Mary Elizabeth Kathleen Dulcie Deamer (13 December 1890 – 16 August 1972) was an Australian novelist, poet, journalist and actor. She was a founder and a committee member of the Fellowship of Australian Writers

Fellowship of Australian Writers

The Fellowship of Australian Writers, also known as FAW, was established in Sydney in 1928. Its aim is to bring writers together and promote their interests...

.

Life

She was born in Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, New Zealand, daughter of George Edwin Deamer, a physician from Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, and his New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

-born wife, Mable Reader. Dulcie Dreamer was taught at home by her mother, who had been a governess.

Dulcie Dreamer was known as the "Queen of Bohemia" due to her involvement with Norman Lindsay

Norman Lindsay

Norman Alfred William Lindsay was an Australian artist, sculptor, writer, editorial cartoonist, scale modeler, and boxer. He was born in Creswick, Victoria....

's literary and artistic circle, the Bohemian world of Kings Cross

Kings Cross, New South Wales

Kings Cross is an inner-city locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 2 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney...

, Sydney, and vaudeville.

Dreamer died at the Little Sisters of the Poor

Little Sisters of the Poor

The Little Sisters of the Poor is a Roman Catholic religious order for women. It was founded in the 19th century by Saint Jeanne Jugan near Rennes, France. Jugan felt the need to care for the many impoverished elderly who lined the streets of French towns and cities.This led her to welcome an...

, Randwick, New South Wales

Randwick, New South Wales

Randwick is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Randwick...

, aged 81. Her daughter, the theologian Rosemary Goldie

Rosemary Goldie

Rosemary Goldie AO was an Australian Roman Catholic theologian.Goldie was the first woman to serve in an executive role in the Roman Curia; she was undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 1967 until 1976...

, died there as well, three decades later.

Novels

• The Suttee of Safa (New York, 1913)
• Revelation (London, 1921)
• The Street of the Gazelle (London, 1922)
• The Devil's Saint (London, 1924)
• Holiday (1940)

Sources

• Adelaide, Debra (1988) Australian women writers: a bibliographic guide (London: Pandora)

External links

• Australian Dictionary of Biography entry