William Harrison Pearson (18 January 1922 – 27 September 2002) was a New Zealand fiction writer, essayist and critic.

Early life

Born in

Greymouth Greymouth () (Māori: ''Māwhera'') is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coas ...

Pearson began writing at an early age, writing for the children's page of the '' Christchurch Star-Sun''. He completed a B.A. in English at the

Canterbury University College The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was f ...

in 1939 and trained as a teacher at Dunedin Training College. He taught briefly at Blackball Primary School in 1942. He served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

between 1942 and 1946 firstly in the dental corps in Fiji, then in the infantry in Egypt, Italy and Japan.

Career

Pearson completed his M.A. at Canterbury University and edited the student newspaper ''Canta'' in 1948. He taught briefly at Oxford District High School before travelling to London in 1949 to begin a PhD at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

which he completed in 1952. He returned to New Zealand in 1954 to teach in the English Department at the

Auckland University College , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

until his retirement in 1986. He spent time as a research fellow in the Research School of Pacific Studies at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

in Canberra from 1967 to 1969. His collected essays and reviews on New Zealand literature and society were published in ''Fretful Sleepers and Other Essays'' in 1974. The essay ''Fretful Sleepers,'' first published in ''

Landfall Landfall is the event of a storm moving over land after being over water. More broadly, and in relation to human travel, it refers to 'the first land that is reached or seen at the end of a journey across the sea or through the air, or the fact ...

'' in 1952, was written while living in England when he was contemplating returning to New Zealand. It was based on his own thoughts of New Zealand and his time in the forces and was an analysis and description of New Zealand as well as a plea for more variety, tolerance and sensitivity. He drew on his experiences of teaching at Blackball to write a novel entitled ''Coal Flat'' which was published in 1963. It was begun after he finished his PhD and completed before he left England. During the two years of writing it he supported himself by doing supply teaching (replacing teachers who are absent). A well-reviewed biography, entitled ''No Fretful Sleeper: A Life of Bill Pearson'' by Paul Millar, was published in 2010. The cover of the book is an

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

of Pearson painted by Herry Perry in 1952. After the publication of ''Coal Flat'' Pearson wrote no more fiction but concentrated on essays, editing and literary criticism.

Personal life

Pearson had a close relationship with the

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

university community during his tenure at the University of Auckland. He was involved in the creation of the Māori Studies department at the university. Pearson was a closeted gay man for much of his life; he was trapped between a sexual identity that through much of his lifetime was the object of extreme prejudice and some criminal sanction, and his desire to fit in with his peers. His fear of being outed drove him underground. Homosexual relations between men were only decriminalized in New Zealand in 1986. He was also a social activist and pacifist during the 1950s and 1960s. He was a member of the New Zealand Peace Council and edited their magazine ''Peace.'' He belonged to

CND The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucle ...

, the Council for Racial Equality (CARE) and the Auckland Council of Civil Liberties, and edited ''Here and Now'' magazine.

Works

* ''Attitudes to the Maori in some Pakeha fiction'' (1958) * ''Coal Flat'' (1963)
full text
at the

NZETC The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection (NZETC; mi, Te Pūhikotuhi o Aotearoa) is a freely accessible online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials that are held by the Victoria University of Wellington Library ...

*''Collected stories, 1935–1963 / by Frank Sargeson; with an introduction by Bill Pearson'' (1964) * ''Henry Lawson among Maoris'' (1968) * ''Brown man's burden, and later stories / by Roderick Finlayson; edited and introduced by Bill Pearson'' (1973) * ''Fretful Sleepers and Other Essays'' (1974)
full text
at the

* ''Rifled sanctuaries : some views of the Pacific Islands in western literature to 1900'' (1984) * ''Six stories'' (1991)

References

External links