Vera Gladys Dwyer (23 February 1889 – 10 September 1967) was an Australian novelist. She also contributed stories to magazines and newspapers.

Life

Dwyer was born in Hobart on 23 February 1889, the second daughter of reporter, George Lovell Dwyer and Margaret Jane (née Shield). Her older sister, Ella Maggie Dwyer (9 March 1887 – 6 September 1979), became a printmaker who also designed bookplates. She was educated at

Friends School Friends schools are institutions that provide an education based on the beliefs and testimonies of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). This article is a list of schools currently or historically associated with the Society of Friends, reg ...

in Hobart, but when the family moved to Sydney by 1902 where her father joined the ''Evening News'' she was taught by governesses. At age nine, she wrote to "Aunt Mary", editor of the Children's Column in the Perth weekly, the '' Western Mail'', sharing a very short story called "The Clock". The following year she began writing to "Dame Durden" (

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), who in December 1899 accepted her story "Earwigs and Apricots" for publication in '' Australian Town and Country Journal''. She became a regular contributor to '' Australian Town and Country Journal'' and to the ''

Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser ''The Sydney Mail'' was an Australian magazine published weekly in Sydney. It was the weekly edition of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' newspaper and ran from 1860 to 1938. History ''The Sydney Mail'' was first published on 17 July 1860 by Joh ...

.'' In 1913 Dwyer's first book, ''With Beating Wings'', was published by Ward, Lock & Co., as one of "their favourite Australian Gift Books, uniform with the works of Ethel Turner,

Lilian Turner Lilian Turner (21 August 1867 – 25 August 1956) was an Australian writer. Biography Lilian Wattnall Burwell was born 21 August 1867. She was the elder sister of Ethel Turner and the daughter of Bennett George and Sarah Jane Burwell. Bennett G ...

and Mary Grant Bruce". The reviewer for the ''Adelaide Mail'' wrote "Vera G. Dwyer can write a really good story, and if this is her first book we shall look with interest for further work from her pen". Immediately following the outbreak of World War I, Dwyer wrote "Arms and the Girl", a patriotic story which was sold to raise money for the Patriotic Fund. Her third book, ''A War of Girls'', was described by the new book reviewer for ''The Age'' as having "a beautiful simplicity and naturalness about this sparkling tale of the school and the home". She married Lt. Warwick Coldham Fussell in on 26 October 1915, just three weeks before he left Australia to serve overseas. They divorced in 1925. Her fourth novel, ''Conquering Hall'', was not so favourably received. ''The Sun'' used "Vera Dwyer Fails" as a subheading, while the Newcastle Morning Herald wrote that it was "not a novel that one can conscientiously make a pleasant fuss about". Dwyer died in

Roseville Roseville may refer to: Australia *Roseville, New South Wales Canada * Roseville, Ontario Malta * RoseVille (aka Villa Roseville), a house in Attard, Malta South Africa *Roseville, Pretoria, a suburb United Kingdom *Roseville, Dudley United S ...

on 10 September 1967.

Selected works

* ''With Beating Wings'', 1913 * ''Mona's Mystery Man'', 1914 * ''A War of Girls'', 1915 * ''Conquering Hall'', 1916 * ''The Kayles of Bushy Lodge'', 1922 * ''The Marches Disappear'', 1929 * ''House of Conflict'', 1933 * ''In Pursuit of Patrick'', 1933 * ''The Stolen Ghost'', 1943 (republished in 1947 as ''The Banished Lovers'')

References

External links

Collected articles by Vera Dwyer
in The Australian Newspaper Fiction Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Dwyer, Vera 1889 births 1967 deaths 20th-century Australian women writers People educated at The Friends' School, Hobart