Mary Eliza Fullerton (14 May 1868 – 23 February 1946) was an Australian writer.

Biography

Fullerton was born on 14 May 1868 in Glenmaggie, Victoria. She was educated at home by her mother and at the local state school. After leaving school she stayed on her parents' property, until she moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in her early twenties. She was active in the

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

movement from the 1890s and early 1900s. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

she wrote articles on

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

issues and arguing against

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

for

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

publications. She was a member the

Victorian Socialist Party The Victorian Socialist Party (VSP), also known as the Socialist Party of Victoria, was a socialist political party in the Australian state of Victoria during the early 20th century. Most VSP members were also members of the Australian Labor ...

and the Women's Political Association. She visited England in 1912 and moved there in 1922 with her companion Mabel Singleton. Fullerton died in

Maresfield Maresfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village itself lies 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north from Uckfield; the nearby villages of Nutley and Fairwarp; and the smaller settlements of D ...

, England on 23 February 1946.

Literary career

She wrote stories, articles and verse for magazines and periodicals, sometimes under the pseudonym Alpenstock. She wrote three novels between 1921 and 1925 under her own name, but fearing prejudice against her as a woman without a university education, publication of her two last works in verse, ''Moles do so little with their privacy'' and ''The wonder and the apple'', were published under the pseudonym E. Their publication was arranged by her friend

. Her identity as their author was revealed after her death.

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

References

. *Martin, S. 1998, 'Becoming-Violet: Mary Fullerton's Poetry and Lesbian Desire', Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature 1997, ASAL 1998, pp. 99–104. *Martin, S. 1997, 'Desire in the Love Poetry of Mary Fullerton', ''Hecate'', Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 95–103. *Martin, S. 1996, ''The polygamy of friendship : Mary Fullerton, Mabel Singleton, and Miles Franklin'', Thesis (PhD), Griffith University. *Martin, S. 1994, 'Past All I Know is All I Feel: Mary Fullerton's Poetry and Lesbian Desire', in Kay Ferres, ed. ''Coastscripts: Gender Representations in the Arts'', AIWRAP: Griffith University, pp. 15–26. *Martin, S. 1993, 'Rethinking Passionate Friendships: the Writing of Mary Fullerton', ''

Women's History Review ''Women's History Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal of women's history published by Routledge. The editor-in-chief is June Purvis ( University of Portsmouth) and Sharon Crozier-De Rosa is deputy editor. Abstracting and inde ...

'', Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 395–406.
Precious correspondence from Australian feminist, writer and poet Mary Fullerton
by Jessye Wdowin-McGregor {{DEFAULTSORT:Fullerton, Mary Eliza 1868 births 1946 deaths 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian women writers Australian feminist writers Australian women novelists Australian women poets Australian suffragists 19th-century Australian women writers People from Maresfield 19th-century Australian writers People from the Colony of Victoria

Biography

Archive

Literary career

Bibliography

See also

References

Further reading