Margaret Trist
{{Short description|Australian short story writer and novelist (1914–1986)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}{{Use Australian English|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Margaret Trist
| image = Margaret Trist.png
| caption = Trist in 1952
| birth_name = Margaret Bethesda Lucas
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1914|10|27|df=y}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1986|03|02|1914|10|27|df=y}}
| death_place = St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia
| birth_place = Dalby, Queensland, Australia
| notable_works = Now That We're Laughing, Morning in Queensland
}}
Margaret Trist (27 October 1914 – 2 March 1986) was an Australian novelist and short story writer.
Early life and education
Margaret Bethesda Trist was the daughter of Olga Hargreaves Lucas, no father's name being registered on her birth certificate.{{Cite web|title=Record details of Margaret Bethesda Lucas|url=https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/details/5312671b6278abad3c7d44b711fab400e6d079408da2607340ff0477103d0360|access-date=2021-05-26|website=www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au|language=en-AU}} Born on 27 October 1914 in Dalby, Queensland, she grew up with her maternal grandparents and was educated at St Columba’s Convent in Dalby.{{Citation|last=Muller|first=Vivienne|title=Trist, Margaret Bethesda (1914–1986)|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/trist-margaret-bethesda-15566|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|volume=18|place=Canberra|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=2021-05-26}}
Career
Trist moved to Sydney in 1931 where she took clerical jobs.
Trist's first appearance in print was in The Sydney Morning Herald in June 1935 when a two paragraph story titled "A Grey Headstone: "Sarah, Relict of Thomas" appeared.{{cite news|date=22 June 1935|title=A Grey Headstone|page=11|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|issue=30,411|location=New South Wales, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17202596|via=National Library of Australia|accessdate=26 May 2021}} An avid reader of The Bulletin while growing up, her short stories published in that periodical from 1936.{{Citation|title=Sympathetic Study of Childhood NEW YEAR'S DAY. (14 October 1936)|journal=The Bulletin|volume=57|issue=2957|pages=36|publication-date=1936-10-14|publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald|issn=0007-4039}} As well as The Bulletin, her work was published in the literary journals Meanjin{{cite news|date=31 July 1943|title=The Periodicals|page=6|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|issue=32,947|location=New South Wales, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17858408|via=National Library of Australia|accessdate=27 May 2021}} and Southerly.{{cite news|date=16 June 1945|title=Satisfying Australian Quarterly|volume=87|page=4|newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide)|issue=27052|location=South Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43497859|via=National Library of Australia|accessdate=27 May 2021}}
In 1938 she was one of ten writers to share the short story prize in the 150th literary competitions, Katharine Susannah Prichard and Hal Porter being among the others.{{cite news|date=1 April 1938|title=Sydney Literary Contests|volume=CXLVIII|page=7|newspaper=The Mercury|issue=21,014|location=Tasmania, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25466088|via=National Library of Australia|accessdate=27 May 2021}}
Her first novel, Now That We're Laughing, was well received. "D.E.", when reviewing it for The Sydney Morning Herald in 1945, referred to her as "a talented and leading writer of short stories" and continued: "The people and the setting are vivid and real, and the novel exemplifies the truth that the best material for art comes from the ordinary things of everyday life. It is in her descriptions of these commonplace things that Margaret Trist is at her best."{{cite news|date=26 May 1945|title=New Fiction|page=8|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|issue=33,517|location=New South Wales, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27936018|via=National Library of Australia|accessdate=26 May 2021}}
In 1958 her best-known novel, Morning in Queensland, was published, and met with immediate critical acclaim. The novel was heavily autobiographical, and depicted rural life in 1920’s Queensland with accuracy and humour. The novel was one of five shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award that year, translated into several languages and published in the US.
Similarly accurate, detailed descriptions of Sydney, the lower Blue Mountains and other regions Trist observed appear in her other works, which form a rare record of social history and everyday dialogue.
Her work appeared in the annual Coast to Coast anthologies of 1941,{{cite news|date=2 October 1941|title=The Australian Short Story|volume=LXXIV|page=11|newspaper=Advocate|issue=4598|location=Victoria, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article172195364|via=National Library of Australia|accessdate=26 May 2021}} 1942, (one of the 21 stories selected from 300),{{cite news|date=5 June 1943|title=New Fiction|page=6|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|issue=32,899|location=New South Wales, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17851432|via=National Library of Australia|accessdate=26 May 2021}} 1943,{{Cite web|last=|title=Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1943|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C272123|access-date=2021-05-26|website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories|language=en}} 1944,{{Cite web|last=|title=Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1944|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C44924|access-date=2021-05-26|website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories|language=en}} 1945 (two),{{Cite web|last=|title=Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1945|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C185258|access-date=2021-05-26|website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories|language=en}} 1947,{{Cite web|last=|title=Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1947|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C181598|access-date=2021-05-26|website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories|language=en}} 1951–52,{{Cite web|last=|title=Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1951–52|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C156036|access-date=2021-05-26|website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories|language=en}} 1959–60{{Cite web|last=|title=Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1959–1960|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C277049|access-date=2021-05-26|website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories|language=en}} and 1963–64.{{Cite web|last=|title=Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1963–1964|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C231601|access-date=2021-05-26|website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories|language=en}}
In 1966 Trist was one of the screenwriters for episodes of Skippy.{{Cite web|last=|title=Skippy|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C718078|access-date=2021-05-26|website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories|language=en}}
Personal
In 1933, she married playwright and public servant Frank Mumford Trist. They made their home on the lower North Shore, aside from a few years in the artistic community of the Blue Mountains, and raised a son and daughter.
Both Frank and Margaret were instrumental in the establishment of PEN and Sydney University’s English Association, devoting much of their personal time to supporting other artists professionally and nurturing the development of a thriving arts community in Australia.
Trist died at St Leonards on 2 March 1986. Her husband had predeceased her in 1980. She was survived by her two children.
Works
= Novels =
- Now That We're Laughing (Angus & Robertson, 1945); published in New York as Sun on the Hills (Harper & Brown, 1946)
- Daddy: A novel (Angus & Robertson, 1947)
- Morning in Queensland (W. H. Allen, 1958); re-published as Tansy (University of Queensland Press, 1991)
= Short stories collections =
- In the Sun (Australasian Medical Publishing, 1943) – collection of 22 short stories
- What else is there? (Angus & Robertson, 1946)
References
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Category:20th-century Australian short story writers
Category:20th-century Australian women writers