#100days - '72: Ronald Hugh Morrieson dies

New Zealand writer Ronald Hugh Morrieson died in obscurity at the end of 1972, aged just 50. A few months earlier, Morrieson lamented to fellow writer Maurice Shadbolt  "I hope I'm not another one of these poor buggers who get discovered when they're dead". But that's exactly what happened.

All four of Morrieson's novels - two of which were only published after his death - have been adapted into films. His work has been reprinted in numerous editions, alongside academic articles and a biography of his life.

So why does an obscure provincial scribe from New Zealand excite such attention? His work was unique, a kind of Kiwi Gothic that deftly captured the social mores and hypocrisy of small towns. When most NZ writers aspired to creating literature, Morrieson spun enthralling yarns about real people doing all the disreputable, dirty and dodgy deeds of everyday life.

Morrieson lived his whole life in the South Taranaki town of Hawera, drinking heavily, playing in jazz bands and drifting between jobs.  Two of his novels - The Scarecrow and Came a Hot Friday [today's blip features first editions of both] - were published in 1960s in Australia. But his other full-length works - Predicament and Pallet on the Floor - were rejected.

I lived in Hawera in 1985-86, when Morrieson's work first enjoyed a revival thanks to film versions of The Scarecrow and, especially, Came a Hot Friday. Yet few people in the town seemed to celebrate their native son. A campaign to save his family home as a museum in 1990 failed - it was pulled down to make way for a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet!

Ronald Hugh Morrieson is dead, but his work lives on...