Menie Parkes

Clarinda Sarah Parkes (23 July 1839 – 11 October 1915) was an Australian poet and writer. She was also known as Menie Parkes and wrote under that and a number of other pseudonyms, including Patty Parsley, Alethea, Ariel and C. S. P.

Menie Parkes
BornClarinda Sarah Parkes
(1839-07-23)23 July 1839
at sea, off Cape Howe, New South Wales, Australia
Died11 October 1915(1915-10-11) (aged 76)
Ashfield, New South Wales, Australia
Pen name
  • Patty Parsley
  • Alethea
  • Ariel
  • C. S. P.
RelativesSir Henry Parkes (father)

Biography

Parkes was the daughter of Clarinda (née Varney) and Henry Parkes, later five-time Premier of New South Wales. She was born on board the Strathfieldsaye, off the New South Wales coast, near Cape Howe.[1]

Her first poem appeared in print under her initials, C. S. P., in 1855 in the Empire,[2] a Sydney newspaper owned and edited by her father.[3] In 1859–1860, as Patty Parsley she wrote serialised stories for The Australian Home Companion and Band of Hope Journal.[4] Writing as Ariel, Bitter-Sweet–So Is the World was serialised over 30 weeks in The Sydney Mail in 1860–1861.[5]

On 30 March 1869 Parkes married William Thom, at Werrington.[6] He was a Presbyterian minister and they settled in Pambula, where their first two sons were born,[7][8] before moving to Ballan, near Ballarat in Victoria.

Parkes's last known published work was a reflection, Sydney Sixty Years Since, published in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1910.[9]

Death and legacy

Parkes died at her home in Ashfield, New South Wales on 11 October 1915.[1][10] She was buried in St Thomas' cemetery at Enfield.[11]

In 1983 A. W. Martin edited a collection of Thom's letters to her father, Letters from Menie : Sir Henry Parkes and his daughter.[12]

Works

  • Parkes, Menie (1866), Poems, Sydney: E. Cunninghame

References

  1. "Menie Parkes". The Institute of Australian Culture. 1 September 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  2. "The dream". The Empire. No. 1386. New South Wales, Australia. 19 June 1855. p. 5. Retrieved 12 August 2022 via Trove.
  3. Martin, A. W. "Parkes, Sir Henry (1815–1896)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  4. "Chapters in Pet Perennials". cdhrdatasys.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  5. "Chapters in Bitter-Sweet - So Is the World". cdhrdatasys.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  6. "Family Notices". Empire. 7 April 1869. p. 1. Retrieved 12 August 2022 via Trove.
  7. "Family Notices". Australian Town and Country Journal. 22 January 1870. p. 31. Retrieved 12 August 2022 via Trove.
  8. "Family Notices". Evening News. 17 July 1871. p. 2. Retrieved 12 August 2022 via Trove.
  9. "Sydney Sixty Years Since". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 April 1910. p. 5. Retrieved 12 August 2022 via Trove.
  10. "Personal: death of Mrs Clarinda Sarah Thom". The Northern Star. 19 October 1915. p. 4. Retrieved 22 October 2019 via Trove.
  11. "Family Notices". The Daily Telegraph. 12 October 1915. p. 6. Retrieved 12 August 2022 via Trove.
  12. Parkes, Menie (1983), Martin, A. W. (ed.), Letters from Menie : Sir Henry Parkes and his daughter, Melbourne University Press, ISBN 978-0-522-84222-7
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