Vance Palmer
| Vance Palmer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Edward Vivian Palmer 28 August 1885 Bundaberg, Queensland |
| Died | 15 July 1959 (aged 73) Kew, Victoria |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Period | 1903-59 |
| Notable works | The Big Fellow |
| Spouse | Nettie Palmer |
Edward Vivian "Vance" Palmer (28 August 1885 – 15 July 1959) was an Australian novelist, dramatist, essayist and critic.
Vance Palmer was born in Bundaberg, Queensland, on 28 August 1885 and attended the Ipswich Grammar School. With no university in Queensland, he studied contemporary Australian writing at the intellectual hub in Brisbane at the time, the School of Arts, following the work of A. G. Stephens. Working in various jobs, he took a position as a tutor at Abbieglassie cattle station, 800 kilometres (500 mi) west of Brisbane in the 'back of beyond'. He also worked as a manager: at that time there was a large Aboriginal population with whom he both worked and celebrated, attending their frequent corroborrees. It was here his love of the land and environmental awareness was honed, so too his interest in white black relationships. From his early years he was determined to be a writer, and in 1905 and again in 1910 he went to London, then the centre of Australia's cultural universe, to learn his craft and advance his prospects. He was acknowledged as an expert on foreign affairs – in Mexico and Ireland. His association with Alfred Orage and his work for the New Age and other guild socialists greatly influenced his political outlook.
Palmer met his future wife, Janet (Nettie) Higgins, in 1909 and they were married in London in 1914. When World War I broke out they returned to Australia, settling in Melbourne, where their daughters Aileen and Helen were born in 1915 and 1917. In 1918 he joined the Australian Army, but the war ended before he saw service. Vance and Nettie campaigned against the Hughes government's attempt to introduce conscription into Australia.
Both Vance and Nettie had begun to publish poetry, short stories, criticism and journalism before the war, but in the 1920s, living in the fishing village of Caloundra, Queensland, to save money, they dedicated themselves to literature full-time. Palmer published his first novel in 1920, and a well-received play, The Black Horse, in 1924. His best novels of this period were The Man Hamilton (1928), Men Are Human (1930), The Passage (1930) and The Swayne Family (1934).
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