top of page

Your KS #24: Katharine turns gothic in 1907


Picture: Frederick McCubbin’s Lost (1886)

“Them still hills are weird on a man. At night, in the moonlight, the dead trees are ghostly. Shadows come creeping and crawling round you, the wild dogs start howling and the wind pants up the cold earth.”

Katharine Susannah Prichard is not known as a horror writer, but with this month’s Spooky Stories Night at KSPWC, it’s time to reveal her gothic turn. It came in January 1907 with “The Kid”, a gothic bush story. The story was a breakthrough for Katharine, the first time she was published in Australia’s most famous journal of the time, The Bulletin. She had just turned twenty-three.

It tells the story of a twelve-year-old girl, “an elfish little figure, with wide, staring eyes, and ragged locks hanging knotted and loose over her face” growing up on the land with a bad-tempered father and unloving stepmother. When the Kid’s beloved baby brother dies, she runs away with his body into the bush because she thinks God will take him away to sell for his skin like her father does with dead cattle. A few days later, her body is found with the baby’s under a white gum “like a column of stainless marble.”

The grimness of the story befitted the bleak period in the Prichard household, published as it was while Katharine’s father Tom was gripped by depression. He committed suicide later that year.

I rate it as the best short story she wrote in her Melbourne years to 1919. It is atmospheric and its characters are convincing. Many of her early stories end with the death of a character, but in this one it has real impact. Unfortunately, the story has never been republished. However, the National Library has started digitising The Bulletin and when they finally reach 1907 the world will be able to read “The Kid” again.

Recent Posts

Join our mailing list

Name

Email

shire.jpg
Black_RGB_Horizontal..png
Little Black Dress Productions.jpg
c911e7d2-dragonfly-publishing-logo-high-res.png
Writers United W.A. Logo. Visit the KSP website for more information. KSP 2021
ACT-BELONG-COMMIT-MHWA_Logo_Contained_CMYK_R.jpg
Registered Charity Logo. Visit the KSP website for more information. KSP 2021

Katharine's Place
11 Old York Road
Greenmount WA 6056
Western Australia

E: office@kspwriterscentre.com
Ph: +61 (08) 9294 1872
 

  • Black Facebook Icon
  • Black Instagram Icon
  • Linkedin

KSP Writers' Centre - A Support Hub for Writers

 

 

 

 

 

KSP WRITERS' CENTRE ACKNOWLEDGES THE SHIRE OF MUNDARING

AND OUR MANY SPONSORS FOR THEIR MUCH-APPRECIATED SUPPORT

 

The KSP Foundation management team respect and honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past, present and future. We acknowledge the stories, traditions and living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on this land and commit to building a brighter future together.

Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this website may contain images, voices and names of deceased persons.

https://www.kspwriterscentre.com/carusowriterinresidenceprogram2025
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

bottom of page