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Marilyn Duckworth Biography

(1935– ), A Gap in the Spectrum, Over the Fence Is Out, Disorderly Conduct, The Matchbox House



New Zealand novelist, sister of the poet Fleur Adcock, born in Auckland, educated in England and Wellington, including part-time attendance at Wellington University. Her first novel, A Gap in the Spectrum (1959), a science-fiction exploration of a woman's dependency, was published when she was 23 and established the fictional terrain of her early work: the constricting roles ascribed to women are seen to notable effect in Over the Fence Is Out (1969). Widowed once, and married four times, her career was punctuated by a long silence while she brought up her children. Her acclaimed novel Disorderly Conduct (1984), set during the 1981 Springbok tour protests, features a women with four children by three different fathers. Her other novels include The Matchbox House (1960), A Barbarous Tongue (1963), Married Alive (1985), Rest for the Wicked (1986), Pulling Faces (1987), A Message from Harpo (1989), and Unlawful Entry (1992). She has also published Other Lovers' Children: Poems 1958–74 (1975) and Explosions in the Sun (1989), a volume of short stories. She was awarded the OBE in 1987.



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Literature Reference: American Literature, English Literature, Classics & Modern FictionEncyclopedia of Literature: Hilda Doolittle (H. D.) Biography to Dutch