1. Jane Devanny was a New Zealand writer and communist.
13 Facts About Jean Devanny
1. 2.
Jean Devanny is best known for the novels Sugar Heaven and The Butcher Shop, but she wrote short stories and political papers.
3.
Jean Devanny was a close friend and correspondent of Miles Franklin, Marjorie Barnard and Winifred Hamilton, and was in frequent contact with other Australian writers throughout the mid-20th Century.
4.
In 1948, she approached Mary Gilmore to write a foreword to Travels in North Queensland, but Gilmore declined on the basis that Jean Devanny should write it herself, as 'I have written so many that I have decided not to write any more for a time, as they will have no value by now'.
5.
Jean Devanny joined the Communist Party of Australia in the early 1920s, and had a long-term affair with the general secretary Jack Miles; called "Leader" in her memoirs.
6.
Jean Devanny had had several disagreements with the leadership of the party that led to her expulsion in 1940.
7.
Jean Devanny rejoined the party in 1944, but left permanently in 1950.
8.
Jean Devanny was known to use her novels as a way of expressing ideological concepts and principles.
9.
Jean Devanny later regretted viewing her novels as a way to convey ideology, rather than trying to write to the best of her abilities.
10.
Jean Devanny later noted: 'I realise now that I have not exploited the small measure of ability for writing I possess one whit.
11.
Jean Devanny moved to North Queensland during the 1940s and spent the last two decades of her life in the region, expanding her knowledge of the natural world, taking part in multiple anthropological trips along the cost of North Queensland.
12.
Jean Devanny died on 8 March 1962 in Townsville, having been diagnosed with chronic leukaemia.
13.
The Eddie Koiki Mabo Library at James Cook University, Townsville, holds copies of all of Jean Devanny's published works in the North Queensland Collection.