Today is Maurice Gee's 80th birthday and it seems fitting by way of congratulation to acknowledge the huge contribution he has made to NZ literature by outlining in brief his career and listing his titles and awards they have won.
Maurice was educated at Henderson Primary School, Avondale College, the University of Auckland (MA 1954), Auckland Teacher’s College Graduate Course, 1954.
His career in brief is as follows:
1955-65 Schoolteaching in Paeroa, Auckland and London; long periods of part-time and casual work in many parts of New Zealand and Australia; writing.
1966 New Zealand Library School graduate course.
1966-69 Assistant Librarian, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
1970-72 City Librarian, Napier.
1973-74 Deputy Librarian, Architecture Library, University of Auckland.
1974-75 Deputy Librarian, Auckland Teachers College.
1975 - Full-time writer, Nelson and Wellington.
PUBLICATIONS AND SCRIPTS
NOVELS:
The Big Season. Hutchinson, London, 1962: Allen & Unwin/PNP, 1985
A Special Flower. Hutchinson, London, 1965
In My Father’s Den. Faber, London, 1972; OUP,1977, new edition 1985
Games of Choice, Faber, London, 1976; OUP, 1977, new edition 1985
Plumb. Faber, London, 1978; OUP, 1979; Angus & Roberston, 1981; Penguin , 1991Meg. Faber, London, 1981; Penguin, 1983; St Martins Press, New York (nd)
Sole Survivor. Faber, London, 1983; Penguin, 1984; St Martins Press, New York (nd)
The Plumb Trilogy. Penguin, 1995
Prowlers. Faber, London; Viking, Auckland, 1987; Faber pb, 1988
The Burning Boy. Faber, London; Viking, Auckland, 1990; Faber pb, 1991
Going West. Faber, London; Viking, Auckland, 1993; Faber pb, 1994
Crime Story. Viking, Auckland; Faber, London, 1994/5
Loving Ways. Penguin, Auckland; Faber, London, 1996/7
Live Bodies. Penguin, Auckland; Faber, London, 1998
Ellie and the Shadow Man. Penguin and Faber, 2001
The Scornful Moon. Penguin and Faber, 2003
Blindsight. Penguin and Faber, 2005
Access Road. Penguin, Auckland; Viking, Australia, 2009
SHORT STORIES:
A Glorious Morning, Comrade. OUP/AUP, Auckland, 1975
Collected Stories. Penguin, Auckland, 1986
FOR CHILDREN:
Under the Mountain. OUP, Auckland, 1979; Puffin Books, 1982
The World Around the Corner. OUP, Auckland, 1980; Puffin Books, 1983
The Halfmen of O. OUP, Auckland, 1982; Puffin Books, 1984
The Priests of Ferris. OUP, Auckland, 1984; Puffin Books, 1987
Motherstone. OUP, Auckland, 1985; Puffin Books, 1988
The Fire-raiser. Penguin, Auckland, 1986; Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1992
The Champion. Penguin, Auckland, 1988; Simon & Schuster, New York, 1993
The Fat Man. Viking, Auckland, 1994; Simon & Schuster, New York, 1996
Orchard Street. Viking, Auckland, 1998
Hostel Girl. Puffin, Auckland, 1999
Salt. Puffin, Auckland, Text, Melbourne, 2007; Orca, Canada/ USA, 2009
Gool. Puffin, 2008; Text, 2009; Orca, 2010
The Limping Man. Puffin, 2010; Text, 2010; Orca, 2011
OTHER:
Nelson Central School: a History. NCS Centennial Committee, 1978
TELEVISION AND FILM SCRIPS (1975 - )
Mortimer’s Patch (TV Series) – nine episodes. Producer Tom Finlayson
Trespasses (feature film). Producer Tom Finlayson
The Fire-raiser (TV serial). Producer Ginette McDonald
The Champion (TV serial). Producer Ginette McDonald
Many other scripts, including episodes of “Close to Home”, “Rachel”, “Both Sides of the Fence” and “Country GP”
Fracture (feature film), 2004, adapted from Crime Story. Producers Larry Parr, Charlie McClellan, Emma Haughton
In My Father’s Den (feature film), 2004. Director Brad McGann
Under the Mountain (feature film), 2009. Director Jonathan King
Awards &Prizes
Hubert Church Award, 1963 for The Big Season
New Zealand Book of the Year Award (Wattie), 1979 for Plumb; 1993 for Going West
