• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: AWE3740

Palmer, Janet Gertrude (Nettie)

  • Birth name Higgins, Janet Gertrude
(1885 – 1964)
  • Born 18 August 1885, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
  • Died 19 October 1964
  • Occupation Author, Critic, Editor, Journalist, Print journalist

Summary

Nettie Palmer became involved in the suffrage movement and the socialist movement while she was completing her tertiary studies in London. It was there that she met her husband, Vance Palmer, and by 1917 the couple had returned to Australia with their first daughter, Aileen. A second daughter, Helen, was born that year. The family lived at Emerald, Victoria. Both Vance and Nettie were opponents of censorship and conscription, and Nettie had a regular column in the Argus. She also wrote for the Illustrated Tasmanian Mail and the Bulletin Red Page. Her essay on Modern Australian Literature 1900-1923 was published in 1924. Nettie Palmer became editor of the anti-fascist journal for women, Women Today, and edited memoirs, published short stories and poetry anthologies, made translations, and lectured to young writers.

Events

  • 1910 - 1930
  • 2001

    Inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women

Archival resources

  • Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection
    • Miles Franklin - Papers, 1841-1954
    • Dowell O'Reilly - Papers, 1884-1923, with additional family papers, 1877-1944
    • [Collection of pamphlets containing souvenir concert programmes and Australian biographies.]
  • National Library of Australia, Manuscript Collection
    • Papers of Eleanor Dark, 1910-1974 [manuscript]
    • Papers of Vance and Nettie Palmer, 1889-1964 [manuscript]
    • Letters and articles by Nettie Palmer, 1928-1937 [manuscript]
    • Notebook of Nettie Palmer, 1911 January 25-March 4 [manuscript]
    • Commonplace book of Nettie Palmer, 1907-1936 [manuscript]
  • State Library of Victoria
    • Papers, ca. 1930-1987. [manuscript].

Published resources

  • Resource Section
  • Edited Book
    • 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology, Radi, Heather, 1988
    • An Australian Story-Book, Palmer, Nettie, 1930
    • Letters of Vance and Nettie Palmer, 1915-1963, Smith, Vivian, 1977
  • Booklet
    • Australians in Spain: Our Pioneers Against Fascism, Palmer, Nettie and Len Fox, 1948
  • Book
    • Fourteen Years: Extracts from a Private Journal, 1925-1939, Palmer, Nettie, 1948
    • Henry Handel Richardson: A Study, Palmer, Nettie, 1950
    • Shadowy Paths, Palmer, Nettie, 1915
    • The South Wind, Palmer, Nettie, 1914
    • Talking It Over, Palmer, Nettie, 1932
  • Lecture
    • Modern Australian Literature (1900-1923), Palmer, Nettie, 1924
  • Site Exhibition
  • Resource

Related entries


  • Mother
    • Palmer, Helen Gwynneth (1917 - 1979)
  • Related Women
    • Moss, Alice Frances Mabel (May) (1868 - 1948)
  • Friend
    • Jollie-Smith, Christian Brynhild Ochiltree (1885 - 1963)
  • Daughter
    • Palmer, Aileen Yvonne (1915 - 1988)
  • Related Organisations
    • Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne (1875 - )