Bill Pearson

William Harrison Pearson (18 January 1922 – 27 September 2002) was a New Zealand fiction writer, essayist and critic, known for his novel Coal Flat, published in 1963.

Early life Bill Pearson was born in Greymouth and began writing at an early age, writing for the children's page of the Christchurch Star-Sun. He completed a BA in English at the Canterbury University College in 1939 and trained as a teacher at Dunedin Training College. He taught briefly at Blackball Primary School in 1942. He served in World War II between 1942 and 1946, firstly in the dental corps in Fiji, then in the infantry in Egypt, Italy and Japan.

Career Pearson completed his MA at Canterbury University and edited the student newspaper Canta in 1948. He spent time as a research fellow in the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra from 1967 to 1969.

A well-reviewed biography by Paul Millar entitled No Fretful Sleeper: A Life of Bill Pearson was published in 2010. The cover of the book is an oil painting of Pearson by Heather "Herry" Perry in 1952.

Personal life Pearson had a close relationship with the Māori university community during his tenure at the University of Auckland.

He was also a social activist and pacifist during the 1950s and 1960s. He was a member of the New Zealand Peace Council and edited their magazine Peace. He belonged to CND, the Council for Racial Equality (CARE) and the Auckland Council of Civil Liberties, and edited Here and Now magazine.

Works Attitudes to the Maori in some Pakeha fiction (1958) Coal Flat (1963), full text at the NZETC Collected stories, 1935–1963 / by Frank Sargeson; with an introduction by Bill Pearson (1964) Henry Lawson among Maoris (1968) Brown man's burden, and later stories / by Roderick Finlayson; edited and introduced by Bill Pearson (1973) Fretful Sleepers and Other Essays (1974), full text at the NZETC Rifled sanctuaries : some views of the Pacific Islands in western literature to 1900 (1984) Six stories (1991)