AustLit

Edwin Hodder wrote children's fiction, and edited the children's annual Merry and Wise from 1865 to 1872, under the pseudonym Old Merry. He wrote biographies of British and Australian historical figures and religious stories, such as The Book-Stall Boy of Batherton (1880s). Hodder also published social commentary, histories of Australian regions and travel literature. He spent the years 1856-61 in New Zealand and presumably visited Australia during that period. His works were serialised in nineteenth-century Australian journals and newspapers including the Illawarra Mercury.