Amy Eleanor Mack (6 June 1876,

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

– 4 November 1939,

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

), also known as Amy Eleanor Harrison and Mrs. Launcelot Harrison, was an Australian writer, journalist, and editor. She was honorary secretary of the National Council of Women of New South Wales. She is best known as a children's author of such books as ''Bushland stories'' (1910) and ''Scribbling Sue'' (1914) and others, as well as a journalist and an editor of ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

.''

Life

Amy Eleanor Mack was born on 6 June 1876 in Port Adelaide and was one of thirteen children in the family. Her father, Rev. Hans Hamilton Mack was a

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

minister from

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, Ireland, and her mother Jemima, née James, was from

Armagh Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...

. Due to his work her father was required to move every three years, therefore the family lived in various places in South Australia and New South Wales. They left South Australia in 1878, then spent three years at Morpeth and Windsor, New South Wales, and finally settled in Sydney in 1882. Mack was educated at the

Sydney Girls High School Sydney Girls High School (abbreviated as SGHS or Sydney Girls) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Single-sex school, single-sex Selective school (New South Wales), academically selective secondary school, secondar ...

. Her older sister Louise and younger sister Gertude were also writers. Mack married Professor Launcelot Harrison on 29 February 1908. The couple did not have children. In 1914 they moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

where Harrison did postgraduate work at

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. During

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Mack's husband served in the

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while she moved to London. In 1919 the Harrisons returned to Australia and lived in

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, New South Wales. Between 1920 and 1923 Mack was an honorary secretary of the National Council of Women of New South Wales. She was also the first woman on the council of the Institute of Journalists in New South Wales and the only woman ever elected as vice-president of the institute. Amy Eleanor Mack died of

arteriosclerosis Arteriosclerosis, literally meaning "hardening of the arteries", is an umbrella term for a vascular disorder characterized by abnormal thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of arteries; this process gradually restricts th ...

on 4 November 1939 in St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney and was cremated with

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

forms.

Work

Soon after graduating from Sydney Girls High School Mack started working as a freelance journalist. In 1907 she became an editor of the 'Women's Page' of the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' and remained in this position till 1914. In 1909 Mack published her first book, ''A Bush Calendar,'' that consisted of her nature articles that previously appeared in the ''Sydney Morning Herald.''

In 1910, Mack published three collections of short stories for children: ''Waterside Stories'', ''Birdland Stories'' and ''Bushland Stories.'' These stories were adopted for supplementary reading in primary schools and were considered the best of their kind produced in Australia by that time. Though the publisher was not sure about the success of the children's books and produced them economically with no illustrations, Mack's books found an immediate audience within the schools where nature studies had been recently added to the primary school curriculum. ''Bushland Stories'' became so popular that it was reprinted eleven times by 1940. In 1911, the book ''Bush Days,'' another collection of Mack's essays for adults from the ''Sydney Morning Herald'', was published. In 1914 she published a children's book ''Scribbling Sue'' that became as popular as ''Bushland Stories,'' and 80,000 copies of both books were sold by 1930. In 1916 and 1917 Mack worked in London in the

Ministry of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis o ...

as a public relations officer for the welfare section. After that she was a publicity officer for the Ministry of Food in London. In 1922 Mack published another book for adults, ''The Wilderness.'' After her husband died in 1928 Mack continued to publish occasional articles. Mack's books can be found in libraries throughout the world, including the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

, the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

, the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

and others.

Books

* ''A Bush Calendar'' (1909) * ''Bushland Stories'' (1910, volume 1) * ''Birdland Stories'' (1910, volume 2) *''Waterside Stories'' (1910, volume 3) *''Bush Days'' (1911) *''Scribbling Sue and Other Stories'' (1914) *''The Tom-Tit's Nest'' (1914) *''The Wilderness'' (1922) *''The Fantail's House'' (1928, volume 1) *''The Gum Leaf That Flew: And Other Stories of the Australian Bushland'' (1928, volume 2) *''Why the Spinebill's Beak is Long'' (1928, volume 3) *''The Little Black Duck'' (1928) *''The Flower Fairies'' (1928) *''The Bird's Concert'' (1928)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mack, Amy Australian women journalists 20th-century Australian women writers Australian women short story writers 1876 births 1939 deaths Australian women novelists 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian short story writers 20th-century Australian non-fiction writers 20th-century Australian journalists Australian women children's writers Australian children's writers People educated at Sydney Girls High School The Sydney Morning Herald people