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{{Short description|Australian poet and socialist activist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Marie Pitt
| image              = Marie Pitt, Australian poet and socialist activist.jpg
| alt                =
| caption            = Pitt circa 1924
| birth_name         = Marie Elizabeth Josephine McKeown
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1869|08|06|df=yes}}
| birth_place        = [[Bullumwaal, Victoria|Bullumwaal]], [[Colony of Victoria|Victoria]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1948|05|20|1869|08|06|df=yes}}
| death_place        = [[Kew, Victoria|Kew]], [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]], Australia
| other_names        = Marie Elizabeth Josephine Pitt
| occupation         = {{hlist | Activist | journalist | poet}}
| notable_works      =
| party              = [[Victorian Socialist Party]]
| partner            = [[Bernard O'Dowd]]
| signature          =
| signature_alt      =
}}
'''Marie Elizabeth Josephine Pitt''' (1869–1948) was an Australian poet and socialist activist, also journalist and [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]]. Pitt wrote very highly coloured nature poetry, once much anthologised; and also wrote poetry in support of the socialist and labour movements. Marie Pitt was the companion of fellow poet and socialist [[Bernard O'Dowd]].
==Life==
Pitt's maiden name was McKeown. She was born on 6 August 1869 in the gold-mining town of [[Bullumwaal, Victoria|Bullumwaal]] in [[Gippsland]] region of the [[colony of Victoria]], north of the town of [[Bairnsdale, Victoria|Bairnsdale]]. Her early childhood was mostly spent in [[Wy Yung, Victoria|Wy Yung]], a tiny settlement near Bairnsdale, where she laboured on her parents' "selection" or small farm. After failing to qualify as a teacher she found work in Bairnsdale as a photographic retoucher in 1887, and married the Tasmanian farmer and miner William Pitt in 1893 with whom she lived in Tasmania, the Western Australian goldfields, Bairnsdale again and finally [[Melbourne]] where she joined the [[Victorian Socialist Party]] and became editor of its journal ''The Socialist''. In 1900 the prestigious ''[[The Bulletin (Australian periodical)|Bulletin]]'' accepted one of her poems. Her first volume of poetry was published in 1911. William Pitt died in 1912 of a miners' disease. Marie and William Pitt had four children together, three of whom survived them.<ref name=adb>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography
|last=Anderson
|first=Hugh
|authorlink=
|year=1988
|id=A110244b
|title= Pitt, Marie Elizabeth Josephine (1869 - 1948)
|accessdate=2007-10-09}}</ref><ref name=Gardner>{{cite web
|title= Marie E.J.Pitt. (1869-1948)
|first=P.D.
|last=Gardner
|url=http://www.takver.com/history/pitt_marie.htm
|work=Radical traditional
|publisher=Takver
|accessdate=2007-10-06}}</ref>
After William Pitt's death Pitt worked at various white-collar jobs and pursued her writing, as well as her work with the Victorian Socialist Party. She lived with [[Bernard O'Dowd]] as her partner from 1920 until her death. She shared with him support for the Victorian Socialist Party, and for Unitarianism. Her political views were not identical with his, however; notably, and unlike O'Dowd, Marie Pitt took a strong pacifist line. Another matter on which they differed was the endemic [[racism]] of the [[Australian labour movement]]; Marie Pitt, in a word, supported it and spoke of the "woman's instinct for racial purity". O'Dowd took an [[anti-racist]] view.<ref>{{cite web
|title= The ALP, the labour movement and racism (1999)
|first=Bob
|last=Gould
|url=http://members.optushome.com.au/spainter/Racism.html
|accessdate=2007-10-06}}</ref>
Pitt won the [[Australian Broadcasting Commission]] national songwriting competition in 1944 with her entry ''Ave, Australia''.<ref name=adb/>
Pitt died on 20 May 1948.
==Poetry collections==
* ''The Horses of the Hills'' (1911)
* ''Bairnsdale'' (1922)
* ''The Poems of Marie E.&nbsp;J. Pitt'' (1924)
* ''Selected Poems'' (1944)
== Further reading ==
*[http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER1638818 Letters & Poems] [1920-1944] [manuscript], ''[[State Library Victoria]]''
*[http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER1635752 Papers] [1909-1941] [manuscript], ''[[State Library Victoria]]''
*{{Cite book |last=Burke |first=Colleen |title=Doherty's corner : the life and work of poet Marie E.J. Pitt |publisher=Angus & Robertson |year=1985 |isbn=0207150567 |location=North Ryde, NSW}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* {{Librivox author |id=15666}}
* [https://adc.library.usyd.edu.au/data-2/v00019.pdf Sydney University PDF]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt, Marie}}
[[Category:1869 births]]
[[Category:1948 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian poets]]
[[Category:Australian Christian socialists]]
[[Category:Australian journalists]]
[[Category:Australian women poets]]
[[Category:Female Christian socialists]]
[[Category:Unitarian socialists]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian women]]
[[Category:Writers from Victoria (state)]]