Ruth Dallas Died Yesterday Aged 88

Dunedin writer Dr Ruth Mumford, better known as Ruth Dallas, died yesterday, 18 March, aged 88.

Dallas chose her maternal grandmothers name in 1946 as pen-name for her earliest published poems, with her first collection published in 1953 by Caxton Press who also published five susequent volumes.

She is remembered not only for her poetry, but also as a children's author, writing The Children in the Bush (1969), The Wild Boy in the Bush (1971), The Big Flood in the Bush, (1972) and Holiday Time in the Bush (1983).

Ruth Dallas received an honorary doctorate of the University of Otago in 1978, and a CBE in 1989. She was born in Invercargill but left there in 1954. She was the Burns Fellow in 1968.

There are several websites where she is featured - Otago University Press

The Literary Encyclopedia, Christchurch City Libraries, NZ Book Council.