Minnie Agnes Filson
{{Short description|Australian poet}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Minnie Agnes Filson
|image= Minnie_Agnes_Filson_died_1971.jpg
|caption= From the cover of her book
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1898|05|03}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1971|11|07|1898|05|03}}
| occupation = Poet
| notable_works = Feet on the Ground
| death_place = Cremorne, New South Wales, Australia
| birth_place = Wyalong, New South Wales, Australia
| birth_name = Minnie Agnes May Cole
| pseudonym = {{Cslist|Rickety Kate|Ricketty Kate|Stella Filson|Michael Strong|Judith Grey|Rex Kater}}
}}
Minnie Agnes Filson (3 May 1898 – 7 November 1971) was an Australian poet. She wrote under a number of pseudonyms including Rickety Kate (sometimes Ricketty Kate), Stella Filson, Michael Strong, Judith Grey and Rex Kater.
Life
Minnie Agnes Filson was born on 3 May 1898 at Wyalong, then a gold-mining settlement. She grew up in Mosman and was educated there.{{cite news |date=19 March 1938 |title=Rhymes and Whimsies by Invalid Poet |volume=5 |page=12 |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |issue=41 |location=Australia, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51589967 |accessdate=3 September 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}}
At the time of her marriage, she was manager of the Church Standard. On 6 December 1924 she married Arthur Johnston Filson.{{cite news |date=8 January 1925 |title=Family Notices |page=5 |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=27,148 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16198391 |accessdate=3 September 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}} She suffered rheumatoid arthritis which was exacerbated after the birth of her only son the following year. Bed-bound, she adopted the pseudonym, Rickety Kate.{{Cite journal |last=Werneke |first=Ursula |date=2011 |title=A Lively Mind in a Frozen Body: The History of Rickety Kate—an Australian Poet Who Suffered From Rheumatoid Arthritis |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2156587211414425 |journal=Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine |language=en |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=233–238 |doi=10.1177/2156587211414425 |issn=2156-5872|url-access=subscription }} The Sun described her writing practice: "She composes, corrects and scans mentally. It means a lot of memorising–and some of her narrative poems are long. Finally she dictates to either of two friends who have elected themselves her scribes–but that necessarily at their convenience."{{cite news |date=12 August 1945 |title=Poem to cabbage wins place in anthology |page=10 |newspaper=The Sun |issue=2209 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230453642 |accessdate=2 September 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}} She was unable to hold a book to read, again friends read poetry to her but her "greatest joy is the daily ten minutes when my son holds up a book for me to read myself".
Filson contributed poems to The Sydney Morning Herald in the 1930s, including one called the "Sydney Harbour Bridge".{{cite news |last=Filson |first=Minnie |date=19 March 1932 |title=Sydney Harbour Bridge |page=9 |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=29,393 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28034330 |accessdate=2 September 2023 |via=National Library of Australia}} She also wrote poems and stories for The New South Wales School Magazine from the early 1930s until at least 1954.{{Citation |author1= |title=Flop, the Dog, and Blue Wren, the Bird (30 June 1954) |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/234906309 |journal=The New South Wales school magazine of literature for our boys and girls |volume=39 |issue=5 Part 1 Class 3 |pages=152–155 |publication-date=1954-06-30 |access-date=2 September 2023 |publisher=New South Wales Department of Education}}
She was a member of the Jindyworobak poetry movement; her 1944 book, Bralgah, was a Jindyworobak publication{{Citation |author1=Rickety Kate |title=Bralgah : a legend |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/20919806 |publication-date=1944 |access-date=2 September 2023 |publisher=Jindyworobak Publication}} and individual poems were included in the Jindyworobak Anthology of 1941,{{Cite book |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3065561806 |title=Jindyworobak Anthology, 1941 |website= |editor-last=Ingamells |editor-first=Rex |language=en |access-date=2023-09-02}} 1942,{{Cite book |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3068850579 |title=Jindyworobak Anthology, 1942 |website= |editor-last=Kennedy |editor-first=Victor |language=en |access-date=2023-09-02}} 1944,{{Cite book |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3065535033 |title=Jindyworobak Anthology, 1944 |website= |editor-last=Ingamells |editor-first=Rex |language=en |access-date=2023-09-02}} 1946{{Cite book |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3065535033 |title=Jindyworobak Anthology, 1946 |website= |editor-last=Mudie |editor-first=Ian |language=en |access-date=2023-09-02}} and 1952.{{Cite book |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3065535033 |title=Jindyworobak Anthology, 1952 |website= |editor-last=Murphy |editor-first=Arthur |language=en |access-date=2023-09-02}}
Her poetry has been included in a number of anthologies, including The Penguin Book of Australian Woman Poets, Sydney's Poems: A Selection on the Occasion of the City's One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary 1842–1992, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature, Australian Poetry Since 1788 and The Oxford Book of Australian Women's Verse.{{Cite web |title=Via the Bridge |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C75308 |access-date=2023-09-02 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |publisher=The University of Queensland}}{{Citation |author1= |title=The Oxford book of Australian women's verse |publication-date=1995 |editor-last=Lever |editor-first=Susan |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-553505-1}}
Filson wrote Feet on the Ground in the 1940s, using the pseudonym Judith Grey.{{Citation |author1=Filson |first=Minnie Agnes |title=Feet on the ground : an autobiographical novel |publication-date=2008 |publisher=L. Bassan |isbn=978-0-9804988-0-6}} It was published posthumously in 2008 by her granddaughter, artist Lenore Bassan, who created a concertina book, Cornerstone, about Filson's house at Cremorne.{{Citation |author1=Bassan |first=Lenore |title=Cornerstone |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/254717802 |publication-date=2022 |access-date=2 September 2023 |publisher=Lenore Bassan}}
Her papers are held in the State Library of New South Wales.{{Cite web |title=Minnie Agnes Filson papers |url=https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/9ALoGWjY |access-date=2023-09-01 |website=State Library of NSW |language=en}}
Works
- Rhymes & Whimsies, 1930
- Out of the Dust, 1939
- Bralgah: A legend, 1944
- Feet on the Ground: An autobiographical novel, 2008
Death
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Filson, Minnie Agnes}}