M. Barnard Eldershaw
Encyclopedia
M. Barnard Eldershaw was the pseudonym
used by the twentieth century Australian literary collaborators Marjorie Barnard
(1897-1987) and Flora Eldershaw
(1897-1956). In a collaboration that lasted two decades from the late 1920s to the late 1940s, they published 5 novels, 3 histories, a radio drama, a collection of short stories, and several collections of critical essays and lectures.
Flora Eldershaw and Marjorie Barnard were active in the Australian literary scene of the 1930s and 1940s. Through their lectures and reviews and their active participation in the Fellowship of Australian Writers
, they played an important role in the development of Australia's "literary infrastructure".
. Marjorie Barnard wrote of their first meeting as being
While Marjorie Barnard spent most of the 1920s to 1940s living at home with her parents, Flora Eldershaw resided at the schools where she taught. Dale Spender
writes that
, Xavier Herbert
, Leslie Rees, Tom Inglis Moore, Miles Franklin
, Vance Palmer and Kylie Tennant
.
Literature was not the only subject discussed at their "salon". Guests included peace activists such as Lewis Rodd and Lloyd Ross, and Frank Dalby Davison said that his pamphlet "While freedom lives" grew out of "social discussions at the M. Barnard Eldershaw salon".
Barnard and Eldershaw were not part of the Bohemian circle as practised, for example, by Norman Lindsay
, but this was not due to "petty bourgeois morality". Rather, it was because of "their expressed desire to promote the local literary product and force recognition of it from the prevailing cultural establishment". They were, in fact, highly active in promoting Australian writers and Australian literature - through the Fellowship of Australian Writers
and other formal and informal activities. This and their approach to writing and criticism
They were both also part of Nettie Palmer's literary circle. She corresponded with and encouraged both of them, and she recognised the importance of their partnership. She wrote
The partnership became harder to maintain after Eldershaw moved to Canberra in 1941. However, as well as still providing each other support, they were able to produce their last collaborative novel Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
While it is generally accepted that Barnard was the more expressive writer of the two, and that Eldershaw contributed her acute critical sense, Rorabacher also states that in their early collaborative novels it is impossible to distinguish their separate contributions. Overall, Barnard did more of the creative writing while Eldershaw focused on the structure and development of their major works. However, because Eldershaw was the more outgoing and articulate of the two, it was frequently assumed, at the time, that she was the dominant partner. This did not spoil their partnership, which lasted two decades, bearing testament to the fact that both derived value from it.
, in response to seeing an advertisement for The Bulletin
prize. It went on to win this prize in 1928, shared with Katharine Susannah Prichard
's Coonardoo. A House is Built was originally serialised in The Bulletin
under the title, The Quartermaster. They could not find a publisher for it in Australia, so it was first published in England. It is an historical novel set in the nineteenth century, and focuses on the restricted lives of middle-class women of the era. Goldsworthy suggests that through this approach they also reflected "the dilemma of middle-class women in their own time, still largely denied the right to work and independence".
The Glasshouse, a novel about shipboard life on a Norwegian boat travelling to Australia, was also first published in England.
winner for literature, Patrick White
. It is set in the 24th century and features Knarf (a novelist and historian whose name is an inversion of Frank Dalby Davison's first name). The book is essentially a story-within-a-story, with much of it comprising an historical novel, written by the character Knarf, about "old" Australia from 1924-1946.
It was, however, censored for political reasons at the time: the censors demanded that 400 lines be cut, including references to "National Security regulations and how they contradicted the democratic principles for which the war was supposedly being fought". In 1952, in Federal Parliament, W. C. Wentworth
described it as "a trashy, tripey novel, with a Marxist slant". Spender argues that it stands "firmly in the tradition" of women writers like Aphra Behn
, Harriet Beecher Stowe
and Elizabeth Gaskell
who "have utilised fiction as a means of urging society to create a better world". It was not published in its entirety until Virago Press
reissued it in 1983.
