New Zealand Week: Day 5: Author Profiles: Ronald Hugh Morrieson

Ronald Hugh Morrieson

Ronald Hugh Morrieson (29 January, 1922-26 December, 1972) was one of those unfortunate artists whose fame does not cement itself until after death.  He even semi-predicted this outcome in a comment to a friend several years prior to his demise.  In Morrieson's case, his real fame arrived a decade after his death, with the successful film adaptations of three of the four novels he had written.


Born in Hawera to Hugh, an English-born musician, and Eunice, a pianist and music teacher, Ronald Morrieson would live most of his life in the house that his grandfather built, with only occasional forays to other towns.

In 1928, when Morrieson was about 6 years old, his father suffered a heart attack and died, leaving the boy to be raised by his grandfather, mother, and aunt, with the household relying mainly on Eunice's income from piano lessons.

As the only child in the family, young Morrieson was somewhat spoiled and indulged.  He became a voracious reader and thereby excelled in English courses (though not much else) in school.  His education was frequently interrupted by childhood illnesses, as well as bouts with the asthma that would plague him his entire life.  He was also something of a prankster and joker in school, behaviors which did not necessarily lend themselves to the educational experience.  In fact, a serious prank caused him to be removed from school before completion, although he continued his studies and passed university entrance exams on his own.

He attended university in Auckland for only a few days in 1940 before returning to Hawera due to homesickness.  His asthma kept him from wartime military service, and in the aftermath of a severe car accident in which a woman was injured, he was put on probation for two years, thus tying him even more closely to home.

Morrieson (right) plays guitar with one
of his dance combos.

His next attempts at moving out into the world came in 1943 when, as "Slapsy" Morrieson, he joined some friends in forming a dance band that played around the Taranaki region.  Throughout the 1940s and 50s he gained a reputation as both a musician and as a troublemaker, getting involved in frequent scrapes with the law.  He was also a serial womanizer.

Never one to hold a steady job, Morrieson took various seasonal and part-time work.  Another attempt at University in the early 1950s brought yet more failure, and Morrieson joined his mother in giving music lessons.  By 1959, having found a desire to write, he settled into a more regulated lifestyle, giving up his dance band work.

Morrieson's first novel, The Scarecrow, was published in 1963.  While it received great critical and popular praise in Australia and other places, the reception in New Zealand, particularly in Morrieson's home of Hawera, was somewhat mixed.  Locals were rather taken aback at a work that seemed (albeit fictionally) to point to sordid happenings in their town.

A second novel, Came a hot Friday, was published to the same sort of mixed reception in 1964.  Morrieson's next two novels, Predicament and Pallet on the Floor, were both rejected time and time again, in spite of some recognition by fellow writers of Morrieson's talent.  Growing pessimistic, he took to drinking heavily, exacerbating already extant health problems.  He became a recluse and died in 1972.  His last two novels, as well as two short stories, were published posthumously.

After the author's death, his manuscripts were suddenly the subject of a bidding war.  When The Scarecrow, Came a hot Friday, and Pallet on the Floor were each filmed in the early-to-mid 1980s, Morrieson's reputation was raised further.  He is now recognized by many as one of New Zealand's best tragicomic authors, and his work has never been forgotten.  Predicament, his third novel, was filmed in 2009.