Nancy Cato

Background

Cato is married and travelled extensively overseas with her husbamd. They had one daughter and two sons.

Education

She studied English Literature and Italian at the University of Adelaide, graduated in 1939.

Career

Cato's most famous work is her trilogy, known as All the Rivers Run. It was originally published as three separate volumes: All the Rivers Run (1958), Time, Flow Softly (1959) and But Still the Stream (1962). However, since the 1970s it has been generally published as one large volume containing the three books. It was made into a TV mini-series All the Rivers Run, which was broadcast in 1983.



In 1984, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1991.

In 2006 a new suburb of Franklin was proposed for Canberra The suburb now includes Nancy Cato Street.

Achievements

• in 1948 Cato was one of the founding members of the Lyre-Bird Writers, an independent and cooperative group that formed to publish verse by Australian writers. As a member of the Jindyworobak Movement, Cato edited the 1950 Jindyworobak Anthology, one of a series of anthologies produced to promote indigenous Australian ideas and customs, particularly in poetry. She was actively involved in the Fellowship of Australian Writers and the Australian Society of Authors during the 1950s and 1960s.

Works

• book

  • All the Rivers Run

  • Green Grows The Vine

  • Brown Sugar

  • Mister Maloga

Politics

In 1984, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to literature and the environment.

Membership

• the Fellowship of Australian Writers

• the Australian Society of Authors , Australia

  1950 - 1960

• Lyre-Bird Writers , Australia

• the Jindyworobak Movement , Australia

Connections

a husband:

Eldred De Bracton Norman