Marion Knowles
{{Short description|Australian journalist, poet, writer and Catholic charity worker}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Marion Knowles
| honorific_suffix = MBE
| pseudonym = John Desmond, Aunt Patsy
| birth_name = Marion Miller
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1865|08|08|df=y}}
| birth_place = Woods Point, Victoria, Australia
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1949|09|16|1865|08|08|df=y}}
| death_place = Camberwell, Victoria, Australia
| resting_place = Brighton Cemetery
| occupation = Novelist, poet, journalist
| nationality = Australian
| children = 2 sons
| image = Marion Knowles.tif
}}
Marion Miller Knowles {{post-nominals|country|AUS|MBE}} (1865–1949) was an Australian journalist, poet, writer and Catholic charity worker.
Early life and education
Born on 8 August 1865 in the Victorian gold-mining town of Woods Point, Knowles was the daughter of James and Anne (née Bowen) Miller. Her father was a storekeeper.{{cite news|date=14 June 1910|title=Women's World.|page=3|newspaper=The Herald (Melbourne)|issue=10,803|location=Victoria, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242086755|access-date=26 August 2020|via=National Library of Australia}}{{Citation|last=Close|first=Cecily|title=Knowles, Marion (1865–1949)|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/knowles-marion-6988|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|place=Canberra|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=2020-08-26}}
Career
She was a journalist for the Melbourne Advocate for 30 years and conducted the Women’s and Children’s pages until her retirement in 1927. She also was a charity worker for the Melbourne Catholic Orphanage and the Wattle Day appeals.{{Cite news|date=1927-07-15|title=Mrs. Marion Miller Knowles.|pages=8|work=Southern Cross (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167802944|access-date=2020-01-17}}
In 1893 her first poems appeared in The Australasian under the name "John Desmond".
In 1931 she received a pension from the Commonwealth Literary Fund.{{Cite news|date=1931-08-06|title=Commonwealth Literary Fund|pages=1292|work=Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (National : 1901 - 1973)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232186875|access-date=2020-01-17}}
Knowles was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1938 Birthday Honours, being recognised as "a well-known Australian writer of books for girls".{{Cite book|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34518/supplement/3685|title=The London Gazette|year=1938|pages=3703}}
Works
= Novels =
- Barbara Halliday: A story of the hill country of Victoria (1896)
- Corinne of Corall's Bluff (1912)
- The Little Doctor (1919)
- The House of Garden of Roses (1923)
- Meg of Minadong (1926)
- Pierce O'Grady's Daughter (1928)
- Pretty Nan Hartigan (1928)
= Poetry =
- Songs from the Hills (1898)
- Fronds from the Black's Spur (1911)
- Roses on the Window Sill (1913)
- A Christmas Bouquet (1915)
- Shamrock Sprays (1916)
- Songs from the Land of the Wattle (1916)
- Love, Luck and Lavender (1919)
- Christmas Bells (1919)
- Ferns and Fancies (1923)
- Selected Poems (1935), republished in two volumes:
- The Harp of the Hills (1937)
- Lyrics of Wind and Wave (1937)
= Short stories =
- Shamrock and Wattle Bloom: A series of short tales and sketches (1900)
Personal
Knowles married Joseph Knowles at St Patrick’s Cathedral on 19 September 1901.{{cite news|date=12 October 1901|title=Family Notices|page=9|newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne)|issue=17,240|location=Victoria, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9611990|access-date=26 August 2020|via=National Library of Australia}} Her husband died on 18 June 1918 at a private hospital in Melbourne, aged 60.{{cite news|date=29 June 1918|title=Family Notices|volume=L|page=18|newspaper=Advocate|issue=2388|location=Victoria, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article152187387|access-date=26 August 2020|via=National Library of Australia}}
Knowles died on 16 September 1949 and was survived by her two sons, Adrian and William. Following a requiem mass at the Sacred Heart Church in Kew, she was buried in Brighton Cemetery.{{cite news|date=17 September 1949|title=Family Notices|page=41|newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne)|issue=32,150|location=Victoria, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22779285|access-date=26 August 2020|via=National Library of Australia}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knowles, Marion}}
Category:20th-century Australian journalists
Category:20th-century Australian poets
Category:20th-century Australian novelists
Category:Australian women writers
Category:20th-century Australian women
Category:Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Writers from Victoria (state)
Category:19th-century Australian women
Category:19th-century Australian poets