Janet Frame once described words as "instruments of magic". In her hands they cast a literary spell over the nation. It was a spell that wove her into the top echelon of New Zealand literature and which brought forth a panoply of praise on her death yesterday at the age of 79. She was described both as an icon and as one of our "founding authors".
The second is perhaps a strange accolade for a writer first published in the 1950s, although her biographer, Michael King, might have put his finger on her pioneering qualities when he spoke of her ability and willingness to write about people who were different. In conformist New Zealand in the mid-20th century that was a rare stance.
Frame was a victim of that conformist society and it shaped her view of the world. It would be wrong, however, to suggest that her extraordinary ability with words was a product of her mistreatment. Rather, the punishment she suffered in the name of psychiatry failed to destroy the gift and gave her insight. The 10 years she spent in what were then known as mental asylums did, nevertheless, prepare her for a literary career in which the ability to be different was a central theme.
Until the release of Jane Campion's film An Angel at My Table Janet Frame was an enigma to most New Zealanders. That adaptation of her autobiographical work made her a household name where she had once been acclaimed by a more select section of society who had long recognised her worth. That recognition started, in fact, with her first collection of short stories, which won an award in 1952, the first of a number of awards that regularly punctuated her career, culminating in the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement only three months ago.
Recognition did not, however, make Janet Frame public property. She was shy and reclusive. However, Michael King's biography in 2000 gave the general public the first full, independent insight into the life behind the work. That body of work - 11 novels, five collections of short stories, an anthology of poetry and her autobiography - are an extraordinary legacy left to us by a girl whom society attempted to write off and failed spectacularly to do so.
<i>Editorial:</i> Frame's extraordinary talent
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