WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand author Janet Frame, hailed for work described as a mighty exploration of human consciousness after years blighted by a misdiagnosis of mental illness, died on Thursday after a battle with cancer, media said.
Frame, 79, the recipient of numerous literary awards and a frequent prospect for the Nobel Literature Prize, revealed last December that she was suffering from acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
"While her humility was renowned, she was a most engaging personality with a wickedly funny sense of humor and a generosity of spirit," Prime Minister Helen Clark said in a statement paying tribute to Frame's contribution to literature.
Born in Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand in 1924, Frame chronicled her sometimes tortured life in a famed three-part autobiography later turned into the film "An Angel at my Table" by Oscar-winning director Jane Campion.
Early in her life Frame was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, undergoing electric shock treatment in mental hospitals, and coming close to having a lobotomy.
Frame published her first book, The Lagoon and Other Stories, in 1951, and her first novel, Owls Do Cry, in 1957. In total she wrote 11 novels, five short story collections, a collection of poetry and an autobiography.
She was awarded the Order of New Zealand, named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and won innumerable literary awards in New Zealand and internationally.
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