by Bill Holloway

 An annotated list of Australian women writers who began writing after WWI, during the Depression, and up to the end of the fifties/early sixties, when Women’s Lib and the ‘sexual revolution’ changed everything.

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As I wrote in my overview of this generation, two new schools of writing took root during this period, Modernism and Social Realism; while the Bush Realism of the Bulletin days morphed into a third school, which persists to today, and  which I suppose we might call Australiana, encompassing Bush Fiction, Pioneering and Historical Fiction.

I have listed the authors, a bit arbitrarily probably, by ‘school’, and then by order of their date of birth.

It is impossible to write about this period and leave out Nettie Palmer, poet and critic, who maintained a constant correspondence with (and visited) every writer she could persuade to write back. Which was most of them. Every student of this period should have a copy of her Letters, Vivian Smith ed. (1977).

Also worth mentioning is the initially Sydney based Fellowship of Australian Writers founded by Mary Gilmore in 1928 and which for some years before WWII featured the triumvirate Flora Eldershaw, Marjorie Barnard, Frank Dalby Davison. Other members, in Sydney and around Australia included Dymphna Cusack, Miles Franklin, Nettie Palmer and KS Prichard. (Whispering Gums)

A number of major literary prizes commenced during this period – the Bulletin/Prior, the ALS Gold Medal and the Miles Franklin. To the extent that I could find them I have listed the winners up to 1960.

Modernism

Zora Cross (1890-1964) ADB

Songs of Love and Life (1917) (Jonathan Shaw)

Cathy Perkins, The Shelf Life of Zora Cross (2019) (The Resident Judge)

Lesbia Harford (1891-1927) ADB, Wiki

Collected Poems, 1908-1927 (Slant Postscripts)

Christina Stead (1902-1983) ADB

The Salzburg Tales, 1934 (wadh)
Seven Poor Men of Sydney, 1934
The Beauties and Furies, 1936
House of All Nations, 1938
The Man Who Loved Children, 1940
For Love Alone, 1944
Letty Fox Her Luck, 1946 (wadh)
A Little Tea, A Little Chat, 1948
The People with the Dogs, 1952
Dark Places of the Heart, 1966 (pub. in England as Cotters’ England, 1967) (wadh)
The Puzzleheaded Girl, 1967
The Little Hotel, 1973 (wadh)
Miss Herbert (The Suburban Wife), 1976 (wadh)
Ocean of Story, 1985
I’m Dying Laughing, 1986

more reviews, Christina Stead page (ANZLL)

Susan Lever, Christina Stead’s Workshop in the Novel: How to Write a “Novel of Strife” (wadh)
Chris Williams, Christina Stead: A Life of Letters, 1989 (wadh)

Eleanor Dark (1901-1985) ADB

Juvenilia (1916-19) (Whispering Gums)
Slow Dawning (1932) (Debbie Robson)
Prelude to Christopher (1934)
Return to Coolami (1936)
Sun Across the Sky (1937)
Waterway (1938) (wadh)
The Little Company (1945) (ANZLitLovers)(Buried in Print)
The Timeless Land (1941) (Neil@Kallaroo)
Storm of Time (1948)
No Barrier (1953)
Lantana Lane (1959) (Book Around the Corner)(Grab the Lapels)

Meg Brayshaw, The Quiet Brilliance of Eleanor Dark here
Debbie Robson, Waiting for Eleanor Dark, here

Eve Langley (1904-1974) ADB wadh

The Pea Pickers (1942) (Whispering Gums) (This Reading Life)
White Topee (1954)
Wilde Eve (1999) 

Jessica Anderson (1916-2010) Wiki

Tirra Lirra by the River (1978) (wadh)

Elizabeth Harrower (1928-2020 ) Wiki

The Watchtower (1966) (Whispering Gums)
In Certain Circles (2014) (Whispering Gums)
A Few Days in the Country and other stories (2015) (Whispering Gums)