New Zealand Book Award for Fiction, 1976 for A Glorious Morning Comrade; 1979 for
Plumb; 1982 for Meg; 1991 for The Burning Boy
Deutz Medal (Montana) for Fiction, 1998 for Live Bodies; 2006 for Blindsight
Buckland Award (three times)
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (UK), 1979 for Plumb
New Zealand Children’s Book of the Year Award, 1983 for The Halfmen of O; 1995 for
The Fat Man
Esther Glen Medal, 1986 for Motherstone; 1995 for The Fat Man
NZ Post Young Adult Fiction Award, for Salt 2008
Gaylene Gordon Award, 2003 for Under the Mountain
GOFTA Award
Robert Burns Fellowship, University of Otago, 1964
Writing Fellowship, Victoria University of Wellington, 1989
New Zealand Literary Fund Scholarship in Letters (four times)
Honorary Doctorate in Literature, Victoria University of Wellington, 1987;
University of Auckland, 1999
Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, Menton, France, 1992
New Zealand Arts Foundation Icon Award, 2003
Prime Minister’s Prize for Literary Achievement, 2004
Very impressive indeed. Happy birthday Maurice.
Footnote:
I contacted Ray Richards, Maurice's agent for over 30 years and invited him to briefly summarise Maurice's writing career. Here is his response:
He started off with short stories and two collections have been published.
He moved on to adult fiction and has published 18 New Zealand novels of distinction with Penguin and Faber (UK).
The junior fiction began in 1982 and there have been 13 published (four co-published in the US).
There have been four Gee films based on his novels, three television serials and one television series.
Standing high is the biographical trilogy of PLUMB, MEG and SOLE SURVIVOR, followed by THE HALFMEN OF O and SALT trilogies.
Forty-eight years of writing, 33 published books, 34 years full-time employment in authorship that rarely provides a living wage, shy of the limelight, resistant to accept higher national honours, a life of modest achievement at the head of his craft in New Zealand. The Gee well of unwritten books is now empty, apart from a possible family memoir.
Teacher, librarian (Hastings and Turnbull), casual worker, writer of adult novels and short stories and junior and teenage novels.
By the magic of coincidence the names of Gee and Geering stand alongside each other in New Zealand biography, while Gee’s PLUMB stands beside emeritus professor, Sir Lloyd Geering, as victim-heroes of religious freedom in fiction and reality.
His novels have given prominence to the city of Auckland with his Henderson locations, and to Nelson and Golden Bay in his adult and junior novels.
Maurice Gee’s 48 years’ output of published books, plus movies and television features is remarkable: 18 adult novels, two story collections and 13 junior novels. As well there have been four feature films, four television series and serials, and two films going into production. Publishers in New Zealand, Australia, UK, USA, translations into Romanian and Spanish. He was a part-time writer for 20 years, and then wrote full-time for 35 years, until 2010 (THE LIMPING MAN). Married to Margareta for 40 years, Maurice has a son Nigel, and two daughters Abby and Emily.
Penguin has been his New Zealand publisher for over 40 years.
Happy birthday from this grateful reader. Gee has been my favourite author since I was at High School. To have such a long career, and such volume of writing is stunning. As I've said before in this blog, reading Gee for me is always like 'coming home' - in the many different senses of that phrase: as a kiwi, his novels are so anchored in place, culture and politics (without trying to be so), as a bloke, and now as a middle aged bloke :)
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