Mary Jane Mander (9 April 1877 – 20 December 1949) was a New Zealand

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

Early life

Born in the small community of Ramarama south of

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

, she had little schooling, yet was teaching at primary school while being tutored for a high school education. Her father, the Hon.

Francis Mander Francis Mander (1849 – 27 August 1942) was a member of parliament in New Zealand, first as an Independent Conservative and then, from 1909, as a Reform Party member. He won the Marsden electorate in Northland in the 1902 general e ...

, was member for the Marsden electorate in the

Parliament of New Zealand The New Zealand Parliament ( mi, Pāremata Aotearoa) is the unicameral legislature of New Zealand, consisting of the King of New Zealand (King-in-Parliament) and the New Zealand House of Representatives. The King is usually represented by hi ...

and of the Legislative Council, and a descendant of the Mander family of Midland England. He was a pioneer sawmiller and later purchased ''The Northern Advocate'' newspaper where she honed her skills as a journalist. Mander became editor of the ''Dargaville North Auckland Times'' in 1907. In 1910 she went to

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, where she met and became friends with

William Holman William Arthur Holman (4 August 1871 – 5 June 1934) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1913 to 1920. He came to office as the leader of the Labor Party, but was expelled from the party in the split o ...

, who later become

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. While there she worked as a freelance journalist, submitting articles to the ''

Maoriland Worker The ''Maoriland Worker'', later called ''The Standard'', was a leading New Zealand labour journal of the early 20th century. It was launched in 1910 by the Shearers' Union and was initially published monthly ( Frank Langstone was involved). The ...

'' under the pseudonym Manda Lloyd. In 1912 she moved to

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to study at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where she excelled in studies despite having numerous part-time jobs. Her poor health forced her to abandon studying after just three years. She joined the

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movement in New York, campaigning for the state referendum on women's franchise. She worked for the

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when the United States entered

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Novelist

During this time she also worked on her most well-known and highly praised novel ''The Story of a New Zealand River'' (1920), which tells the story of an Englishwoman who has to adjust to living in an isolated timber-mill settlement. Despite being popular in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom, it received a somewhat hostile response back in New Zealand, where critics disapproved of the novel's unconventional themes. They also took offence at her alteration of geography and population to suit the story.

Alistair Fox Alistair Graeme Fox (born 1948 in Richmond, New Zealand) is a New Zealand scholar, former university administrator and writer who specialises in English Tudor literature and history, New Zealand literature and cinema studies, and contemporary l ...

has argued that ''The Story of a New Zealand River'' was a significant influence on the film ''

The Piano ''The Piano'' is a 1993 historical drama, period drama film written and directed by Jane Campion. Starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin in her first major acting role, the film focuses on a Elective mutism, mute Scott ...

'' (1993) by

Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films ''The Piano'' (1993) and '' The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for which she has received a tot ...

. Her next two novels, ''The Passionate Puritan'' (1921) and the less popular ''The Strange Attraction'' (1922) were both based around her childhood experiences in New Zealand. In 1923 Mander moved to

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and worked for the Harrison Press of Paris. She wrote numerous essays and short stories, and acted as a London correspondent for multiple New Zealand newspapers. Her next novel, ''Allen Adair'' (1925), was the last set in New Zealand, based around the

kauri ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of 22 species of evergreen tree. The genus is part of the ancient conifer family Araucariaceae, a group once widespread during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, but now largely res ...

gum-digging industry. It centered on the hero's struggle against the middle-class aspirations of his family. Her next two novels, ''The Besieging City'' (1926) and ''Pins and Pinnacles'' (1928), were set in New York and

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respectively. She also completed another novel, but had it destroyed after it was rejected by a publisher. Her health failing, she returned to New Zealand in 1932 where she looked after her elderly father. She attempted to write her seventh novel but only managed a few articles and reviews until her death in Whangarei in 1949 at the age of 72. There is a substantial Jane Mander collection held at

Auckland Libraries Auckland Libraries is the public library system for the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It was created when the seven separate councils in the Auckland region merged in 2010. It is currently the largest public-library network in the Southern He ...

. In March 1937 Mander gave hand-corrected typescripts of four of her novels - ''The strange attraction'', ''Allen Adair'', ''The besieging city'' and ''Pins and pinnacles'' - to the Library. At the same time, she also donated copies of the first edition of her earliest and most famous novel, ''The story of a New Zealand river''. In the early 1970s Dorothea Turner arranged donations of personal papers, travel documents, radio talks and newspaper and magazine clippings (including otherwise hard-to-locate short stories) from Mander's sister, Amy Cross.

Bibliography

articles under the pseudonym of ‘Manda Lloyd’ (1910) * ''The Story of a New Zealand River'' (1920) * ''The Passionate Puritan'' (1921) * ''The Strange Attraction'' (1922) * ''Allen Adair'' (1925) * ''The Besieging City'' (1926) * ''Pins and Pinnacles'' (1928)

References

External links

Real Gold, Treasures of Auckland City Libraries - Jane ManderThe Story of a New Zealand River The Strange Attraction The Passionate Puritan
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mander, Jane 1877 births 1949 deaths Columbia University alumni New Zealand journalists New Zealand women novelists New Zealand suffragists People from Whangārei 20th-century New Zealand novelists 20th-century New Zealand women writers