Margaret Scott (New Zealand author)

Margaret Scott
Born
Margaret Allan Bennett

(1928-01-27)27 January 1928
Te Aroha, New Zealand
Died4 December 2014(2014-12-04) (aged 86)
Dunedin, New Zealand
Occupation
  • Writer
  • editor
  • librarian
EducationBA, Victoria University of Wellington
Subject
Years active1967–2010
Notable awardsKatherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship
1971
Spouse
Harry Scott
(m. 1950; died 1960)
Children3

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Margaret Allan Scott (née Bennett; 27 January 1928 – 4 December 2014) was a New Zealand writer, editor and librarian. After her husband's early death in 1960, she trained as a librarian, and was appointed as the first manuscripts librarian at the Alexander Turnbull Library. She was the second recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship in 1971.

Scott completed the transcription and editing of the notebooks of Katherine Mansfield, a task made difficult by Mansfield's eclectic handwriting. Her work led to the publication of five volumes of Mansfield's letters between 1984 and 2008, and two volumes of Mansfield's notebooks in 1997. In 2001 she published her memoir. She was a friend of many literary New Zealanders, including Charles Brasch and Denis Glover, and completed the transcription of Brasch's journals before she died in 2014.