Continuing on with my project to read my shelf of literary biographies...

It is chastening to read Julie Lewis's insightful biography of Olga Masters (1919-1986). She had a hard life in many ways and yet she transcended her difficulties to become one of Australia's best loved authors in the last few years of her life. I've read two of her novels, Loving Daughters (1984), and Amy’s Children (1994), (links to my reviews), and I have on the TBR her posthumously published Collected Stories (1996) which includes all the stories from her first collection The Home Girls (1982), plus those from A Long Time Dying (1985), and The Rose Fancier (posthumously published, 1988).

As the second of eight children in rural NSW, Olga endured the kind of poverty that is hard to imagine now. The year of her birth coincided with a prolonged drought and then a rabbit plague, and her father Leo Lawler was, like many other returned WW1 servicemen, hard hit by the Depression. The family knew what it was to be hungry, and the children often went barefoot.

Dorcas was pregnant with her fifth child. No matter what belt-tightening was necessary, each child was wanted. A warm bed would be made for the new baby in the bottom drawer of the chest in the bedroom where Dorcas and Leo — and Delma — slept. When the new baby arrived, Del crowded with the other three children in the only other bedroom. Winters were cold, with icy gusts of wind blowing up between the floorboards of the passage and under the gaps beneath the doors. All the floors were bare, except in the bedrooms where a square of lino, its pattern almost worn off, kept out the draughts, though its surface was as chilling to bare feet as the frost in the yard.

In dry times, Merton and Olga carried water from the river in a four gallon kerosene tin with a stick through the handle. Recalling those days, Merton said, "We'd have to make at least three trips. Sometimes the handle broke, sometimes the stick." (p.7)

In those days before birth control, Olga was determined not to share her mother's fate of early marriage, numerous children and the drudgery of housework. She had her first story published at the age of fifteen in 1934 and she wangled her way into minor journalism in Cobargo. But the job didn't last long, and despite her obvious potential she had to revert to helping at home, as she was expected to do. And after that, would come marriage and children. Not marrying in a rural community like hers meant failure.

These roles seemed to be taken for granted among women. In spite of this awareness, Olga would always consider the mothering role, the home-making role, of primary importance. This set up a punishing tension within her between what she wanted to do and what she felt was her duty. (p.15)

No matter how intelligent or talented she was, she was still regarded as a child with certain obligations. The Depression hit country areas hard and the family's survival was the first priority because Leo's work with the PMG had dried up. (p.15)

The family's move to progressively cheaper and smaller rentals meant that they could not supplement their income with a cow and a vegetable patch, and there was no social welfare support for people in the Lawlers' situation.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/10/12/olga-masters-a-lot-of-living-1991-by-julie-l... ( )