Mary Fortune (1832–1911) was an Australian writer who was one of the earliest female authors of detective fiction. Born in Ireland, she lived in Canada before moving to the Australian goldfields in 1855. She began writing for local newspapers soon after her arrival, and was a prolific pseudonymous contributor to The Australian Journal for more than four decades. Her writing primarily consisted of short crime stories – including her best-known work, the 500-story series The Detective's Album (pictured) – but also included serial novels, journalism, poetry, and a memoir. She also wrote romances, Gothic fiction, and ghost stories. Her writing drew on her experiences in the goldfields and in Melbourne's rapidly urbanising environment; she often criticised colonial society and its treatment of women. Despite her popularity as a writer, Fortune experienced unstable housing and alcoholism, and died in poverty. Her identity, obscured by pseudonyms, was not rediscovered until the 1950s. (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Fortune> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1914: RMS Britannic, the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line after RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic, was launched at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMHS_Britannic> 1979: The Superliner railcar entered revenue service with Amtrak. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superliner_%28railcar%29> 1995: Barings Bank, the oldest merchant bank in London, was declared insolvent after its head derivatives trader in Singapore, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million while making unauthorised trades on futures contracts. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Leeson> 2014: Former editor-in-chief of Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao Kevin Lau was stabbed, prompting concerns and protests about media freedom. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knife_attack_on_Kevin_Lau> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: turn up one's nose: 1. To tilt one's face upwards slightly, thus raising one's nose, and often to look downwards at someone, as a sign of contempt, disgust, or scorn. 2. (idiomatic) Followed by at. 3. To refuse something offered, especially with contempt, disgust, or scorn, or with apparent disregard about offending the offerer. 4. To regard or treat someone with contempt or scorn; to scorn; also, to disregard or ignore someone in a contemptuous or scornful way. 5. About Word of the Day 6. Nominate a word 7. Leave feedback <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/turn_up_one%27s_nose> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: What a difference a president makes. A short time ago we were a dead country, now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world, the hottest. As thousands of new businesses are forming and factories, plants and laboratories are being built, we have added 70,000 new construction jobs in just a very short period of time. It's getting bigger and bigger and stronger. Nobody can believe what they're watching. American oil production is up by more than 600,000 barrels a day and we just received from our new friend and partner, Venezuela, more than 80 million barrels of oil. --Donald Trump <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Trump> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe write to: [email protected] Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
