Editing Janet Frame (section)

== Biography ==

=== Early years: 1924–1956 ===
[[File:Clock Oamaru.JPG|right|thumb|[[Oamaru]]: Clock tower on the old Post Office, described in Frame's ''[[Owls Do Cry]]'' and her autobiography, ''The Envoy from Mirror City'']]

Janet Frame was born Janet Paterson Frame in [[Dunedin]] in the south-east of New Zealand's [[South Island]], the third of five children to parents of [[Scottish New Zealanders|Scottish descent]].<ref>[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], p. 16.</ref> She grew up in a working-class family. Her father, George Frame, worked for the [[New Zealand Railways Department|New Zealand Government Railways]], and her mother Lottie (née Godfrey), served as a housemaid to the family of writer [[Katherine Mansfield]]. New Zealand's first female medical graduate, Dr [[Emily Hancock Siedeberg]], delivered Frame at [[St Helens Hospitals, New Zealand|St. Helens Hospital]] in 1924.<ref name="DNZB">{{DNZB|title=Janet Paterson Frame biography|id=6F1|plainlink=y}}</ref>

Frame spent her early childhood years in various small towns in New Zealand's South Island provinces of [[Otago]] and [[Southland Region|Southland]], including [[Outram, New Zealand|Outram]] and [[Wyndham, New Zealand|Wyndham]], before the family eventually settled in the coastal town of [[Oamaru]] (recognisable as the "Waimaru" of her début novel and subsequent fiction<ref>Leaver-Cooper, Sheila. ''Janet Frame's Kingdom by the Sea: Oamaru''. Dunmore (NZ), 1997</ref>). As recounted in the first volume of her autobiographies, Frame's childhood was marred by the deaths of two of her adolescent sisters, Myrtle and Isabel, who drowned in separate incidents, and the [[epilepsy|epileptic seizures]] suffered by her brother George (referred to as "Geordie" and "Bruddie").<ref name=FrameAutobio>Frame, Janet. ''An Autobiography'' Century Hutchinson (NZ), 1989.</ref>

In 1943, Frame began training as a teacher at the [[Dunedin College of Education]], auditing courses in English, French and psychology at the adjacent [[University of Otago]].<ref>[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], pp. 51–2.</ref> After completing two years of theoretical studies with mixed results,<ref name="ReferenceA">[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], pp. 61–2.</ref> Frame started a year of practical placement at the Arthur Street School in Dunedin, which, according to her biographer, initially went quite well.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Things started to unravel later that year when she attempted suicide by ingesting a packet of [[aspirin]]. As a result, Frame began regular therapy sessions with junior lecturer [[John Money]], to whom she developed a strong attraction,<ref>[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], pp. 64–5.</ref> and whose later work as a [[Sexology|sexologist]] specialising in [[Sex reassignment therapy|gender reassignment]] {{As of|2008|alt= remains}} controversial.<ref>[[Colapinto, John]]. ''[[As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl]].'' Harper Collins, 2000.
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[[File:Seacliff Lunatic Asylum NZ.jpg|right|thumb|Seacliff Lunatic Asylum in the [[Otago|Otago region]], where Frame was first committed in 1945.]]

In September 1945, Frame abandoned her teacher-training classroom at Dunedin's Arthur Street School during a visit from an inspector.<ref>[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], p. 66.</ref><ref>[https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Whi051Kota-t1-g1-t4.html#name-120555-1 Lloyd, Mike. "Frame Walks Out." ''Kotare'' 5.1, 2004]</ref> She was then briefly admitted to the psychiatric ward of the local Dunedin hospital for observation.<ref name="ReferenceB">[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], pp. 69–70.</ref> Frame was unwilling to return home to her family, where tensions between her father and brother frequently manifested in outbursts of anger and violence. As a result, Frame was transferred from the local hospital's psychiatric ward to [[Seacliff Lunatic Asylum]], a fabled and feared mental institution located 20 miles north of Dunedin.<ref>[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], p. 71.</ref> During the next eight years, Frame was repeatedly readmitted, usually voluntarily, to [[psychiatric hospital]]s in New Zealand. In addition to Seacliff, these included [[Whau Lunatic Asylum|Avondale Lunatic Asylum]], in [[Auckland]], and [[Sunnyside Hospital]] in [[Christchurch]]. During this period, Frame was first diagnosed as suffering from [[schizophrenia]],<ref name="ReferenceB"/> which was treated with [[electroconvulsive therapy]] and [[Insulin shock therapy|insulin]].<ref name=FrameAutobio/><ref>[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], pp. 97, 105.</ref>
[[File:OwlsDoCry.jpg|left|thumb|upright|''[[Owls Do Cry]]''. Dennis Beytagh's cover illustration for Frame's début novel, released by New Zealand's Pegasus Press in 1957.]]
In 1951, while Frame was still a patient at Seacliff, [[Caxton Press (New Zealand)|New Zealand's Caxton Press]] published her first book, a critically acclaimed collection of short stories titled ''[[The Lagoon and Other Stories]]''.<ref>[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], p. 106.</ref> The volume was awarded the Hubert Church Memorial Award, at that time one of New Zealand's most prestigious literary prizes. This resulted in the cancellation of Frame's scheduled [[lobotomy]].<ref>[[#refFrame1991|Frame 1991]], pp. 222–23.</ref><ref>[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], pp. 111–2.</ref> Four years later, after her final discharge from Seacliff, Frame met writer [[Frank Sargeson]].<ref>[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], pp. 123–4.</ref> She lived and worked at [[Frank Sargeson House|his home]] in [[Takapuna]], an [[Auckland]] suburb, from April 1955 to July 1956, producing her first full-length novel, ''[[Owls Do Cry]]'' (Pegasus, 1957).<ref>[[#refKing2000|King 2000]], p. 133.</ref>