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Te Ara Ātea Heritage Exhibition: 2021

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The True Story of Mary-Lou and her Rise to Literary Stardom

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Kā Kōrero o Waikirikiri Selwyn Stories

Mona Anderson

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TitleMona AndersonDescriptionLOVE OF THE HIGH COUNTRY
Mona Anderson (1909-2004) first ventured into high country living when she married Ron Anderson in 1940. He was the manager of the 40,000-hectare Mount Algidus Station, an isolated farm bound by three great rivers and the mountains in the Selwyn District’s far west. Mona immersed herself in the world of this wild environment. She had always loved storytelling and writing and station life was rich in both incidents and characters that she turned into articles for newspapers and magazines and talks on radio. Her unique view of this world was already popular by the time her first book, A River Rules My Life, was published in 1963. Its 7500 copies sold out in three days, and her career as a best-selling author was launched.

CROSSING THE WILBERFORCE RIVER
When Mona married Ron Anderson in 1940, Mount Algidus could be reached only by crossing the Wilberforce River on horseback or by horse-drawn vehicle. Mona and Ron lived together at Mount Algidus for 33 years.

'I first crossed the Wilberforce in a teamster’s dray – first a mile-wide traverse of the river bed and then another six miles to the homestead. No one – bless them all – thought it undignified that the new Missus should arrive so cold and cramped that she had to be lifted from her perch on top of the piano and thawed out in the cookhouse.'
Mona Anderson, ‘Christmas in the High Country’, N.Z. Family Doctor magazine.

LATER LIFE
Mona was made an MBE for services to literature in 1980 and continued to publish into her early seventies. She lived most of her life in the Selwyn District, settling with Ron in Darfield after leaving Mount Algidus. She eventually moved to Kaikohe in 2001 to live with her niece and died there in 2004, at the age of 95.

'Mona had asked for her ashes to be scattered on Ryton Station (formerly Lake Coleridge Station), near Mount Algidus. [She] decided she did not want her ashes scattered on Mount Algidus itself; she had crossed the Wilberforce River for the last time in 1974, and did not wish to cross it again.'
Tim Shoebridge, ‘Anderson, Amy Mona’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2018. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
Date of Birth11 March 1909Place of BirthNew Brighton, ChristchurchDate of Death3 May 2004Place of DeathKaikoheAge at Death94

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Mona Anderson signing copies of her last book, Both Sides of the River, in 1981. Mona published nine books, as well as many articles.

Photographs courtesy of Mona Anderson’s family

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CollectionTe Ara Ātea Heritage Exhibition: 2021NarrativeThe True Story of Mary-Lou and her Rise to Literary StardomMore InformationTe Ara official biographyWatch an interview with Mona on the Holmes showBorrow A River Rules My Life from Selwyn Libraries

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Mona Anderson