“Boiling bones to make soup”: the literary legacy of Janet Frame

Janet Frame travelled abroad on numerous occasions during her life, as a much-needed cathartic experience, away from the confines of what was then a mostly reactionary New Zealand society, which frequently left her feeling stifled, but which she nevertheless constantly returned to, like a migrating bird who is programmed to only call one place on earth ‘home’. It was towards the end of 1969, during a trip to the United States, staying at the celebrated MacDowell artist colony in New Hampshire, that Frame first met the Californian artist-musician, William Theophilus Brown, known as Bill or Bee. A close friendship quickly developed with Brown, and his partner, the artist Paul Wonner. Further brief periods in each other’s company was then followed by a ten-month gap which Frame spent in New Zealand, from the end of March 1970 until the end of January 1971, after which she returned to California for several more precious visits. Jay to Bee is the first collection of Frame letters to be published, posthumously or otherwise, and offers a rare glimpse into the mindset of this most complex of literary icons, during this brief period from 1969-71, at the height of her relationship with Brown. Frame’s loneliness, her sorrow at not being in California, is frequently contrasted with her feelings for New Zealand, where the Otago landscape offers constant reminders of her previous suffering. This paper will firstly discuss Frame’s status as a New Zealand literary icon, then consider the relationship between Frame and Brown, and will finally argue that this volume of letters does Frame’s legacy a disservice.