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Social Realism

Katharine Susannah Prichard (1883-1969) ADB (Nathan Hobby)

The Pioneers (1915) (Nathan Hobby) (Whispering Gums) (wadh)
Windlestraws (1916) (Nathan Hobby)
Black Opal (1921) (Nathan Hobby) (ANZLitLovers)
Working Bullocks (1926) (Nathan Hobby)
The Wild Oats of Han (1928) (Nathan Hobby) (This Reading Life)
Coonardoo (1929) (Nathan Hobby) (ANZLitLovers)
Haxby’s Circus (1930) (Nathan Hobby) (ANZLitLovers)
Intimate Strangers (1939) (Nathan Hobby) (wadh)
Moon of Desire (1941)
The Roaring Nineties (1946) (Buried in Print)(Nathan Hobby)
Golden Miles (1948) (Nathan Hobby)
Winged Seeds (1950) (Nathan Hobby)
Subtle Flame (1967) (Nathan Hobby)
Kiss on the Lips and Other Stories (1932) (Nathan Hobby)
Potch and Colour (1944) (Nathan Hobby)
N’Goola and other Stories (1959) (Nathan Hobby)
Child of the Hurricane (1964), Autobiog. (Nathan Hobby) (wadh)

Ric Throssell, Wild Weeds and Windflowers (1975), Biog. (Nathan Hobby)
Nathan Hobby, Katharine Susannah Prichard in the 1940s and 50s, here
Nathan Hobby, The Red Witch (2022) wadh

Jean Devanny (1894-1962) ADB

The Butcher Shop (1926)
Sugar Heaven (1936) (ANZLitLovers)
full bibliography (here)

Catherine Edmonds (1900-1960) ADB

Caddie (1953) (wadh)

Cusack & James

Four Winds and a Family (1946)
Come in Spinner (1951/1988) (wadh)

Dymphna Cusack (1902-1981) ADB

Jungfrau (1936) (Whispering Gums) (wadh)
Say No to Death (1951) (wadh) (The Resident Judge)
A Window in the Dark, memoir (1991) (Whispering Gums)
full bibliography (here)

Florence James (1902-1993) Wiki

Dorothy Cottrell (1902-1957) ADB

The Singing Gold (1929)
The Mysterious Box, short story Jessica White

Velia Ercole (1903-1978) AustLit Wrote also as Velia Gregory, Margaret Gregory

No Escape (1932) (Monash Uni)
Dark Windows (1934)

Mena Calthorpe (1905-1996) Wiki

The Dye House (1961) Jo-Anne Reid (Whispering Gums)  (Brona’s Books)
The Defectors (1969)
The Plain of Ala (1989)

Kylie Tennant (1912-1988) ADB

Tiburon (1935) (Trove)
The Battlers (1940) (Trove) (Bronwyn)
Ride on Stranger (1943) (wadh)
The Honey Flow (1956) (wadh)
Tell Morning This (1967) (wadh)
full bibliography (here)

Ruth Park (1917-2010) Wiki

The Harp in the South (1948) (ANZLitLovers)
Swords and Crowns and Rings (1977) (Whispering Gums) 
Missus (1985) (Whispering Gums)
The Drums Go Bang (1956) (wadh) (Whispering Gums)
A Fence Around the Cuckoo (1992) (Travellin’ Penguin)
Fishing in the Styx (1993), autobiog. (ANZLitLovers)
full bibliography (here)

Dorothy Hewett (1923-2002) Wiki

Bobbin Up (1959) Kim Forrester
The Toucher (1993) (wadh)
Neap Tide (1999)

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Australiana

Daisy Bates (1859-1951) ADB wadh

The Passing of the Aborigines (1938) (wadh)
3,000 Miles in a Side Saddle, wadh

Mary Louisa (Mollie) Skinner (1876-1955) ADB

Letters of a V.A.D. (1918) here
The Boy in the Bush, with DH Lawrence (1924) (wadh)
The Hand, short story (1924) (Whispering Gums)

