Katherine Susannah Prichard Biography
(1883–1969), The Pioneers, Windlestraws, The Black Opal, Working Bullocks, Conardoo, Haxby's Circus
Australian writer, born in Fiji. Prichard was a founder member of the Communist Party of Australia; her writing dealt with social injustice and frequently included idealized portraits of working people. The Pioneers (1915), a bush romance, was followed by numerous other novels including Windlestraws (1916), a melodramatic romance about the theatre, set in London; The Black Opal (1921), a study of a mining community oppressed by capitalist entrepreneurs; Working Bullocks (1926), which concerns the exploitation of teamsters in Western Australia; Conardoo (1929), an informative account of cattle station workers; and Haxby's Circus (1930), about an acrobat deformed in an accident. A trilogy (The Roaring Nineties, 1946; The Winged Seeds, 1948; and Golden Miles, 1950) presents a history of a gold-mining community from the 1890s to the 1940s through the life of its heroine, Sally Gough. Prichard also published two volumes of poetry, an autobiography, and a book on Russia.
Additional topics
Literature Reference: American Literature, English Literature, Classics & Modern FictionEncyclopedia of Literature: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog to Rabbit Tetralogy