Beatrice Grimshaw

Beatrice Ethel Grimshaw (3 February 1870 – 30 June 1953) was a writer and traveller of Irish origin, for many years based in Papua New Guinea.

Beatrice Grimshaw (1907)

Life

She was born in Cloona House[1] in Dunmurry, County Antrim, Ireland into a well-to-do family. She was educated privately, at Victoria College, Belfast, in Caen, France, then Bedford College, London and Queen's College, Belfast and never graduated,[2] though it was later claimed she had been a lecturer in Classics at Bedford Women's College.[3] Her family were members of the Church of Ireland, but she converted to Catholicism after leaving home.

She worked for various shipping companies and then as a freelance journalist in Dublin. At the height of the Bicycle Craze she contacted Richard J. Mecredy, the proprietor of the Dublin-based Irish Cyclist, expressing her interest in cycling and journalism. in 1891 she became a contributor to the magazine and two years later she became sub-editor. She then took over the magazine's sister publication, the Social Review, which she edited until 1903.[4] But she had long harboured a desire to see the Pacific Ocean, and in 1904 she was engaged by the (London) Daily Graphic to report on the Pacific islands,[2] reportedly sailing around the Pacific islands in her own cutter.[3] She was commissioned to write publicity for Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, and Tonga.[2] In 1907 she sailed to Papua on a commission from The Times and the Sydney Morning Herald,[2] but remained for twenty-seven years, much of the time at Rona Falls.[5][6] She became a close friend of Sir Hubert Murray and his unofficial publicist. She joined exploration parties and managed plantations, including one with her brother Ramsay.[2]

She also corresponded with Alfred Deakin- Australia's second, fifth and seventh Prime Minister regarding her work in the Pacific.

In 1936, in company with brothers Ramsay and Osborne[2] she retired to Kelso, New South Wales, where she remained for the rest of her life.

Her writing hasa been the subject of some academic study, mostly about the exotic view of her life and topics.[7] There has also been a study of her writing technique, particularly with proverbs, focusing on The Sorcerer's Stone.[8]

Films

Publications

She wrote some 46 books, all out of print, including:

  • Broken Away (1897)[2]
  • Vaiti of the Islands (1907) a novel
  • From Fiji to the Cannibal Islands (1907)
  • In the Strange South Seas (1908)
  • The New New Guinea (1910) Online access
  • When the Red Gods Call (1911) her best known novel
  • The Sorcerer's Stone (1914) (ASIN: B009NNHHTM) Online access
  • Coral Queen (1919)
  • White Savage Simon (1919)
  • Queen Vaiti New South Wales Bookstall Co. Ltd., 1920
  • The Little Red Speck (short stories) Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., Melbourne, 1922[10]
  • The Sands of Oro (1923)
  • Nobody's Island (1923)
  • Conn of the Coral Seas Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., Melbourne, 1922[11]
  • The Candles of Katara (1925 short stories)[12]
  • Isles of Adventure (1930) about her own travels

Sources
  • The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature (2nd ed.) Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1994

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-09-03. Retrieved 2012-04-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. Laracy, Hugh. Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 8 October 2018 – via Australian Dictionary of Biography.
  3. "Beatrice Grimshaw". The Queenslander. 22 October 1921. p. 3. Retrieved 28 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. Grimshaw, Beatrice (1930). Isles of Adventure. London: Herbert Jenkins.
  5. "Miss Beatrice Grimshaw". The Cairns Post. Qld. 25 June 1925. p. 4. Retrieved 29 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. Duncan, Joyce. 2002. Ahead of Their Time: A Biographical Dictionary of Risk-taking Women, pp. 171-172. Greenwood Publishing Group.
  7. Academic evaluations of her work
  8. Unseth, Peter. 2020. Beatrice Grimshaw's proverb splicer and her artful usage of proverbs. Proverbium 37:341-358.
  9. "Beatrice Grimshaw". IMDb.com. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  10. "Beatrice Grimshaw". The Queenslander. 4 March 1922. p. 3. Retrieved 28 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. "Beatrice Grimshaw". The Queenslander. 29 July 1922. p. 3. Retrieved 28 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. "Beatrice Grimshaw". The Queenslander. 18 July 1925. p. 3. Retrieved 28 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
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