Lauris Edmond
Encyclopedia
Lauris Dorothy Edmond was a New Zealand
poet and writer. Born in Dannevirke
, Hawke's Bay
, she survived the 1931 Napier earthquake
as a child. Trained as a teacher, Edmond raised a family before publishing the poetry she had privately written throughout her life. Since her first book, In Middle Air, written in 1975, she published many volumes of poetry, a novel, an autobiography (Hot October, 1989) and several plays. Her Selected Poems (1984) won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize.
Edmond wrote poetry throughout her life but decided to publish her first collection of verse, In Middle Air, only in 1975, at the age of 51. The work was awarded the PEN
Best First Book Award for 1975. She began her editorial activities in 1979, and in 1980 published a selection of poems by Chris Ward. In 1981 she edited the letters of A.R.D. Fairburn (1904–1957), a noted New Zealand poet of an earlier generation. It was a bold move on her part as the writer in question was not known for his progressive views, but the publication established her as an all‑round woman of letters. At the same time she received the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, which enabled her to stay in the south of France for several months. Lauris Edmond’s first work of prose was High Country Weather, a book billed as a novel though in fact an extended short‑story of a deeply biographical character, telling — however veiledly — the story of her own incompatible marriage to Trevor Edmond (1920–1990); it was published in 1984, at about the time of her real‑life marriage’s dissolution. The feminist awakening marked by that book was sustained in a collection of other women’s ‘stories’ published under her co‑editorship two years later. As Janet Wilson wrote in the Guardian, ‘She was friend to several generations of women, especially writers, who admired her as a pioneer for breaking with social convention and carving out a successful literary life at a time when this seemed risky’.
In 1985 Lauris Edmond won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for her Selected Poems; and the next year (1986) she was invested with the rank of Officer of the OBE
for services to literature. Additionally, in 1987 she received the Lilian Ida Smith Award from PEN New Zealand; in 1988 New Zealand’s Massey University
awarded her an honorary D.Litt. degree; and in 1999 she received the A.W. Reed Award for Contribution to New Zealand Literature from Booksellers New Zealand, an industry association in Wellington, New Zealand. After her death a biennial poetry prize was established in her name at the initiative of the Canterbury Poets Collective and the New Zealand Poetry Society, the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for Poetry, the first prize having been awarded (posthumously) at the Christchurch Arts Festival to the late poet Bill Sewell in 2003.
Her poetry, which continues to influence New Zealand writers, was not all about daffodils; she could speak with a committed voice, as is evidenced in the poem "Nuclear Bomb Test, Mururoa Atoll," which begins:
Although in life she stayed as far away as was possible from all forms of organized religion, in death her quotations do apparently find their way into various church settings in New Zealand, a proof — if one be needed — of their deep innate spirituality.
Lauris Edmond died unexpectedly at her home in Wellington
’s Oriental Bay on 28 January 2000, while preparing dinner for a visiting friend. She was 75, the mother of six children, five of them daughters, one of whom (Rachel, the fourth child) committed suicide in 1975 (the event is dealt with, poetically, in Edmond’s poem-sequence Wellington Letter). Her only son, Martin Edmond (b. 1952), is also a writer. The Times of London wrote in her obituary (9 February 2000; p. 23) that she acquired ‘a sharp new consciousness of her nationality’ through her absence from New Zealand after a year as the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellow in Menton in the South of France, ending in 1982.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
poet and writer. Born in Dannevirke
Dannevirke
Dannevirke , is a rural service town in the Manawatu-Wanganui Region of the North Island, New Zealand. It is the major town of the administrative Tararua District, the easternmost of the districts in which the Regional Council has responsibilities...
, Hawke's Bay
Hawke's Bay
Hawke's Bay is a region of New Zealand. Hawke's Bay is recognised on the world stage for its award-winning wines. The regional council sits in both the cities of Napier and Hastings.-Geography:...
, she survived the 1931 Napier earthquake
1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake
The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, also known as the Napier earthquake, occurred in New Zealand at 10:47 am on Tuesday 3 February 1931, killing 256 and devastating the Hawke's Bay region. It remains New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster...
as a child. Trained as a teacher, Edmond raised a family before publishing the poetry she had privately written throughout her life. Since her first book, In Middle Air, written in 1975, she published many volumes of poetry, a novel, an autobiography (Hot October, 1989) and several plays. Her Selected Poems (1984) won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize.
