Janet Frame

Lore & Background

Janet Frame was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, the third of five children in a working-class family. Her childhood was marked by the death of one sister by drowning and another sister from pneumonia, as well as her brother's epileptic seizures. After training as a teacher, she attempted suicide and was admitted to psychiatric hospitals, including Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, where she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and treated with electroconvulsive therapy and insulin. In 1952, her first book, The Lagoon and Other Stories, won the Hubert Church Memorial Award, leading to the cancellation of a scheduled lobotomy. She later lived with writer Frank Sargeson and produced her first novel, Owls Do Cry.

Reader's Guide

Janet Frame's significance lies in her transformation of personal trauma into acclaimed literary works, particularly her award-winning autobiography that was adapted into a major film. Her career challenged perceptions of mental illness, as her success directly prevented a lobotomy. She received New Zealand's highest civil honour and was a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work continues to be studied for its fictionalised exploration of childhood and psychiatric hospitalisation, and her legacy includes ongoing debate about her mental health diagnoses, including a posthumous suggestion of autism that remains disputed.

Did You Know?

• Frame was delivered by Dr. W. H. Scott.
• She legally changed her name to Nene Janet Paterson Clutha in 1958, partly to make herself harder to locate.
• Her autobiographies were adapted into the film An Angel at My Table, directed by Jane Campion.
• A 2007 article in The New Zealand Medical Journal proposed Frame may have been on the autism spectrum, a suggestion disputed by her literary executor.