Vera Dwyer

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Vera Dwyer
BornVera Gladys Dwyer
(1889-02-23)23 February 1889
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Died10 September 1967(1967-09-10) (aged 78)
St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia

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

Life[edit]

Dwyer was born in Hobart on 23 February 1889, the second daughter of reporter, George Lovell Dwyer and Margaret Jane (née Shield).[1] Her older sister, Ella Maggie Dwyer (9 March 1887[2] – 6 September 1979),[3] became a printmaker who also designed bookplates.[4] She was educated at Friends School in Hobart, but when the family moved to Sydney by 1902 where her father joined the Evening News she was taught by governesses.[5][6]

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".[7] The following year she began writing to "Dame Durden" (Ethel Turner), who in December 1899 accepted her story "Earwigs and Apricots" for publication in Australian Town and Country Journal.[8][9] She became a regular contributor to Australian Town and Country Journal[10][11] and to the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser.[12][13]

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 and Mary Grant Bruce".[14] 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".[15]

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.[16][17] 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".[18]

She married Lt. Warwick Coldham Fussell in on 26 October 1915,[19] just three weeks before he left Australia to serve overseas.[20] They divorced in 1925.[21]

Her fourth novel, Conquering Hall, was not so favourably received. The Sun used "Vera Dwyer Fails" as a subheading,[22] while the Newcastle Morning Herald wrote that it was "not a novel that one can conscientiously make a pleasant fuss about".[23]

Dwyer died in Roseville on 10 September 1967.[21]

Selected works[edit]

  • 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[edit]

  1. ^ "Libraries Tasmania - RGD33-1-16". stors.tas.gov.au. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  2. ^ "Libraries Tasmania - RGD33-1-15". stors.tas.gov.au. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  3. ^ "Family notices: Deaths". The Sydney Morning Herald. 11 September 1979.
  4. ^ "Ella Maggie Dwyer". Design and Art Australia Online. Archived from the original on 6 January 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  5. ^ May, Bernice (19 June 1928), "Vera Dwyer", The Australian Woman's Mirror, 4 (30), The Bulletin Newspaper, retrieved 6 January 2022
  6. ^ "Princess Spinaway's Department". Australian Town and Country Journal. Vol. LXIV, no. 1666. New South Wales, Australia. 11 January 1902. p. 40. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "Correspondence". Western Mail. Vol. XIII, no. 665. Western Australia. 30 September 1898. p. 51. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "Answers to Correspondents". Australian Town and Country Journal. Vol. LIX, no. 1560. New South Wales, Australia. 30 December 1899. p. 40. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ Dwyer, Vera (13 January 1900). "Earwigs and Apricots". Australian Town and Country Journal. Vol. LX, no. 1562. New South Wales, Australia. p. 39. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "Princess Spinaways Department". Australian Town and Country Journal. Vol. LXXIII, no. 1907. New South Wales, Australia. 22 August 1906. p. 29. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ "Princess Spinaways Department". Australian Town and Country Journal. Vol. LXXIV, no. 1931. New South Wales, Australia. 6 February 1907. p. 33. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ "Young Folks". The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser. Vol. LXXVIII, no. 2243. New South Wales, Australia. 2 November 1904. p. 1127. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^ "Young Folks". The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser. Vol. LXXXII, no. 2343. New South Wales, Australia. 3 October 1906. p. 904. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ "Commonwealth Rolls". Eastern Districts Chronicle. Vol. XXXVI, no. 13. Western Australia. 28 March 1913. p. 3. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ "Four New Australian Books". The Mail (Adelaide). Vol. 2, no. 76. South Australia. 11 October 1913. p. 9. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "Afraid of the Bayonet". The Sun. No. 596. New South Wales, Australia. 30 August 1914. p. 3. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ "Town Hall Red Cross Concert". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 23, 924. New South Wales, Australia. 12 September 1914. p. 14. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "New Books". The Age. No. 18, 911. Victoria, Australia. 30 October 1915. p. 6. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ "Family Notices". Evening News. No. 15, 122. New South Wales, Australia. 27 November 1915. p. 6. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ^ "Scenes I Vividly Remember". Australian Town and Country Journal. New South Wales, Australia. 8 December 1915. p. 49. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  21. ^ a b "Dwyer, Vera Gladys". The Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  22. ^ "Books of the Day". The Sun. No. 716. New South Wales, Australia. 17 December 1916. p. 21. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  23. ^ "Publications Received". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate. No. 13, 145. New South Wales, Australia. 20 December 1916. p. 4. Retrieved 6 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.

External links[edit]

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