There has been discussion in literary circles about how collaborative this novel is, fuelled partly by later comments by Barnard. This is despite significant evidence to the contrary, including Barnard's asking Palmer to obtain Eldershaw's signature as well as her own for his copy. In later years Barnard claimed that Eldershaw's removal to Canberra in 1941 broke down their collaboration on the novel, although in 1941 she wrote to Palmer that "we're not going to let a little thing like distance interfere with collaboration. It's a pity the new book isn't further along". Dever argues that there is significant evidence for Eldershaw's active involvement in the novel, including correspondence from the publisher referring to them both, and Eldershaw's later letter to Miles Franklin in which she commented on "the awful effort of having to close up the gaps left by the censor and adapting the ending".
, Katharine Susannah Prichard
, Leonard Mann
, Martin Boyd
(under his pseudonym Martin Mills), Christina Stead
and Eleanor Dark
.
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
used by the twentieth century Australian literary collaborators Marjorie Barnard
Marjorie Barnard
Marjorie Faith Barnard AO was an Australian novelist and short story writer, critic, historian - and librarian. She went to school and university in Sydney, and then trained as a librarian...
(1897-1987) and Flora Eldershaw
Flora Eldershaw
Flora Sydney Patricia Eldershaw was an Australian novelist, critic and historian. With Marjorie Barnard she formed the writing collaboration known as M. Barnard Eldershaw...
(1897-1956). In a collaboration that lasted two decades from the late 1920s to the late 1940s, they published 5 novels, 3 histories, a radio drama, a collection of short stories, and several collections of critical essays and lectures.
Flora Eldershaw and Marjorie Barnard were active in the Australian literary scene of the 1930s and 1940s. Through their lectures and reviews and their active participation in the Fellowship of Australian Writers
Fellowship of Australian Writers
The Fellowship of Australian Writers, also known as FAW, was established in Sydney in 1928. Its aim is to bring writers together and promote their interests...
, they played an important role in the development of Australia's "literary infrastructure".
Collaborative life
Marjorie Barnard met Flora Eldershaw, who was a year ahead of her, in her first year at the University of SydneyUniversity of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. Marjorie Barnard wrote of their first meeting as being
[N]ot entirely happy. I was the greenest of green 'freshers'. Flora was established in her second year. Chance had given me the locker immediately above hers. Its untidy contents frequently spilled out into her more ordered domain. My then meager person was continually underfoot, and Flora's brown eyes flashed with indignation more often than they smiled. But within the year we were close friends. She widened my horizons and quickened my mind. Later this friendship was to withstand what everyone agrees to be the acid test of collaboration in writing.
While Marjorie Barnard spent most of the 1920s to 1940s living at home with her parents, Flora Eldershaw resided at the schools where she taught. Dale Spender
Dale Spender
Dale Spender is an Australian feminist scholar, teacher, writer and consultant.-Early life:Spender was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, a niece of the crime writer Jean Spender . The eldest of three, she has a younger sister Lynne, and a much younger brother Graeme. She attended the Burwood...
writes that
"with so little encouragement, opportunity - or inclination, given the demands of the day - she [Marjorie Barnard] and Flora Eldershaw ... still managed to write their classic Australian novel A House is BuiltHowever, in 1936, when they were both thirty-nine, Barnard and Eldershaw also took a flat in Potts Point providing them with space for independence. Here, they held regular gatherings which operated something like a literary salon. Many of the leading literary and cultural figures of the time visited the flat. These included Frank Dalby DavisonA House is BuiltA House is Built is the first novel of "M. Barnard Eldershaw", the pen names of Marjorie Barnard and Flora Eldershaw. It was written as a result of their seeing an advertisement for The Bulletin prize. The novel won this prize in 1928, shared with Katharine Susannah Prichard's Coonardoo...
(1929), and another, Green Memory (1933)".
Frank Dalby Davison
Frank Dalby Davison , also known as F.D. Davison and Freddie Davison, was an Australian novelist and short story writer...
, Xavier Herbert
Xavier Herbert
Xavier Herbert was an Australian writer best known for his Miles Franklin Award-winning novel Poor Fellow My Country . He is considered one of the elder statesmen of Australian literature...
, Leslie Rees, Tom Inglis Moore, Miles Franklin
Miles Franklin
Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, known as Miles Franklin was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel My Brilliant Career, published in 1901...
