia, where she met Niland. They were married in Sydney in 1942. For a year they traveled around the Australian outback as Niland was sent by the wartime government to various jobs. Pregnant, Park then moved to Sydney, where the only housing she could find was in the slums of Surry Hills. This community would provide the environment for The Harp in the South, one of her most beloved books.

By 1944, Niland had joined Park in Surry Hills, and the couple began working as full-time writers. Writing successfully made the difference as to whether the family ate or not, so they wrote everything, including copy, jingles, advertisements, paragraphs, short stories, and articles. (Park later noted that the mail carrier, bearing first rejections and then paychecks, became the most important person in their lives.) The Harp in the South was published in 1948 and won The Sydney Morning Herald prize in novel competition. Based on the people Park met in Surry Hills and the lives they led, the book depicts grinding poverty and its attendants child abuse, prostitution, despair and untimely death, but celebrates the tenacity and love of life of the people who manage to survive while beset with such problems. Initially excoriated by many residents of Sydney for denigrating their city, The Harp in the South has since gone on to a secure place in Australian culture, and has never gone out of print. It has been translated into some 37 languages, used as a standard text in Australian schools, and adapted into a successful television series, a play, and a children's story. A sequel, Poor Man's Orange (1949), was also successful, as was a prequel, Missus (1985).

Both Park and her husband believed passionately in the writers' craft, and pursued it systematically as a business. While occasionally this has meant that her work is treated by critics as somewhat inferior to "serious" literature, her popularity and success at making a living for herself and her family, which included five children, solely through writing would seem to make that point moot. (Niland also published several bestselling novels, including The Shiralee.) In the 1950s Park wrote two novels that drew on her early memories of New Zealand, The Witch's Thorn (1951), another bestseller, and Pink Flannel (1955). Her 1977 novel Swords and Crowns and Rings, set in Australia in the early years of the 20th century, won the Miles Franklin Award and also became a bestseller. Der Goldene Bumerang (The Golden Boomerang, 1955) was a factual book about Australia published in German for German readers (it has also been translated into Inuit). Park's love of her adopted country has been demonstrated in a number of books about Australia, including The Companion Guide to Sydney (1973) and Ruth Park's Sydney (1999). With her husband, she also wrote several plays for radio and television, including No Decision, which won a £1,000 British award in 1961.

By the early 1960s Park had begun writing children's books, aiming only to create books that would get "worn out in the library." Having little interest in book awards, her only criterion was whether children liked to read her books or not, and she frequently tried her stories out on kindergartners. Park wrote for the ABC Children's Session for decades, creating "The Muddle-Headed Wombat" series, which resulted in 14 books published between 1962 and 1981. Of her numerous children's books, two particularly notable works were Playing Beatie Bow (1980), which won the Children's Book of the Year Award for 1981, and When the Wind Changed (1980), winner of the 1981 New South Wales Premier's Award.

Among the honors Park has received are the Order of Australia (1987), the Australian Book Industry's Lloyd O'Neill Magpie Award (1993), and an honorary doctorate from the University of New South Wales (1994). She has also written several autobiographies, including The Drums Go Bang! (1956, with her husband), A Fence around the Cuckoo (1992), and Fishing in the Styx (1993), in which she noted that "a storyteller … is all I have ever wanted to be."