Early life

Rowlandson was born at Daylesford, Victoria

Daylesford, Victoria

Daylesford is a town located in the Shire of Hepburn, Victoria, Australia. It is a former goldmining town about 115 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. At the 2006 census, Daylesford had a population of 3,073...

, the second surviving son of Arthur Hodgson Rowlandson, an Indian-born goldminer, and his wife Susan Sophia (née Black), born in Brechin, Scotland. A. C. Rowlandson was educated at Northcote State School and then the Superior Normal School, Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 after the family moved to Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

. In 1877 he began working as a shop boy.
In 1878 another move was made to Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, where Rowlandson was employed as an office boy with an indent agent.

Career

In 1883, at 17, Rowlandson joined the staff of the New South Wales Bookstall Company, and was employed as a tram ticket seller at the office at the corner of King Street

King Street, Sydney

King Street is today the central thoroughfare of the suburb of Newtown in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It's in this street that the residents of the area are most visible, confirming Newtown's reputation as a cosmopolitan community with a higher than average concentration of students,...

 and Elizabeth Street

Elizabeth Street, Sydney

Elizabeth Street is a street in Sydney, Australia.-Description and history:Elizabeth Street runs south from Hunter Street, past Hyde Park and David Jones, Central station and through the inner city suburbs of Surry Hills, Redfern, Waterloo and Zetland...

s. He was promoted to cashier and then manager. When the proprietor Henry Lloyd died in 1897, Rowlandson bought the business from the widow and conceived the idea of selling Australian books at one shilling each. In spite of his belief that there was a market for cheap Australian books the prospects were not encouraging. Australians generally had not much faith in the value of the work of their novelists, and it seemed unlikely that books could be sold in large editions in a country with a population still under 4,000,000 when Rowlandson began publishing at the turn of the century. An early transaction was the unprecedented fee of £500 for the copyright of Sandy's Selection by Steele Rudd

Steele Rudd

Steele Rudd was the pseudonym of Arthur Hoey Davis an Australian author, best known for On Our Selection.-Early life:...

, which meant that about 20,000 copies had to be sold before a penny of profit could come in. The book broke even and Rowlandson also spent comparatively large sums in readers' fees, and among the many distinguished artists employed as illustrators were Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Alfred William Lindsay was an Australian artist, sculptor, writer, editorial cartoonist, scale modeler, and boxer. He was born in Creswick, Victoria....

, Lionel Lindsay

Lionel Lindsay

Sir Lionel Arthur Lindsay was an Australian artist and brother of artist and illustrator Norman Lindsay.-Early life:...

, Percy Lindsay

Percy Lindsay

Percival Charles Lindsay was an Australian landscape painter, illustrator and cartoonist, born in Creswick, Victoria. Percy was the first child born to Jane Lindsay and Dr Robert Charles Lindsay...

, Ruby Lindsay

Ruby Lindsay

Ruby Lindsay was an Australian illustrator and painter, sister of Norman Lindsay and Percy Lindsay.Lindsay was born in Creswick, Victoria, the seventh child and second daughter of Robert and Jane Lindsay, and lived in Melbourne from the age of 16 with her brother Percy while studying at the...

, David Low, Percy Spence and Will Dyson

Will Dyson

]William Henry Dyson was an Australian illustrator and political cartoonist.-Early life:Dyson was born at Alfredton, near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, the son of George Dyson, then a hawker and later a mining engineer, and his wife Jane, née Mayall. Dyson was educated at state schools at...

. He published works by A H Adams

Arthur Henry Adams

Arthur Henry Adams was a journalist and author. He started his career in New Zealand, though he spent most of it in Australia, and for a short time resided in China and London.-Biography:...

, J A Barry

John Arthur Barry

John Arthur Barry was a journalist and author.Barry was born in Torquay, Devonshire, England, in 1850. His parents died when he was young, and he went to sea at 13 after persuading his guardian and was in the merchant service for 12 years.Leaving with a first mate's certificate, Barry came to...

, Louis Becke,
Randolph Bedford

Randolph Bedford

Randolph Bedford was an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer and Queensland state politician.-Early life:...

, E J Brady, George Cockerill, Edward Dyson

Edward Dyson

Edward George Dyson was an Australian journalist, poet, playwright and short story writer. He was the elder brother of talented illustrators Will Dyson and Ambrose Dyson.-Early life:...

, Beatrice Grimshaw

Beatrice Grimshaw

Beatrice Grimshaw was a writer based in Papua New Guinea.She was born in Dunmurry, County Antrim, Ireland. She worked as a freelance journalist in Dublin from 1891-1903 before moving to Papua, where she was to remain for twenty-seven years, and a close friend of Sir Hubert Murray.In 1936, she...

, Sumner Locke

Sumner Locke Elliott

Sumner Locke Elliott was an Australian novelist.-Biography:Elliott was born in Sydney to the writer Helena Sumner Locke and the journalist Henry Logan Elliott. His mother died of eclampsia one day after his birth...

, Vance Palmer, Ambrose Pratt

Ambrose Pratt

Ambrose Goddard Hesketh Pratt was an Australian writer born into a cultivated family in Forbes, New South Wales....

, T E Spencer

Thomas Edward Spencer

Thomas Edward Spencer was an Australian building contractor and writer.Born at Hoxton Old Town London, his parents were Daniel O'Brien, a cabinetmaker, and Ann, née Coulthard. Thomas came to Australia, visiting the Victorian goldfields in 1863 with a brother, but returned to England a year later...

 and A G Stephens among others. Postcards included paintings by Neville Cayley

Neville Henry Cayley

Neville Henry Peniston Cayley was an Australian artist. He was born in Dover in south-east England, and migrated to Australia with his family around 1882. Through his meticulous and attractive watercolours of iconic species, he contributed greatly to public awareness of Australian birds. He was...

.
He may have been the author (as 'Paul Cupid') of a 1909 novel The Rival Physicians.
As a result of increased costs during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 the copy price of the books was increased to one shilling and threepence, but it was lowered to one shilling again as soon as possible.

Late life and legacy

Rowlandson, who had to work extremely hard to keep control of a business worked on a small margin of profit, became ill early in 1922, and taking a voyage to North America for the sake of his health was unable to land when he arrived at San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

. On his way back to Australia he was taken to a private hospital at Wellington, New Zealand, and died following diabetic complications after an operation for appendicitis

Appendicitis

Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...

 on 15 June 1922. He was buried in Gore Hill

Gore Hill, New South Wales

Gore Hill is an urban locality on the North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Gore Hill is located in the western part of the suburb of St Leonards....

cemetery, Sydney, leaving a widow, son, daughter and an adopted daughter.

In just over 20 years of publishing Rowlandson issued around 5,000,000 copies of books by about 70 authors, illustrated by over 30 artists, and left a name for just dealing not surpassed by any other publisher.