, Vance Palmer and Kylie Tennant
Kylie Tennant
Kathleen Kylie Tennant AO was an Australian novelist, playwright, short-story writer, critic, biographer and historian.-Life and career:Tennant was born in Manly, New South Wales; she was educated at Brighton College in Manly and Sydney University, though she left without graduating...
.
Literature was not the only subject discussed at their "salon". Guests included peace activists such as Lewis Rodd and Lloyd Ross, and Frank Dalby Davison said that his pamphlet "While freedom lives" grew out of "social discussions at the M. Barnard Eldershaw salon".
Barnard and Eldershaw were not part of the Bohemian circle as practised, for example, by 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....
, but this was not due to "petty bourgeois morality". Rather, it was because of "their expressed desire to promote the local literary product and force recognition of it from the prevailing cultural establishment". They were, in fact, highly active in promoting Australian writers and Australian literature - through the Fellowship of Australian Writers
Fellowship of Australian Writers
The Fellowship of Australian Writers, also known as FAW, was established in Sydney in 1928. Its aim is to bring writers together and promote their interests...
and other formal and informal activities. This and their approach to writing and criticism
"had the effect of mainstreaming writing by women, incorporating it into the wider body of Australian letters, rather than confining it to the limited range of culturally sanctioned 'feminine' forms like romance and children's writing".
They were both also part of Nettie Palmer's literary circle. She corresponded with and encouraged both of them, and she recognised the importance of their partnership. She wrote
"It isn't easy for an outsider to understand how a literary partnership is carried on but in this case it seems to work well ... Any difference in the characters of the two women doesn't make for a difference in their point of view or values".
The partnership became harder to maintain after Eldershaw moved to Canberra in 1941. However, as well as still providing each other support, they were able to produce their last collaborative novel Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
While it is generally accepted that Barnard was the more expressive writer of the two, and that Eldershaw contributed her acute critical sense, Rorabacher also states that in their early collaborative novels it is impossible to distinguish their separate contributions. Overall, Barnard did more of the creative writing while Eldershaw focused on the structure and development of their major works. However, because Eldershaw was the more outgoing and articulate of the two, it was frequently assumed, at the time, that she was the dominant partner. This did not spoil their partnership, which lasted two decades, bearing testament to the fact that both derived value from it.
Novels
Barnard and Eldershaw wrote their first collaborative novel, A House is BuiltA House is Built
A House is Built is the first novel of "M. Barnard Eldershaw", the pen names of Marjorie Barnard and Flora Eldershaw. It was written as a result of their seeing an advertisement for The Bulletin prize. The novel won this prize in 1928, shared with Katharine Susannah Prichard's Coonardoo...
, in response to seeing an advertisement for The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
prize. It went on to win this prize in 1928, shared with Katharine Susannah Prichard
Katharine Susannah Prichard
Katharine Susannah Prichard was an Australian author and co-founding member of the Communist Party of Australia.-Biography:...
's Coonardoo. A House is Built was originally serialised in The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
under the title, The Quartermaster. They could not find a publisher for it in Australia, so it was first published in England. It is an historical novel set in the nineteenth century, and focuses on the restricted lives of middle-class women of the era. Goldsworthy suggests that through this approach they also reflected "the dilemma of middle-class women in their own time, still largely denied the right to work and independence".
The Glasshouse, a novel about shipboard life on a Norwegian boat travelling to Australia, was also first published in England.
Green Memory
Green Memory, published in 1931, is a period novel set in 1850s Sydney, and deals with the lives of two sisters. A report on a 1931 meeting of the Canberra Society of Arts and Literature describes a lecture by Kenneth Binns on Green Memory in which he says the book "not only delights but ... also adds dignity and significance to Australian letters". He praises the characterisation of both the main and secondary characters, and describes Barnard and Eldershaw as "masters of vivid, picturesque yet dignified writing".Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Their final collaborative novel, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, published in 1947 as Tomorrow and Tomorrow, is considered to be one of Australia's major early science fiction novels and was highly regarded by Australia's only Nobel PrizeNobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner for literature, Patrick White
Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
. It is set in the 24th century and features Knarf (a novelist and historian whose name is an inversion of Frank Dalby Davison's first name). The book is essentially a story-within-a-story, with much of it comprising an historical novel, written by the character Knarf, about "old" Australia from 1924-1946.
