A legend of the Australian publishing industry is remembered
Acclaimed writer, editor and publisher Hilary McPhee AO, has died aged 85.
She was a founding director, with Di Gribble, of McPhee Gribble (1975–89), chair
of the Australia Council for the Arts and of the Major Organisations Board
(1994–97), and a founding director and sometime editor of online political
newsletter New Matilda.
As an independent publisher and then as an imprint of Penguin, McPhee Gribble
published works including Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip, Kathy Lette and Gabrielle
Carey’s Puberty Blues, and Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet.
From 2006–10 she was living and working between the Middle East and Italy,
writing a book about the region and articles about matching philanthropic
initiatives to the needs of young people.
Other People's Words, published in 2001, documents her publishing life. Her
selection of Australian writing, Wordlines, was published in 2010. She annotated
and edited film maker Tim Burstall's diaries from the early 1950s, published by
MUP as Memoirs of a Young Bastard: the Diaries of Tim Burstall.
Other People's Houses, a memoir, it was published by MUP in November 2019.
Hilary McPhee was inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001
and appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to the arts in the
2001 Queen's Birthday Honours.
She served as a judge for major literary prizes including the Miles Franklin
Award, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and the Melbourne Prize.
In 2016, The Hilary McPhee Award for an essay published in Meanjin was
established by the University of Melbourne, from a donation made by her
brother Professor Peter McPhee.
McPhee married artist Peter Freeman in 1964 with whom she had a daughter,
Sara Harriet Freeman, and a son, Rupert. In 1976 she married publisher John
Michie, with whom she had a son, James. Her marriage in 1986 to writer Don
Watson ended in divorce in 2009.