Margaret MacPherson (writer)

Margaret Louise MacPherson (née Kendall; 19 June 1895 – 14 September 1974) was a New Zealand journalist, editor and writer.

Biography

Kendall was born in Leeds, England, in 1895. She was educated at University of St Andrews, Scotland.^[1]

She married Alfred Sinclair MacPherson, elder brother of Rev. William MacPherson, Dean of Lichfield.^[2][3] The new couple later moved to New Zealand. Together, they had five sons.^[1]

After the birth of her children, she became the writer of a column called 'Wahine', in the Maoriland Worker. In the early 1920s she began editing Northlander in Kaitaia. In 1925 she and her husband divorced. Next she took a position writing the women's column in Guardian, also in Kaitaia. Other positions took her to several countries. She also wrote several books.^[1]

She died in Kaitaia, New Zealand, in 1974.^[1]

Activism

In 2013, MacPherson's grandson, Reynold MacPherson, wrote Lovers and Husbands and What-Not: A Biography of Margaret L. MacPherson, which outlines her activism leading the New Zealand Movement against War and Fascism.^[4] The book also discusses the many other causes she took up in her lifetime, including indigenous rights, equal rights for women, and Marxism.^[4]

Selected works

• A Symposium Against War (1934)^[5]
• Antipodean Journey (1937)^[6]
• I Heard the Anzacs Singing (1942)^[6]
• New Zealand Beckons (1952)^[7]
• They Built for the Future (1964)^[8]