author
Mary Gaunt
1861–1942
An adventurous Australian writer, she turned a life of long journeys into fiction, memoir, and vivid travel books. Her work carries the energy of someone who kept moving and kept observing.
6 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, Australia, in 1861, Mary Gaunt was a novelist, short-story writer, and travel writer whose life was as eventful as her books. She was among the first women to attend the University of Melbourne, and by the late 1880s she was publishing stories and articles in Australian newspapers and magazines.
Her first novel, Dave's Sweetheart, appeared in 1894. After that she built a wide-ranging career that included fiction, autobiography, and travel writing. She spent years traveling through Europe, Africa, China, Jamaica, and elsewhere, often writing directly from experience; books such as Alone in West Africa and A Woman in China helped make her known as both a storyteller and a determined traveler.
Gaunt died in Cannes, France, in 1942. Today she is remembered not only for her novels and stories, but also for the independence and curiosity that shaped her life and gave her writing its restless, worldly character.