Katharine S. Prichard
| Katherine Susannah Prichard | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 4 December 1883 Levuka, Fiji |
| Died | 2 October 1969 Perth, Western Australia |
| Occupation | writer and political activist |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Spouse | Hugo (Jim) Throssell |
| Children | Ric Throssell |
Katharine Susannah Prichard (4 December 1883 – 2 October 1969) was an Australian author and co-founding member of the Communist Party of Australia.
Prichard was born in Levuka, Fiji in 1883, and spent her childhood in Launceston, Tasmania, before moving to Melbourne, where she won a scholarship to South Melbourne College. Her father, Tom Prichard, was editor of the Melbourne Sun newspaper. She worked as a governess and journalist in Victoria then travelled to England in 1908.
Her first novel, The Pioneers (1915), won the Hodder & Stoughton All Empire Literature Prize.
After her return to Australia, the romance Windlestraws and her first novel of a mining community, Black Opal, were published.
Prichard moved with her husband, war hero Hugo "Jim" Throssell, VC, to Greenmount, Western Australia, in 1920 and lived at 11 Old York Road for much of the rest of her life. She wrote most of her novels and stories in a self-contained weatherboard workroom near the house. In her personal life she always referred to herself as Mrs Hugo Throssell. Her friends called her Kattie. They had one son, Ric Throssell, later a diplomat and writer.
Prichard was a founding member of the Communist Party of Australia in 1921 and remained a member for the rest of her life. She worked to organise unemployed workers and founded left-wing women's groups, and during the 1930s she campaigned in support of the Spanish Republic and other left-wing causes. Although she had frequent arguments with other Communist writers such as Frank Hardy and Judah Waten over the correct application of the doctrine of socialist realism to Australian fiction, she remained supportive of the Soviet Union and its cultural policies when many other intellectuals, such as Eric Lambert and Stephen Murray-Smith, left the party during the 1950s.
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