Mary Helena Fortune was an Australian author and journalist who was one of the earliest female writers of detective fiction. A prolific pseudonymous writer of fiction, poetry, and journalism, she contributed chiefly to The Australian Journal.
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1852 sketch of the Mount Alexander goldfields, where Fortune lived upon her move to Australia
Police records of Mary Fortune's son George
The North Melbourne benevolent asylum, where Fortune was admitted in 1910
Title page of Mary Fortune's 1871 book The Detective's Album
Clyzia the Dwarf by Mary Fortune, published in The Australian Journal in March 1867
1863 illustration of Bourke Street in central Melbourne at nightWriters born in the 1830s 6
About this person
Mary Helena Fortune was an Australian author and journalist who was one of the earliest female writers of detective fiction. A prolific pseudonymous writer of fiction, poetry, and journalism, she contributed chiefly to The Australian Journal. Her best-known work, The Detective's Album, comprised more than 500 short stories published in the journal between 1868 and 1908. Fortune's writing was characterised by its unsparing portrayals of colonial society and urban Melbourne, including the prevalence of violence and the treatment of women.
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