Helena Ruth France (née Henderson; 12 June 1913 – 19 August 1968) was a New Zealand librarian, poet and novelist.

Early life and education

France was born in Leithfield, North Canterbury, New Zealand in 1913, the daughter of Francis and Helena Henderson. Her mother Helena was a writer of unpublished novels and plays as well as published poems and stories in the local Christchurch newspaper. She attended

Christchurch Girls' High School Christchurch Girls' High School in Christchurch, New Zealand, was established in 1877 and is the second oldest girls-only secondary school in the country, after Otago Girls' High School. History Christchurch Girls' High School was established i ...

Career

France worked at the Canterbury Public Library before her marriage to boat-builder Arnold France in 1934. The Henderson family were Catholic; France's father objected to her marriage to a non-Catholic and feigned suicide the night before the wedding. She then rejected Catholicism. She lived on a yacht in

Lyttleton Harbour Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō is one of two major inlets in Banks Peninsula, on the coast of Canterbury, New Zealand; the other is Akaroa Harbour on the southern coast. It enters from the northern coast of the peninsula, heading in a pre ...

for four years, rowing Arnold to work. They had two sons and the family moved to

Sumner Sumner may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Sumner, a mountain in the Rare Range, Antarctica * Sumner Glacier, southern Graham Land, Antarctica Australia * Sumner, Queensland, suburb of Brisbane New Zealand * Sumner, New Zealand, seaside sub ...

. She was friends with Elsie Locke, but considered Christchurch authors and poets prejudiced against women. Her two published novels are ''The Race'' (1958) and ''Ice Cold River'' (1961). ''The Race'' is based on the ill-fated Lyttleton to Wellington yacht race in 1951 in which her husband participated. She received a £100 award from the New Zealand Literary Fund for ''The Race.'' ''Ice Cold River'' is a family story set on a Canterbury farm which is cut off by floods. She published poems under her own name in various publications including '' Landfall'', and two books of poems ''Unwilling Pilgrim'' (1955) and ''The Halting Place'' (1961) under the name of Paul Henderson. Her poems were included in a publication ''Best Poems'' in 1958 and the Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse. She died in Christchurch in 1968, leaving a third adult novel ''The Tunnel'' unfinished. A collection of her poems ''No Traveller Returns: the selected poems of Ruth France'' was published in 2020.

References

External links

''Sound Clip: Ruth France Tribute'' by Monte Holcroft on NZHistory
2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:France, Ruth 1913 births 1968 deaths New Zealand librarians Women librarians New Zealand women novelists 20th-century New Zealand poets New Zealand women poets People from North Canterbury 20th-century New Zealand novelists 20th-century New Zealand women writers People educated at Christchurch Girls' High School

Early life and education

Career

References

Further reading

External links