E. MARY GURNEY—A TRIBUTE

Evening Star, Issue 22975, 4 June 1938, Page 23

E. MARY GURNEY—A TRIBUTE

[By C.H.F.]

When I read of the death of E. Mary Gurney, at the age of 38, I was conscious less of a feeling of shock—though that was acute enough—than of a feeling of resentment against the unfairness of things. For Mary Gurney was too young to die; if ever a woman enjoyed life she did, and enjoyed it to the full with a grand and glorious simplicity. Her demands w r ere few; she wanted only to be with horses and to write. Both things featured prominently in her all too short life. She was too young to die, because she had not yet reached her proper place in New Zealand literature: she had not completed ‘all those things which she wanted to do and which she was capable of doing. As a writer of short stories she was without peer in New Zealand. Her stories were always original, always vital, nearly always carrying with them a breath of the open air; certainly always they revealed her whole-hearted joy of living. Her sense of balance and her sense of drama were strong, and never failed her. She contributed to almost every periodical in this country; she was a regular and frequent contributor to the pages of the ‘ Otago Witness.’ Much of her success came from her amusing stories sot on “ Windyridge ” farm, a lengthy series which was received with wide acclaim. “ Windyridge ” was an imaginary farm, yet, strangely enough, that was the name of a farm at Howick at which she lived prior to her death, and which had been so named before she even knew of its existence. More recently Mary Gurney sold her stories in Australia, where the demand for them was greater than her output. Some months ago in a letter I received from her she made reference to the fact that the editor of the ‘ Bulletin ’ considered her in a class by herself in the writing of short stories. Certainly that publication used all of her- work that it could obtain. At the beginning of this year Miss Gurney won the second prize of £ls in the ‘ Bulletin ’ annual short story contest. Apart from the Australian and New Zealand market Miss Gurney had succeeded in selling her stories in London, and there, too, they were welcomed. More than once she “ threatened ” to settle down and write seriously instead of only in her spare time, but unfortunately the result of that threat will never now be known.

E. Mary Gurney wrote two novels, one of wliich was never sent out to a publisher. The last time I heard from tier she was considering sending the second of these novels to. a publisher. 1 had read this story in its manuscript form, and had been very interested, although I thought it failed to reveal her at her best. I thought she had, like many another short story writer, found the wider scope afforded by a novel hard to negotiate, and she could not satisfactorily extend herself on passages that only in a short story needed rigid word pruning. Nevertheless, her story would have been an acquisition to New- Zealand literature, and it is to be hoped that it will yet appear. Mary Gurney was brought up on a farm. Before she moved to Auckland she lived in Hawke’s Bay, at Waipukurau. Brought up among animals, she came to love them. Horses she more than loved—they were part of her life. She told me a long time ago: “ I write only to make money so that ! might be among horses.” I believe that, too. Though she was rising rapidly to an enviable position in the literary firmament, that mattered little to her. If fame meant she had to give up horses, then fame could go. Her love of animals is very much apparent in her writings, and she wrote few stories in which horses did not appear. Some were entirely about horses, and a few entirely about other animals. In the recently-published anthology of short stories, ‘ Tales by New Zealanders,’ there is a splendid story of a bull, “ Old Mortality.” Until recently she considered that her best story, but in her last letter to me she said she had written a better and. would be sending it to me when it was published. Possibly 1 shall never now learn what that story was. Horses and writing. Two very fine interests for any one person, and to E. Mary Gurney they were_ life itself. One often hears it said of the dead that he or she would have chosen the death that befell had there been a choice, and it seems to me that had B. Mary Gurney the choice she would have elected to die in some manner as she did —among horses. Her end was sudden ; it was a horse —and let it be said again that she loved horses —that killed her. She did not die by the machinery nor the contrivings of man. Which was as well, because for man and his works she had little regard. It may be some time before another will take her place as a writer of short stories; it may be some time before her worth is fully appreciated, but some day it will be, anti then indeed will it be realised how great is the loss sustained by New Zealand literature through the untimely death of E. Mary Gurney.

NOTES Having been represented at international P.E.N. Congresses for the last four years, the New _ Zealand Centre has now received an invitation to attend a special congress of P.E.N. clubs to be held in New York during the middle of May, 1939. _ Members are asked to send nominations of a delegate before June 8. The following new members were elected during the year:—Misses F. Alexa Stevens and Eve Langley, Sir James Elliott, and Messrs John Brodie, Douglas Stewart, J. W. Heenan, C. R. H. Taylor, George Joseph, and A. W. Heed, There has been one resignation during the year, so that the present membership stands at 49. The annual balance sheet shows a credit balance of £23 19s Id. Due for publication shortly by Messrs A. H. and A. W. Reed is a novel entitled ‘The House of Templemore,’ by Mr Pat Lawlor. It is described as a “ delicately intimate of a humble Irish colonial family in Weilington in the early Twentieth Century.” This is stated to be the first novel written about Wellington by a Wellingtonian. At the annual meeting of the P.E.N ; (New Zealand Centre) the election or officers resulted as follows: —President. Mr C. A. Marris; vice-presidents— Misses Eileen Duggan, Jessie Mackay, and Jane Mander, Mrs Mona Tracy, Professor Shelley, Dr G. H. Scholefield, and Messrs James Cowan and C. R. Allen; executive —Dr Butchers, Messrs Johannes C. Andersen, C. A. L. Treadwell, Alan Mulgan, G. G. Stewart, Eric Bradwell, and John Brodie; lion, secretary, Mr P. Lawlor; hon. treasurer. Mr Stuart Perry; hon. auditor, Mr Victor Lloyd. A committee of the P.E.N. (New Zealand Centre) has been asked to approach the Director of Broadcasting with the idea of persuading Mr H. G. Wells to visit New Zealand.