Alison Hope Hewitt (known as Hope) spent her childhood and youth in New Zealand and Australia. She studied arts at Sydney University, fine arts at Sydney Technology College and, in the early 1950s, gained a degree in commerce from the University of Melbourne. Hewitt also studied painting in Paris in the late 1930s and undertook Shakespearean studies in England in the 1960s.
In 1948, Hewitt was appointed to teach English at the Canberra University College (later the Australian National University); she became senior lecturer in 1965 and remained in that position until her retirement in 1981. In addition to her univeristy position, Hewitt also contributed book and theatre reviews to the Canberra Times while continuing with her own writing.
Hewitt was married to the distinguished federal public servant Sir Lenox Hewitt. (One of their four children, Patricia Hewitt, served as Secretary for Health in Tony Blair's cabinet.)
In addition to her poetry and short fiction, Hewitt also wrote works of non-fiction, including Canberra's First Schoolhouse: A Social History of Canberra's First School, Now St John's Schoolhouse Museum 1845-1986 (1987) and the biography A Man's Man: Letters and Some Recollections of Lieut. George Lacey Lee, M.C. (1987).
Sources include: 'Pioneering Lecturer, Mother Whose Mentor Was Famed Poet', Canberra Times (24 March 2011): 12.