The Australian Legend, Writing The Boy in the Bush, here
Whispering Gums, Mollie Skinner and DH Lawrence, here

Miles Franklin (1879-1954)

Miles Franklin page (AWWC)

Olive Pink (1884-1975) ADB

Julie Marcus, The Indomitable Miss Pink (2005) (The Resident Judge)

Nettie Palmer (1885-1964) ADB Non-fiction-

Henry Bournes Higgins (1931)
Talking It Over (1932)
Memoirs of Alice Henry (1944) edited
Fourteen Years : Extracts From a Private Journal 1925-1939 (1948)
Henry Handel Richardson : A Study (1950)
The Dandenongs (1952)
Henry Lawson (1952)
Bernard O’Dowd (1954) with Victor Kennedy
Letters, Vivian Smith ed. (1977)
Journal, Vivian Smith ed. (1988)

Myrtle Rose White (1888-1961) ADB

No Roads Go By (1932) (wadh)

Angela Thirkell (1890-1961) Wiki

Trooper to the Southern Cross (1934) (Whispering Gums) (wadh)

Myra Morris (1893-1966) ADB

Briget Magner, Emily Potter, A talented daughter of the Mallee (ALS Journal)

Joan Lindsay (1896-1984) Wiki

Through Darkest Pondelayo (1936)
Time Without Clocks (1962) memoir (ANZLitLovers)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967)

Helen Simpson (1897-1940) ADB

full bibliography (here)

Whispering Gums, Forgotten Writers 1, Helen Simpson (here)

M Barnard Eldershaw Wiki

A House is Built (1929)
full bibliography (here)

Marjorie Barnard (1897-1987) ADB

The Persimmon Tree, and Other Stories (1943)
A History of Australia (1962)
Miles Franklin: A Biography (1967) (wadh)

Flora Eldershaw (1897-1956) ADB 

Contemporary Australian Women Writers (1931)
Australian Literary Society Medallists (1935)
Australian Writers’ Annual (1936, ed.)
The Peaceful Army: A Memorial to the Pioneer Women of Australia, 1788-1938 (1938)

Jean Curlewis (1898-1930) Wiki (Daughter of Ethel Turner)

full bibliography (here)
Maurice Saxby, Ethel’s Daughter: The Writings of Jean Curlewis here

Ernestine Hill (1899-1972) ADB wadh

The Great Australian Loneliness (1937) wadh
Water into Gold (1937)
My Love Must Wait (1941) (This Reading Life)
Australia: Land of Contrasts (1943)
Flying Doctor Calling (1947)
The Territory (1951)
Kabbarli: A Personal Memoir of Daisy Bates (1973)

Marianne van Velzen, Call of the Outback (2016) biog.(wadh)

Henrietta Drake Brockman (1901-1968) ADB

full bibliography (here)

Jean Campbell (1901-1984) ADB

Dora Birtles (1903-1992) ADB

North-West by North (1935)
The Overlanders (1946) (Luvvie’s Musings)

Mary Durack (1913-1994) Wiki

Kings in Grass Castles (1959)
Robyn Greaves, Mary Durack (1913 1994) A Neglected Voice here
Brensa Niall, True North: The Story of Mary & Elizabeth Durack (Whispering Gums)

Elizabeth O’Conner (1913-2000) Wiki

The Irishman (1960) (ANZLitLovers)

Nene Gare (1919-1994) Wiki

The Fringe Dwellers (1961) (wadh) (ANZLitLovers)

Irene Cheyne Children’s author?