It was, however, censored for political reasons at the time: the censors demanded that 400 lines be cut, including references to "National Security regulations and how they contradicted the democratic principles for which the war was supposedly being fought". In 1952, in Federal Parliament, W. C. Wentworth
William Wentworth
William Charles Wentworth was an Australian poet, explorer, journalist and politician, and one of the leading figures of early colonial New South Wales...
described it as "a trashy, tripey novel, with a Marxist slant". Spender argues that it stands "firmly in the tradition" of women writers like Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...
, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
and Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
who "have utilised fiction as a means of urging society to create a better world". It was not published in its entirety until Virago Press
Virago Press
Virago is a British publishing company founded in 1973 by Carmen Callil to publish books by women writers. Both new works and reissued books by neglected authors have featured on the imprint's list....
reissued it in 1983.
There has been discussion in literary circles about how collaborative this novel is, fuelled partly by later comments by Barnard. This is despite significant evidence to the contrary, including Barnard's asking Palmer to obtain Eldershaw's signature as well as her own for his copy. In later years Barnard claimed that Eldershaw's removal to Canberra in 1941 broke down their collaboration on the novel, although in 1941 she wrote to Palmer that "we're not going to let a little thing like distance interfere with collaboration. It's a pity the new book isn't further along". Dever argues that there is significant evidence for Eldershaw's active involvement in the novel, including correspondence from the publisher referring to them both, and Eldershaw's later letter to Miles Franklin in which she commented on "the awful effort of having to close up the gaps left by the censor and adapting the ending".
Drama
Barnard and Eldershaw wrote several stage and radio plays. Their first radio play, The Watch on the Headland, was broadcast on the ABC on 7 July 1940 as part of their Sunday Competition Play series. The subject of the play was the early days of settlement in Sydney. The competition winners were announced on 30 September 1940, with Barnard Eldershaw's play being placed 2nd.Histories
In one of their histories, My Australia (1939), they argue a case for Australia's future saying that "nothing corrupts a people more quickly than the opportunity to make a profit out of their fellows".Essays and lectures
A major and still well-regarded work is their Essays in Australian Fiction (1938). This book contained critical essays on Henry Handel RichardsonHenry Handel Richardson
Henry Handel Richardson, the pseudonym used by Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, was an Australian author. She took the name "Henry Handel" because at that time, many people did not take women's writing seriously, so she used a male name...
, Katharine Susannah Prichard
Katharine Susannah Prichard
Katharine Susannah Prichard was an Australian author and co-founding member of the Communist Party of Australia.-Biography:...
, Leonard Mann
Leonard Mann
-Life:He served in the Australian Imperial Force during World War I, and with the Department of Aircraft Production in World War II.-External links:*...
, Martin Boyd
Martin Boyd
Martin à Beckett Boyd was a member of Australia’s most prolific artistic dynasty of painters, sculptors, potters, writers, architects, graphic designers and musicians....
(under his pseudonym Martin Mills), Christina Stead
Christina Stead
Christina Stead was an Australian novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and penetrating psychological characterisations.-Biography:...
and Eleanor Dark
Eleanor Dark
Eleanor Dark was an Australian author whose novels included Prelude to Christopher and Return to Coolami , both winners of the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for literature, and her best known work The Timeless Land .-Life and career:Eleanor Dark was born in Sydney...
.
Novels
- A House is Built (1929)
- Green Memory (1931)
- The Glasshouse (1936)
- Plaque with Laurel (1937)
- Tomorrow and tomorrow (1947, and then published in full as Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, 1983)
Short story collections
- Coast to Coast 1946 (1947, ed.)
- But not for Love (1988, unpublished in their time, edited by Robert Darby)
Histories
- Phillip of Australia (1938)
- The Life and Times of Captain John Piper (1939)
- My Australia (1939)