Edmond wrote poetry throughout her life but decided to publish her first collection of verse, In Middle Air, only in 1975, at the age of 51. The work was awarded the PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
Best First Book Award for 1975. She began her editorial activities in 1979, and in 1980 published a selection of poems by Chris Ward. In 1981 she edited the letters of A.R.D. Fairburn (1904–1957), a noted New Zealand poet of an earlier generation. It was a bold move on her part as the writer in question was not known for his progressive views, but the publication established her as an all‑round woman of letters. At the same time she received the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, which enabled her to stay in the south of France for several months. Lauris Edmond’s first work of prose was High Country Weather, a book billed as a novel though in fact an extended short‑story of a deeply biographical character, telling — however veiledly — the story of her own incompatible marriage to Trevor Edmond (1920–1990); it was published in 1984, at about the time of her real‑life marriage’s dissolution. The feminist awakening marked by that book was sustained in a collection of other women’s ‘stories’ published under her co‑editorship two years later. As Janet Wilson wrote in the Guardian, ‘She was friend to several generations of women, especially writers, who admired her as a pioneer for breaking with social convention and carving out a successful literary life at a time when this seemed risky’.
In 1985 Lauris Edmond won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for her Selected Poems; and the next year (1986) she was invested with the rank of Officer of the OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
for services to literature. Additionally, in 1987 she received the Lilian Ida Smith Award from PEN New Zealand; in 1988 New Zealand’s Massey University
Massey University
Massey University is one of New Zealand's largest universities with approximately 36,000 students, 20,000 of whom are extramural students.The University has campuses in Palmerston North , Wellington and Auckland . Massey offers most of its degrees extramurally within New Zealand and internationally...
awarded her an honorary D.Litt. degree; and in 1999 she received the A.W. Reed Award for Contribution to New Zealand Literature from Booksellers New Zealand, an industry association in Wellington, New Zealand. After her death a biennial poetry prize was established in her name at the initiative of the Canterbury Poets Collective and the New Zealand Poetry Society, the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for Poetry, the first prize having been awarded (posthumously) at the Christchurch Arts Festival to the late poet Bill Sewell in 2003.
Her poetry, which continues to influence New Zealand writers, was not all about daffodils; she could speak with a committed voice, as is evidenced in the poem "Nuclear Bomb Test, Mururoa Atoll," which begins:
- I am water I am sand
- I am a cell in the trembling earth
- I am a shaken pebble on the hurt sea floor
- a young fish made ill by the predator poison
- coursing towards me across the ocean
- that was my friend...
Although in life she stayed as far away as was possible from all forms of organized religion, in death her quotations do apparently find their way into various church settings in New Zealand, a proof — if one be needed — of their deep innate spirituality.
Lauris Edmond died unexpectedly at her home in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
’s Oriental Bay on 28 January 2000, while preparing dinner for a visiting friend. She was 75, the mother of six children, five of them daughters, one of whom (Rachel, the fourth child) committed suicide in 1975 (the event is dealt with, poetically, in Edmond’s poem-sequence Wellington Letter). Her only son, Martin Edmond (b. 1952), is also a writer. The Times of London wrote in her obituary (9 February 2000; p. 23) that she acquired ‘a sharp new consciousness of her nationality’ through her absence from New Zealand after a year as the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellow in Menton in the South of France, ending in 1982.
Works
- In Middle Air (1975)
- The Pear Tree: Poems (1977)
- Wellington Letter: A Sequence of Poems (1980)
- Seven: Poems (1980)
- Salt from the North (1980)
- Catching It: Poems (1983)
- Selected Poems (1984)
- High Country Weather (1984)
- Seasons and Creatures (1986)
- Summer near the Arctic Circle (1988)
- Hot October (1989)
- Bonfires in the Rain (1991)
Further reading
- Buck, Claire (ed.): Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature (1992).
- Ken Arvidson, ‘Lauris Edmond (1924–2000)’, New Zealand Books [a periodical Lauris Edmond co‑founded in 1990], vol. 10, No. 1 (March 2000), p. 23.
- James Brown, ed., The Nature of Things: Poems from the New Zealand Landscape... photographs by Craig Potton (Nelson, New Zealand, Craig Potton Pub., 2005) [includes contributions by Lauris Edmond].
- Kate Camp, ed., Wellington: The City in Literature (Auckland, New Zealand, Exisle Pub., 2003) [includes a contribution by Lauris Edmond].
- Jill Ker Conway, ed. & intro., In her own Words: Women’s Memoirs from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States (New York, Vintage Books, 1999) [includes a contribution by Lauris Edmond].
- Louise Lawrence, ed. & intro., The Penguin Book of New Zealand Letters (Auckland, New Zealand, Penguin Books, 2003) [includes a contribution by Lauris Edmond].
- Michael O’Leary and Mark Pirie, eds., Greatest Hits (Wellington, New Zealand, JAAM Publishing Collective, in association with HeadworX/ESAW, 2004) [includes contributions by Lauris Edmond].
- Nelson Wattie, ‘New Literatures’, Year’s Work in English Studies (Oxford, England), vol. 83, No. 1 (2004), pp. 922–1025 [suggests that the nearness of Lauris Edmond’s poetry to solipsism defeats its own claim to generosity of spirit].