Annette of River Bend, also Annette & co.
The Golden Cauliflower

Gwen Harwood (1920-1995) Wiki

Blessed City (1990)

Charmian Clift (1923-1969) ADB

Walk to the Paradise Gardens (1960)
Honour’s Mimic (1964) (wadh)
Mermaid Singing (1956) memoir (wadh)
Peel Me a Lotus (1959) memoir (wadh)
Images in Aspic, Selected Essays (1965)
Trouble in Lotus Land: Essays 1964-67 (1990) (ANZLitLovers)
(with George Johnston) –
High Valley (1949)
The Big Chariot (1953)
The Sponge Divers (1955)

Whispering Gums, Introducing Charmian Clift (here)

Reference works and essays

Drusilla Modjeska, Exiles at Home: Australian Women Writers 1925-1945 (1981) (wadh)
Dale Spender, Writing a New World: Two Centuries of Australian Women Writers, Pandora, London, 1988 (wadh)
Ann Vickery & Maryanne Dever, Australian Women Writers 1900-1950  (Download pdf)

Related Posts

Forgotten Australian women novelists, Debbie Robson
Australian Women Writers, 1930s, Whispering Gums
Australian Women Writers, 1930s, wadh
1930s, Moving beyond “gumleaf and goanna”, Whispering Gums
The novel in Australia, 1927-style, Part 1,  Whispering Gums
The novel in Australia, 1927-style, Part 2, Whispering Gums
The Future of Australian Literature (Vance Palmer, 1935), Whispering Gums
Monday Musings: Realism and Modernism, Whispering Gums

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Bulletin/SH Prior Prize winners (Wiki)

Bulletin
1928 M Barnard Eldershaw, A House is Built, KS Prichard, Coonardoo
1929 Vance Palmer, The Passage
1930
1931
1932 Velia Ercole, No Escape (Trove)
1933
1934
Prior
1935 Kylie Tennant, Tiburon
1936 Miles Franklin, All That Swagger
1937 not awarded
1938  ”   “
1939 Miles Franklin & Kate Baker, Who Was Joseph Furphy? (wadh)
1940 Eve Langley, The Pea Pickers, Kylie Tennant, The Battlers, MH Ellis, Lachlan Macquarie (biog.)
1941 not awarded
1942 Gavin S. Casey, It’s Harder for Girls
1943 not awarded
1944  ”   “
1945 Douglas Stewart, The Fire on the Snow
1946 Brian James, Cookabundy Bridge
1946 Argus Prize: Frank Dalby Davidson, Dusty
1946 SMH Prize: Ruth Park, The Harp in the South
1947
1948 G Johnston & C Clift, High Valley

ALS Gold Medal winners (Wiki)

1928 Martin Boyd, The Montforts
1929 Henry Handel Richardson, Ultima Thule
1930 Vance Palmer, The Passage
1931 Frank Dalby Davidson, Man Shy
1932 Leonard Mann, Flesh in Armour
1933 Edith Lyttleton (writing as GB Lancaster), Pageant
1934 Eleanor Dark, Prelude to Christopher
1935 Winifred Burkett, Earth’s Quality
1936 Eleanor Dark, Return to Coolami
1937 Seaforth Mackenzie, The Young Desire It
1938 RD Fitzgerald, Moonlight Acre
1939 Xavier Herbert, Capricornia
1940 William Baylebridge, This Vital Flesh
1941 Patrick White, Happy Valley
1942 Kylie Tennant, The Battlers
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948 Herz Bergner, Between Sky and Sea
1949 Percival Serle, Dictionary of Australian Biography
1950 Jon Cleary, Just Let Me Be
1951 Rex Ingamells, The Great South Land: An Epic Poem
1952 Tom Hungerford, The Ridge and the River
1953
1954 Mary Gilmore, Fourteen Men
1955 Patrick White, The Tree of Man
1956
1957 Martin Boyd, A Difficult Young Man
1958
1959 Randolph Stow, To the Islands

Mile Franklin Award Winners (Wiki)

1957 Patrick White, Voss
1958 Randolph Stow, To the Islands
1959 Vance Palmer, The Big Fellow
1960 Elizabeth O’Conner, The Irishman