by Whispering Gums A review of Louise Mack’s debut novel, The world is round     ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Over the last two months we have posted four posts on Louise Mack (1870-1935) – a short biography, followed by an example of her journalistic writing in January,  and then a combined review of her two novels, Teens and Girls together, followed by a short story of hers in February. This month, we look at another novel. The world is round Louise Mack’s debut novel, The world is ..read more

by Agnes Murphy (1865-1931) On Wednesday, Teresa Pitt posted an article on this fascinating author, in which she referred to the following poem. Published posthumously in June 1831, it was prefaced by this editorial note: “This, the last and one of the few poems the late Agnes Murphy wrote, was written to and for, one very, very dear to her. We are privileged to being able to publish the poem here for the first time.” As Teresa commented, “One wonders…whether the editor of the Advocate quite understood the message of the poem.” To Aimee In a dream I heard a message From the Herald of the night ..read more

by Teresa Pitt At the turn of the twentieth century there was a considerable cohort of independent single women, engaged in writing and in first wave feminism: Catherine Helen Spence, Rose Scott, Miles Franklin, Mary Fullerton, Vida Goldstein to name a few. To this list we must add Agnes Murphy. Agnes Gillian Murphy (1869-1931) was a pioneering and much-travelled female journalist, networker, music promoter and author who wrote the first-ever biography of Dame Nellie Melba. She was also a fierce Irish nationalist. And she was almost certainly a lesbian, although she never described herself as ..read more

by Catherine Helen Spence (1825-1910) This extract from Spence’s first novel, Clara Morison: A Tale of South Australia During the Gold Fever (1854) is from Chapter XX, describing the effect on South Australia of the goldrushes to Victoria. Clara is working as a servant for Mrs Bantam, in suburban Adelaide, and is friends with the young women next door. But, before Christmas, changes came upon the colony, from which neither Mrs. Bantam, nor the family next door, nor any other family in town or country, could escape. There had been for some months, as has already been hinted, a stagnation of bus ..read more

by Bill Holloway Following Emma’s review of Catherine Helen Spence’s autobiography last week, here is my review of Spence’s first novel. Every time I read an excellent book off my own shelves – and it happens surprisingly often – I wonder what took me so long to get to it. I guess because it’s old (and because Spence seems a bit ponderous) I was expecting Clara Morison to be stodgy. I was wrong. When I reviewed Charlotte Brontë’s The Professor [in The Australian Legend] I made some references to Clara Morison but a better comparison would be between Catherine Helen Spence and Elizabeth Gaskel ..read more

by Catherine Helen Spence Spence’s science fiction novel, A week in the future, was first published in 1888. We originally intended to publish the following to accompany Bill’s piece on the book in January, but somehow the scheduling got mixed up. The extract is taken from the novel’s opening. I have often observed that unmarried people, old maids and old bachelors, take a keener interest in old family history, and in the ramifications of the successive generations from the most remote ancestors they can claim, than those who form the actual links in the chain of descent, and leave child ..read more

by Emma|Book Around the Corner French blogger Emma follows up her review last year of Catherine Helen Spence’s Mr Hogarth’s Will (1865) with a review of Spence’s An Autobiography (1910). Catherine Helen Spence (1825-1910) was a Scottish-born Australian writer, journalist, social worker and political militant. After reading her novel Mr Hogarth’s Will (1865), a novel I described as Austenian, feminist and progressist, I wanted to know more about the woman who wrote it [and so discovered An Autobiography, completed from her diaries after her death by her companion Jeanne Lewis, and readily avail ..read more

by Bella Lavender, née Guerin (1858-1953) Sonnet (suggested by the W.P.A. cable to the Albert Hall meeting on 10th April, 1913) by Bella Lavender, M.A. More free art thou in prison than the race Of sordid men who sell for gain or greed Our free-born sisters in their hour of need, And cling by perfumed vows to pay and place; Nor see in deeds like these their own disgrace. The cause of woman’s freedom, once begun, Must grow in radiance, like the rising sun, And clothe its leader’s name with deathless grace. More free art thou in prison! Glorious thought! That holds the galling fetters but as na ..read more

by Elizabeth Lhuede Another in our series of forgotten Australian women writers: Bella Guerin (1858-1923). Back in February, the Trove Facebook page posted the question, “Have you used Trove to research women’s history?” Accompanying the post was a photo of a group of women medical students at the University of Melbourne in 1887. It reminded me that, in my efforts to compile the archives, I’d stumbled over several poems written by the first female graduate of Melbourne University, Bella Guerin. In honour of International Women’s Day this month, it seems good a time to give Guerin her due. Bell ..read more

by Louise Mack (1870-1935) A proud country school teacher meets his match in a pupil’s equally proud mother. When Ernest Rawson, B.A., was appointed to the head-mastership of Waradgeree Superior Public School, the town hugged itself complacently, and imagined its children’s names in the Sydney dailies among the lists of candidates who had passed the Junior with many A’s. Jimmie Rush, the chemist’s son, had “got through” last year with 3 B’s: Elinor Manning, the eldest daughter of the C.P.S., had passed with 2 A’s and 2 B’s, and had won immortality and the silver medal for geography; John Sande ..read more