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'Mary Helena Fortune (c. 1833–1909) was a pioneer Australian crime fiction writer. At a time when marriage and domesticity still largely defined women's lives, in her autobiographical journalism Fortune freely admitted to being selffinancing. She claimed that her tea tasted better when she remembered that she has "earned every penny of the money that bought it." It was unusual for a Victorian woman. And as her memoirs and journalistic prose testify, Fortune was anything but usual. The story of her life, her writing, her husbands, sons and lovers is extraordinary, and was potentially dangerous for Fortune, given the hypocritical morals of the time. Thus, being fully aware of the webs the Victorian society set for independent flies, Fortune wrote under a pseudonym of Waif Wander which sheltered her, and protected her income. Her memoirs, partly fictionalised, a common Victorian genre, reveal an extraordinary woman and extraordinary times in Australian history.' (Publication abstract)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
- 'I shall tell just such stories as I please' : Mary Fortune and the Australian Journal 2007 single work criticism
- A Literary Fortune 2014 single work criticism
- Continent of Mystery : A Thematic History of Australian Crime Fiction 1997 single work criticism
- The Fortunes of Mary Fortune 1989 selected work autobiography prose
- Women Writers and Detectives in Nineteenth-Century Crime Fiction : The Mothers of the Mystery Genre 2010 single work criticism