# Marie Pitt > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Marie_Pitt > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Marie_Pitt.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Pitt > Source revision: 1355726530 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Australian poet and socialist activist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}} {{Infobox person | name = Marie Pitt | image = Marie Pitt, Australian poet and socialist activist.jpg | alt = | caption = Pitt circa 1924 | birth_name = Marie Elizabeth Josephine McKeown | birth_date = {{birth date|1869|08|06|df=yes}} | birth_place = [Bullumwaal](/source/Bullumwaal%2C_Victoria), [Victoria](/source/Colony_of_Victoria) | death_date = {{death date and age|1948|05|20|1869|08|06|df=yes}} | death_place = [Kew](/source/Kew%2C_Victoria), [Victoria](/source/Victoria_(Australia)), Australia | other_names = Marie Elizabeth Josephine Pitt | occupation = {{hlist | Activist | journalist | poet}} | notable_works = | political_party = [Victorian Socialist Party](/source/Victorian_Socialist_Party) | partner = [Bernard O'Dowd](/source/Bernard_O'Dowd) | signature = | signature_alt = }} '''Marie Elizabeth Josephine Pitt''' (1869–1948) was an Australian poet and socialist activist, also journalist and [Unitarian](/source/Unitarianism). Pitt wrote very highly coloured nature poetry, once much anthologised; and also wrote poetry in support of the socialist and labour movements. Marie Pitt was the companion of fellow poet and socialist [Bernard O'Dowd](/source/Bernard_O'Dowd). ==Life== Pitt's maiden name was McKeown. She was born on 6 August 1869 in the gold-mining town of [Bullumwaal](/source/Bullumwaal%2C_Victoria) in [Gippsland](/source/Gippsland) region of the [colony of Victoria](/source/colony_of_Victoria), north of the town of [Bairnsdale](/source/Bairnsdale%2C_Victoria). Her early childhood was mostly spent in [Wy Yung](/source/Wy_Yung%2C_Victoria), a tiny settlement near Bairnsdale, where she laboured on her parents' "selection" or small farm. After failing to qualify as a teacher she found work in Bairnsdale as a photographic retoucher in 1887, and married the Tasmanian farmer and miner William Pitt in 1893 with whom she lived in Tasmania, the Western Australian goldfields, Bairnsdale again and finally [Melbourne](/source/Melbourne) where she joined the [Victorian Socialist Party](/source/Victorian_Socialist_Party) and became editor of its journal ''The Socialist''. In 1900 the prestigious ''[Bulletin](/source/The_Bulletin_(Australian_periodical))'' accepted one of her poems. Her first volume of poetry was published in 1911. William Pitt died in 1912 of a miners' disease. Marie and William Pitt had four children together, three of whom survived them.{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |last=Anderson |first=Hugh |authorlink= |year=1988 |id=A110244b |title= Pitt, Marie Elizabeth Josephine (1869 - 1948) |accessdate=2007-10-09}}{{cite web |title= Marie E.J.Pitt. (1869-1948) |first=P.D. |last=Gardner |url=http://www.takver.com/history/pitt_marie.htm |work=Radical traditional |publisher=Takver |accessdate=2007-10-06}} After William Pitt's death Pitt worked at various white-collar jobs and pursued her writing, as well as her work with the Victorian Socialist Party. She lived with [Bernard O'Dowd](/source/Bernard_O'Dowd) as her partner from 1920 until her death. She shared with him support for the Victorian Socialist Party, and for Unitarianism. Her political views were not identical with his, however; notably, and unlike O'Dowd, Marie Pitt took a strong pacifist line. Another matter on which they differed was the endemic [racism](/source/racism) of the [Australian labour movement](/source/Australian_labour_movement); Marie Pitt, in a word, supported it and spoke of the "woman's instinct for racial purity". O'Dowd took an [anti-racist](/source/anti-racist) view.{{cite web |title=The ALP, the labour movement and racism (1999) |first=Bob |last=Gould |url=http://members.optushome.com.au/spainter/Racism.html |accessdate=2007-10-06 |archive-date=3 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403194501/http://members.optushome.com.au/spainter/Racism.html |url-status=dead }} Pitt won the [Australian Broadcasting Commission](/source/Australian_Broadcasting_Commission) national songwriting competition in 1944 with her entry ''Ave, Australia''. Pitt died on 20 May 1948 at Kew, Victoria.{{Cite web |title=Marie E. J. Pitt |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A15086 |access-date=2025-03-22 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |publisher=The University of Queensland}} ==Poetry collections== * ''The Horses of the Hills'' (1911) * ''Bairnsdale'' (1922) * ''The Poems of Marie E. J. Pitt'' (1924) * ''Selected Poems'' (1944) == Further reading == *[http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER1638818 Letters & Poems] [1920-1944] [manuscript], ''[State Library Victoria](/source/State_Library_Victoria)'' *[http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER1635752 Papers] [1909-1941] [manuscript], ''[State Library Victoria](/source/State_Library_Victoria)'' *{{Cite book |last=Burke |first=Colleen |title=Doherty's corner : the life and work of poet Marie E.J. Pitt |publisher=Angus & Robertson |year=1985 |isbn=0207150567 |location=North Ryde, NSW}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{Librivox author |id=15666}} * [https://adc.library.usyd.edu.au/data-2/v00019.pdf Sydney University PDF] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt, Marie}} Category:1869 births Category:1948 deaths Category:20th-century Australian poets Category:20th-century Australian women poets Category:Australian Christian socialists Category:Australian journalists Category:Australian women poets Category:Female Christian socialists Category:Unitarian socialists Category:20th-century Australian women Category:Writers from Victoria (state) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Marie Pitt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Pitt) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Pitt?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.