Jill Ker Conway
|
Jill Ker Conway AC |
|
|---|---|
| Born | Jill Ker 9 October 1934 Hillston, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | Australian-American |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney |
| Genre | Autobiography |
| Notable works | The Road from Coorain |
| Notable awards | National Humanities Medal 2012 |
| Spouse | John Conway (d. 1995) |
|
|
Jill Ker Conway, AC, (born 9 October 1934) is an Australian-American author. Well known for her autobiographies, in particular her first memoir, The Road from Coorain. She was also Smith College's first female president, from 1975–1985, and now serves as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2004 she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.
Ker Conway was born in Hillston, New South Wales, in the outback of Australia. Together with her two brothers, Ker Conway was raised in near-total isolation on a family owned 73 square kilometres (18,000 acres) tract of land, Coorain (aboriginal word for "windy place"), which was eventually expanded into 129 square kilometres (32,000 acres). On Coorain, she lived a lonely life, and grew up without playmates except for her brothers. In her early years, she was schooled entirely by her mother and a country governess.
Ker Conway spent her youth working the sheep station; by age seven, she was an important member of the workforce, helping with such activities as herding and tending the sheep, checking the perimeter fences and transporting heavy farm supplies. The farm prospered until it was crippled by a drought that lasted seven years. This and her father's worsening health put an increasing burden on her shoulders. When she was 11, her father drowned in a diving accident while trying to extend the farm's water piping.
Initially Jill Ker Conway's mother, a nurse by profession, refused to leave Coorain. But after three more years of drought, she was compelled to move Jill and her brothers to Sydney, where the children attended school.
...
Wikipedia