Mary Maydwell Martin (20 July 1915 - 25 January 1973) was an Australian bookseller,
founder of the Mary Martin Bookshop.
History
Martin was born in Adelaide to Ernest Montgomerie Martin
AMIEE
The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) was a British professional organisation of electronics, electrical, manufacturing, and Information Technology professionals, especially electrical engineers. It began in 1871 as the Society of Te ...
. (1878–1956) and his wife Lorna Gledstanes Martin, née Jacob, (1889–1973), both associated with the Unitarian Christian Church of
Wakefield Street
Wakefield Street is a main thoroughfare intersecting Adelaide city centre, the centre of the South Australian capital, Adelaide, from east to west at its midpoint. It crosses Victoria Square, Adelaide, Victoria Square in the centre of the city, ...
. Ernest was a son of vigneron
Henry Maydwell Martin and nephew of
Anna Montgomerie Martin; Lorna lost two brothers in
The Great War; a third was awarded the
Military Medal
The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award ...
for bravery and later hounded for his Communist sympathies. Educator
Caroline Jacob
Caroline Jacob (18 January 1861 – 4 November 1940) was a South Australian schoolmistress, remembered in connection with Tormore House School and Unley Park School.
History
Caroline was born at Woodlands near Sevenhill, South Australia, Sevenhi ...
(1861–1940) was a great-aunt.
In 1945 she founded the Mary Martin Book Shop on
Grenfell Street,
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
.
In 1947 she asked
Max Harris to become a partner in the shop, which by then had moved to Alma Chambers, 13 Commercial Place.
Harris agreed; he also made a news-sheet which he called ''Mary's Own Paper'', although it contained his own opinions.
The shop expanded, and by 1955 it was located at 75 Rundle Street; by 1957 it was in a large part of the first floor of the Da Costa Building,
Gawler Place
Gawler Place is a single-lane road in the city centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs north to south from North Terrace to Wakefield Street, parallel to and approximately midway between King William and Pulteney Streets. ...
.
In 1962 Mary decided to move to India for good, having previously visited there in 1952, 1957, and 1961.
Harris became the sole manager of the bookshop, and Mary sold her interests in the firm to him and Yvonne Harris.
After living in Bombay for a time, Mary moved to Bangalore and established an Indian mail-order book business.
Her sister Florence managed the finances from Australia.
She also sold local arts and crafts to
Community Aid Abroad.
She hired T. R. Kesavamurthy as a servant, training him to become the manager of her book business.
In 1965 she and Kesavamurthy moved to Kotagiri, where she hoped the climate would be good for her asthma.
There, in addition to her work with books, she volunteered with the Nilgiris Adivasi Welfare Association.
She was appointed the association's honorary treasurer, and wrote its Newsletter.
A dispensary at Balwadi, India, was named after her, and a memorial fund to continue her welfare work was established in Adelaide, Australia.
The Mary Martin chain was sold to
Macmillans in the late 1970s.
[Samela Harris (2012)]
A life of books – and Mary Martin's
''AdelaideNow'', 2 September 2012. Accessed 5 February 2014. As of 1998 there were four Mary Martin bookshops in Australia, and the Kesavamurthy family ran Mary Martin Booksellers from Coimbatore, India.
Mary Martin Booksellers continues now with their Head Office in Singapore.
Mary was also a foundation member of the South Australian branch of the Contemporary Art Society of Australia, and in 1939 won the Tormore prize for English Literature.
References
Further reading
* Julie Lewis,
Mary Martin: A Double Life: Australia-India, 1915-1973', St. Lucia, Queensland :
University of Queensland Press
Established in 1948, University of Queensland Press (UQP) is an Australian publishing house.
Founded as a traditional university press, UQP has since branched into publishing books for general readers in the areas of fiction, non-fiction, poetr ...
, 1979.
External links
Photo of Mary Martin with Max Harris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Mary Maydwell
Australian booksellers
Australian women in business
1915 births
1973 deaths
20th-century Australian women