'The cathedrals of the imagination'

 

“Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination.” – Janet Frame

 

Born in New Zealand in August of 1924, Nene Janet Paterson Clutha, who published under the name Janet Frame, authored novels, short stories, poetry, juvenile fiction, essays and several bestselling nonfiction books.

 

Hospitalized for depression and anxiety as a young adult, Frame decided to start anew by traveling abroad.  In London, she began therapy with London doctor Robert Hugh Cawley, who encouraged her to pursue what would become a great writing career.  She dedicated 7 of her novels to Cawley.   

 

During her lifetime (she died in 2004), Frame's work garnered numerous literary prizes including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for The Carpathians.  She also was one of the most widely published essayists of the late 20^th Century and two of her nonfiction books, An Angel at My Table, and The Envoy from Mirror City, earned Book of the Year Awards in several nations.

 

Noted for her hard-hitting realism, she noted, “I like to see life with its teeth out.”