Anne Godfrey-Smith
{{Short description|Australian poet, theatre director and women's activist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}{{Use Australian English|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Anne Godfrey-Smith
| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|OAM|BEM|size=100}}
| birth_name = Anne McIntyre
| pseudonym = Anne Edgeworth
| birth_date = {{birth date|1921|11|30|df=y}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|2011|06|15|1921|11|30|df=y}}
| birth_place = Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
| death_place = Narrabundah, Australian Capital Territory
| occupation = {{Cslist|Poet|theatre producer|women's activist}}
| relatives = {{Plainlist|*Margaret Edgeworth McIntyre, mother
- Edgeworth David, grandfather}}
| alma_mater = Flinders University
| education = {{Plainlist|
| awards = ACT Citizen of the Year, 1994
}}
Anne Godfrey-Smith {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|OAM|BEM}} (30 November 1921 – 15 June 2011) was an Australian poet, theatre director and women's activist.
Early life and education
Godfrey-Smith was born on 30 November 1921 in Launceston, Tasmania. Her mother, Margaret Edgeworth McIntyre (née David), was the first woman to be elected to the Tasmanian parliament.{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Godfrey-Smith, Anne |url=https://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE4888b.htm |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=The Australian Women's Register |language=en-gb}} Her father, William Keverall McIntyre, practised as an obstetrician.{{cite book |last=Ferrall |first=R. A. |url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mcintyre-margaret-edgeworth-11423/text19503 |title=McIntyre, Margaret Edgeworth (1886–1948) In: Australian Dictionary of Biography |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |accessdate=2 January 2014}}
Her education began in Launceston at Broadland House Church of England Girls Grammar School,{{Cite web |date=2021-01-10 |title=Anne Edgeworth |url=https://www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/frequentlyaskedquestions/personal_stories/canberra-citizen-of-the-year-1967/anne-edgeworth |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=Libraries ACT |language=en}} but from 1935 to 1938 she was sent to board at Frensham School in Mittagong, New South Wales.
She graduated from the University of Sydney in 1941 with a BSc in biochemistry. She later took a BA at the Australian National University, followed by an MA at Flinders University for her thesis on Samuel Beckett.{{Cite web |last=Leask |first=Margaret |date=2011 |title=Obituary – Anne Godfrey-Smith |url=https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/godfreysmith-anne-14017 |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=Obituaries Australia}}
Career
In the 1940s, she worked as a pathologist at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital. Following her marriage, she and her husband, Rowland Anthony (Tony) Godfrey-Smith, moved to Launceston where she continued her involvement in theatre as part-time actor, producer and director with the Launceston Players, the company her mother had founded in 1926. When her husband undertook postgraduate training in England in 1950 she was given the opportunity by Tyrone Guthrie to spend five months at the Stratford-on-Avon Memorial Theatre where she developed her theatre production and management skills.
Returning to the Launceston Players, she also worked as producer/director for the local opera company. In 1953 she moved to Canberra as full-time producer and manager for the Canberra Repertory Society. The following year she was divorced by her husband on the grounds of desertion.{{cite news |date=14 July 1954 |title=Decrees nisi granted |volume=CXIII |page=8 |newspaper=The Examiner (Tasmania) |issue=106 |location=Tasmania, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225904830 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=18 July 2022}} In the late 1950s she married Robert Johnson{{cite news |date=8 December 1959 |title=What People Are Doing |volume=34 |page=5 |newspaper=The Canberra Times |issue=9,467 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103071648 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=18 July 2022}} and at the end of 1958 she resigned from Canberra Repertory Society.{{cite news |date=10 January 1959 |title=New Producer Manager For Repertory |volume=33 |page=11 |newspaper=The Canberra Times |issue=9,685 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103089375 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=18 July 2022}}
In 1975, Godfrey-Smith was appointed by the National Youth and Children's Performing Arts Association to conduct an Australia-wide survey of young people and the performing arts,{{cite news |date=4 March 1975 |title=Full program to involve youth |volume=49 |page=17 |newspaper=The Canberra Times |issue=14,004 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116336457 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=18 July 2022}} producing a detailed report on her findings in late 1977.{{cite news |date=4 November 1977 |title=THE WORLD OF THEATRE Hard-headed reporting |volume=52 |page=21 |newspaper=The Canberra Times |issue=14,923 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110876389 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=18 July 2022}}
In the 1980s, she served on the Theatre Board of the Australia Council and in 1986 was appointed to the ACT Arts Development Board.{{Cite web |last=Scholes |first=Gordon |date=1986-08-08 |title=Appointment of Mrs Anne Godfrey-Smith and Mr Joe Woodward to the ACT Arts Development Board |url=https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22media/pressrel/HPR09023066%22 |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=Parliament of Australia}}
Honours and recognition
Godfrey-Smith was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 1980 New Year Honours "for service to theatre".{{Cite web |date=1979-12-31 |title=Mrs Anne Godfrey-Smith |url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1059803 |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=It's an Honour}} She was ACT Citizen of the Year in 1994, while in the 2005 Australia Day Honours she was recognised with the Medal of the Order of Australia "for service to the arts, particularly through a range of theatre, literary and cultural organisations".{{Cite web |date=2005-01-26 |title=Mrs Anne Godfrey-Smith |url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1057872 |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=It's an Honour}}
Death and legacy
Godfrey-Smith died in Narrabundah on 15 June 2011. She was survived by her two sons, Anthony ("Tony") Godfrey-Smith and William Grey.
