Mary Eliza Bakewell Gaunt (20 February 1861 – 19 January 1942) was an Australian novelist, born in

Chiltern, Victoria Chiltern is a town in Victoria, Australia, in the northeast of the state between Wangaratta and Wodonga, in the Shire of Indigo. At the 2016 census, Chiltern had a population of 1,605. It was the birthplace of Prime Minister John McEwan. The t ...

. She also wrote collections of short stories,

novellas A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

autobiographies An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

, and

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

. She published her first novel ''Dave's Sweetheart'' in 1894. Gaunt visited many countries in her life and she wrote about her experiences in five

travel books The genre of travel literature encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. One early travel memoirist in Western literature was Pausanias, a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. In the early modern period ...

Early life and education

Mary was the elder daughter of William Henry Gaunt, a Victorian county court judge and Elizabeth Gaunt, née Palmer (c. 1835–1922), and was born in

. She was educated at Grenville College, Ballarat and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

, being one of the first two women students to be admitted there.

Career

She began writing for the press and in 1894 published her first novel ''Dave's Sweetheart''. In the same year she married Dr Hubert Lindsay Miller (a widower) of

Warrnambool, Victoria Warrnambool (Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (Alla ...

. He died in 1900, and, with only a small income, Gaunt (now also known as Mrs Mary Miller) went to London intending to earn a living by her writing. Gaunt left

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

on 15 March 1901 and never returned. Gaunt had difficulties at first but eventually established herself, and was able to travel in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, in

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

, and in China and other parts of the

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

. Her experiences were recorded in five pleasantly written travel books: ''Alone in West Africa'' (1912), ''A Woman in China'' (1914), ''A Broken Journey'' (1919), ''Where the Twain Meet'' (1922), ''Reflection - in Jamaica'' (1932). In 1929 she also published ''George Washington and the Men Who Made the American Revolution''. Between 1895 and 1934, 16 novels or collections of short stories were published, mostly with love and adventure interests. Three other novels were written in collaboration with John Ridgwell Essex. A collection of interviews with Mary were published in the 1925 ''Girls' Own Annual'' under the headings "Pioneering for Women" parts I, II, and III, and "Strange Journeys I Have Made". From the early 1920s, Gaunt lived mostly at

Bordighera Bordighera (; lij, A Bordighea, locally ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Imperia, Liguria (Italy). Geography Bordighera is located from the land border between Italy and France, and it is possible to see the French coast with a nak ...

, Italy. In 1940 she fled Italy and died at

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

in 1942. She had no children. She had a sister Lucy, and brothers Cecil, Clive, Guy and Ernest; Guy and

Ernest Ernest is a given name derived from Germanic languages, Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious". Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People *Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman ...

were both

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

s of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, and Guy later became a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Bibliography

Novels

* ''

Dave's Sweetheart ''Dave's Sweetheart'' (1894) is a novel by Australian writer Mary Gaunt Mary Eliza Bakewell Gaunt (20 February 1861 – 19 January 1942) was an Australian novelist, born in Chiltern, Victoria. She also wrote collections of short stories, ...

'' (1894) * ''

Kirkham's Find ''Kirkham's Find'' (1897) is a novel by Australian writer Mary Gaunt Mary Eliza Bakewell Gaunt (20 February 1861 – 19 January 1942) was an Australian novelist, born in Chiltern, Victoria. She also wrote collections of short stories, ...

'' (1897) * '' Deadman's: An Australian Story'' (1898) * ''Mistress Betty Carew'' (1903) * ''The Arm of the Leopard: A West African Story'' (1904) ith John Ridgwell Essex* ''Fools Rush In'' (1906) ith John Ridgwell Essex* ''The Silent Ones'' (1909) ith John Ridgwell Essex* ''The Mummy Moves'' (1910) * ''The Uncounted Cost'' (1910) * ''Every Man's Desire'' (1913) * ''A Wind from the Wilderness'' (1919) * ''As the Whirlwind Passeth'' (1923) * ''The Forbidden Town'' (1926) * ''Saul's Daughter'' (1927) * ''The Lawless Frontier'' (1929) * ''Joan of the Pilchard'' (1930) * ''Harmony: A Tale of the Old Slave Days of Jamaica'' (1933) * ''Worlds Away'' (1934)

Novellas

* ''Bingley's Gap'' (1888) * ''Down in the World'' (1893) * ''The Other Man'' (1894)Serialised i
''The Argus'' 13 Oct 1894, page 11
Retrieved 7 June 2014.

Short story collections

* ''The Moving Finger'' (1895) * ''The Ends of the Earth : Stories'' (1915) * ''The Surrender and Other Happenings'' (1920) * ''Life at Deadman's : Stories of Colonial Victoria'' (2001)

Autobiography

* ''Alone in West Africa'' (1912) * ''A Woman in China'' (1914) * ''A Broken Journey: Wanderings from the Hoang-Ho to Saghalien'' (1919)

Non-fiction

* ''Where the Twain Meet'' (1922) - travel * ''Peeps at Great Men : George Washington and the Men Who Made the American Revolution'' (1929) - children's * ''Reflection in Jamaica'' (1932) - travel

Notes and references

Sources

*E. Archer,

, ''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 8, MUP, 1981, pp 632–633. Retrieved 30 October 2008 * *Ausli
Gaunt, Mary (birth name: Gaunt, Mary Eliza Bakewell ) (a.k.a. Miller, Mary )

External links

*

at

Project Gutenberg Australia Project Gutenberg Australia, abbreviated as PGA, is an Internet site which was founded in 2001 by Colin Choat. It is a sister site of Project Gutenberg, though there is no formal relationship between the two organizations. The site hosts free eboo ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaunt, Mary Eliza Bakewell 1861 births 1942 deaths 19th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian novelists Australian women novelists Australian travel writers Women travel writers 19th-century Australian women writers 20th-century Australian women writers 19th-century Australian writers People from the Colony of Victoria