15 Facts About Nettie Palmer

Janet Gertrude "Nettie" Palmer was an Australian poet, essayist and Australia's leading literary critic of her day.

Nettie Palmer corresponded with women writers and collated the Centenary Gift Book which gathered together writing by Victorian women.

Nettie Palmer was active in literary and socialist circles on her return to Melbourne and formed a deep and long term relationship with the visionary poet Bernard O'Dowd.

Nettie Palmer was active in circles associated with early modernism and The New Age.

Vance and Nettie Palmer campaigned against the Hughes government's attempt to introduce conscription into Australia.

In 1924 Nettie Palmer published Modern Australian Fiction, at that time the most important critical study of Australian literature.

Nettie Palmer edited an extraordinary collection of writings by Victorian women, both historical and literary for the centenary of Victoria, Centenary Gift Book.

Nettie Palmer became the centre of a network of correspondence with many other writers, mainly women.

Nettie Palmer was an important confidante and mentor for such writers as Marjorie Barnard and Flora Eldershaw.

Nettie Palmer published The Memoirs of Alice Henry and Fourteen Years: Extracts from a Private Journal, often considered her best work.

Nettie Palmer published Henry Handel Richardson: a Study, which did a great deal to establish the reputation of now-acclaimed Melbourne author Henry Handel Richardson and her monumental trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony.

Vance and Nettie Palmer were remembered by those who knew them for their great compassion and generosity.

Nettie Palmer died in 1964, universally mourned by Australian writers and readers.

Nettie Palmer was inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.

In 2018, Nettie Palmer was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Melbourne Press Club in recognition of her elegant prose.