author
Mary Gaunt
1861–1942
An adventurous Australian novelist and travel writer, she turned a life of long journeys and hard-won independence into stories full of movement, place, and strong-willed characters. Her books range from colonial fiction to vivid travel writing shaped by years spent crossing continents.
5 Audiobooks
A Broken Journey Wanderings from the Hoang-Ho to the Island of Saghalien and the Upper Reaches of the Amur River
by Mary Gaunt
The Moving Finger
by Mary Gaunt
A Woman In China
by Mary Gaunt
Alone in West Africa
by Mary Gaunt
Where the Twain Meet
by Mary Gaunt
About the author
Born in Victoria in 1861, Mary Gaunt was among the first women to study at the University of Melbourne. She became known as a novelist, short-story writer, and travel author, drawing on both Australian settings and the many places she visited during her life.
After publishing early fiction in the 1890s, she kept writing across several forms, including novels, memoir, and travel books. Her work often reflects an energetic, curious outlook, with an eye for local detail and for the challenges faced by women making their own way.
Gaunt travelled widely through places including Africa, China, and other parts of the world, experiences that fed directly into her nonfiction as well as her fiction. She died in 1942 in France, leaving behind a body of work that shows both the reach of an adventurous life and the growing confidence of an Australian woman writer working on an international stage.