Godfrey-Smith supported and encouraged writers in a variety of genres over many years. In 2013 her family established the Anne Edgeworth Trust, which provides a Fellowship in her memory to support emerging writers in the Canberra region.{{Cite web |last= |date=2014-12-10 |title=Shortlists for 2014 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2014/12/10/31955/shortlists-for-2014-act-writing-and-publishing-awards-announced/ |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=Books+Publishing |language=en-AU}}{{Cite web |title=ACTW Annual Awards |url=https://www.actwriters.org/news/awards-t6e78 |access-date=2022-07-18 |website=ACT Writers |language=en-GB}} The Anne Edgeworth Fellowship has been administered by the ACT Writers Centre, which Godfrey-Smith was actively involved with when it was established in 1994. The ACT Writers Centre was renamed MARION in 2022,{{Cite web |title=About MARION |url=https://marion.ink/about-marion|access-date=2024-07-03 |website=MARION |language=en-GB}} and continues to collaborate with the Anne Edgeworth Trust in supporting the Fellowship.{{Cite web |title=Anne Edgeworth Emerging Writer’s Fellowship |url=https://marion.ink/anne-edgeworth2024|access-date=2024-07-03 |website=MARION |language=en-GB}}
Works
= Poetry =
- {{Citation |author1=Edgeworth |first=Anne |title=A view from two cities : selected poems |publication-date=1982 |publisher=Kardoorair Press |isbn=978-0-908244-06-5 |last2=Burns |first2=Paul|year=1982 }}
- {{Citation |author1=Edgeworth, Anne |title=The road to Leongatha : poems of Anne Edgeworth |publication-date=1996 |author-mask=2 |publisher=Kardoorair Press |isbn=978-0-908244-26-3 |author2=Brissenden collection|year=1996 }}
- {{Citation |author1=Edgeworth, Anne |title=Poems of Canberra |year=1997 |publication-date=1997 |author-mask=2 |publisher=ArtSound Incorporated |isbn=978-0-646-31294-1}}
- {{Citation |author1=Edgeworth |first=Anne |title=Turtles all the way down |publication-date=1999 |author-mask=2 |others=Wood, Beverley (illustrator) |year=1999 |publisher=Boris Books |isbn=978-1-876668-01-3}}
- {{Citation |author1=Edgeworth, Anne |title=Poems for off-duty hours |year=2007 |publication-date=2007 |author-mask=2 |publisher=Ginninderra Press |isbn=978-1-74027-456-2}}
- {{Citation |author1=Edgeworth |first=Anne |title=Purdie's meditation and other poems |publication-date=2007 |author-mask=2 |publisher=Picaro Press}}
= Prose =
- {{Citation |author1=Edgeworth |first=Anne |title=Youth performing arts in Australia 1975–1977 |year=1977 |publication-date=1977 |publisher=Australian Youth Performing Arts Association |isbn=978-0-9597462-1-1}}
- {{Citation |author1=Edgeworth |first=Anne |title=The Australian reference dictionary |year=1991 |publication-date=1991 |author-mask=2 |edition= |publisher=Oxford University Press Australia |isbn=978-0-19-553296-8 }}
- {{Citation |author1=Edgeworth |first=Anne |title=The cost of jazz garters : a history of Canberra Repertory Society, 1932 to 1982 |year=1995 |publication-date=1995 |author-mask=2 |edition=2nd |publisher=Diplomat Agencies |isbn=978-0-646-25915-4}}
= National Library holdings =
- {{cite web |first=Anne |last=Edgeworth |title=Bibliography |publisher=National Library of Australia |URL=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog?page=2&q=%22Edgeworth%2C+Anne%2C+1921-2011%22&search_field=author |access-date=}}
- {{cite web |first=Anne |last=Edgeworth |title=Papers of Anne Edgeworth, 1927-1990|publisher=National Library of Australia, Bib ID: 566937 [Manuscript]|URL= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/566937}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{cite web |first = Mark |last= O'Connor |title= Anne Edgeworth Interview (1994) | publisher= National Library of Australia [sound recording, 15 sound tape reels; 7 in] |URL= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/186441}}
- {{cite web |first = William |last= Grey |title= Memoir for Anne Edgeworth (1921–2011) | publisher= Academia |URL= https://www.academia.edu/7676413/Memoir_for_Anne_Edgeworth_1921_2011_| access-date= 29 June 2024}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Godfrey-Smith, Anne}}
Category:People educated at Frensham School
Category:University of Sydney alumni
Category:Australian National University alumni
Category:Flinders University alumni
Category:Australian pathologists
Category:Australian women poets
Category:Australian theatre directors
Category:Australian women theatre directors
Category:Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia