monsoon books :: the pioneers

The Pioneers

by Katharine Susannah Prichard

This endearing nineteenth-century family saga follows the lives, loves and losses of one pioneering family and two escaped convicts as they open up the land in Gippsland, Victoria. The Pioneers won the Hodder and Stoughton All Empire Literature Prize for Australasia in 1915, giving its author one thousand pounds and the opportunity to launch her career as a creative writer. The Pioneers has been filmed twice: in 1916 and in 1926. This classic Australian story not only commands a place in the cannon of Australian literature but it is also an important part of Australia’s national cultural heritage for its fascinating record and reflection of early Australian life and perspectives.

Pub Date: May 2010 | Price: S$23.50 | Paperback (B format) 288pp
Fiction / Literature| ISBN: 978-981-08-4880-4 | Territory: World (English langauge)

Katharine Susannah Prichard was born in 1883 and grew up in Melbourne and Launceston in Tasmania before moving to Perth, where she remained until her death in 1969. She was married to Gallipoli veteran Hugo (Jim) Throssell, VC. Prichard was a founding member of the Australian Communist Party; she wrote more than fifteen books and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1951. The Academy Award-winning Australian film “Shine” depicts the close correspondence between Prichard and Australian pianist David Helfgott (Prichard was played by actress Googie Withers).