Vera Dwyer

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

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

Life

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
  • 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
  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, The Bulletin Newspaper, 4 (30), 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. "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.
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