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Alice Grant Rosman (50 works by) (a.k.a. Alice Trevenen Grant Rosman; Alice Trevenen Rosman )
Also writes as: Aunt Tabitha ; Australasian ; The Parson's Wife ; Rosna
Born: Established: 18 Jul 1882 Kapunda ; Died: 20 Aug 1961 Highgate
Gender: Female
Expatriate assertion
Roger Osbourne and CH will look further at UK/US publications. AC 17.4.07 Note that in August 1905 Steele Rudd's Magazine gave Rosman's name variously as 'Alicia G. Rosman' and A. G. Rosman (these two appeared on the contents page) and 'Alice Grant Rosman' and 'Alica [sic] Grant Rosman' (these two appeared with her works)...these variations seem to be Steele Rudd's Magazine editorial peculiarities or even typos, rather than AKA's as such...but I'm watching for further developments - rt 6/12/06. Many of her publications came out for the first time in England and America in the same year. Which was first? the first ones. AC 3.4.07 ADB: Alice Grant Rosman's first novels, Miss Bryde of England (1915) and The Tower Wall (1916), made no money; both compared English to Australian ways, to the latter's advantage. In 1927 she retired to write novels: three in ten months resulted. She was taken up by the American firm, Minton, Balch & Co. The Window (1926), published in the United States of America and Britain, saw twelve editions in five months; serial and translation rights were sold. This pattern continued with seventeen novels throughout the Depression until 1939, many selling about 100,000 copies. SSL holds ms of unpublished ?novel. Portrait from The Home 1/1/1926 - rt 26/9/12.

BiographyHistory

Daughter of Trevenen Rosman, accountant, and his wife Alice Mary Bowyer Rosman (q.v), Alice Grant Rosman was born at 'Dreamthorpe', Kapunda, the home of her pioneer grandfather, John Varley, SM. From the age of eight she wrote poetry for competitions. She was educated at the Dominican Convent Cabra. Her first short story was published in the Adelaide Southern Cross, and she contributed numerous sketches, stories and poems to Australian anthologies, newspapers and magazines, including The Native Companion and Lone Hand. Together with Grace E. Burrows, she edited and contributed to The Young Queen (1902-1903), a mimeographed magazine containing short stories, poems and articles for 'girls ... interested in the Girls' Realm Guild and its working'. She had a page of her own in The Gadfly and contributed the Adelaide section of the Woman's Letter in The Bulletin. She had early journalistic experience with C J Dennis and A E Martin on The Gadfly, and was Adelaide correspondent on The Bulletin 1908-1911, writing as "Rosna".

In 1911 Rosman left Adelaide with her mother and sister for London, where they took a flat in Bloomsbury and she worked as a journalist, continuing to contribute to the Bulletin from there. She joined the staff of the British Australasian in 1915, and from 1920 to 1926 was assistant editor of the Grand Magazine.

In 1927 she gave up journalism and devoted herself entirely to writing fiction, producing a large number of popular romances. Her novel The Window ran to twelve editions in five months. Eight of her novels, in succession, became best sellers in the United States. At least four of her novels have Australian connections.

Notes

  • It is conceivable that Rosman was the writer 'Miltaree' (q.v.). See note in that writer's record.
  • The January 1926 issue of the Home contains a brief biographical note accompanied by a portrait of Alice Grant Rosman.
  • See also the full Australian Dictionary of Biography Online entry for Alice Trevenen Rosman, (1882-1961).

Affiliation Notes

  • Born in SA but moved elsewhere