Louisa Lawson: Henry Lawson’s crusading mother
This book, written by Lorna Ollif, tells the story of Louisa Lawson (nee Albury). who was born in 1848, near Mudgee. In 1866 she met and married Peter Larsen, a Norwegian seaman – she was only 18, while Peter was 14 years her senior.
Peter was a gold prospector and continued to search for gold in various NSW goldfields. After their wedding Louisa went with him to these diggings, where they often lived in a tent or a crude bark hut. They had five children. Their son Henry was born in Grenfell in 1867.
After Henry’s birth the surname Larsen was changed to Lawson, the more Anglo version of the name.
Gold was hard to find and work, for Peter as a builder, was often away from home and the family, leaving Louisa alone to cope with all the difficulties of feeding and keeping her family safe. In 1879 their daughter Annette died.
In 1883 Peter and Louisa separated. Peter continued to live and work in the Blue Mountains area until his death five years later.
Louisa moved to Sydney. However, raising four children in Marrickville in the 1880s was difficult for a single mother. She did sewing and washing and took in boarders. She opened a boarding house, but that failed.
The 1880’s was a time of significant social and political change in Australia, with workers’ strikes and the Federation and Republican Movements happening at this time. However, living in the city did open the Lawson family up to new ideas, other writers, and reformers. Louisa became well known in the Radical Movement and as a social reformer.
Louisa is credited with starting the Suffrage Movement of NSW, which obtained the vote for women in NSW in 1902. Twenty years later, the women of Great Britain were still fighting for female suffrage.
Louisa’s main claim to fame, besides being Henry’s mother, was that she created the magazine The Dawn in 1888. It was the first Australian monthly magazine published for women and devoted to the feminist cause. Louisa published under the pseudonym of Dora Falconer and all the early work was done by women, from the writing to the typesetting and printing. Much to the disquiet of the male printers’ and typesetters’ unions, that had banned women from holding jobs in these male domains, The Dawn continued to be published for the next 17 years.
In 1894, six years after Louisa started her magazine for women and about women’s issues, The Australian Home Journal, a women’s magazine of fashion and stories, was started, and continued into the 1960’s. Louisa had shown them how to do it.
In 1894 Louisa published Henry Lawson’s “Short Stories in Prose & Verse” from her own publishing press. Henry presented a copy of this newly published book to David Scott Mitchell to add to his Australiana collection in the State’s recently built Mitchell Library.
Henry’s book of prose did not sell well in 1894. But by 1952 it was said of this little paperback publication, “It is the greatest Lawson treasure any collector could own”.
Angus and Robertson, booksellers and publishers, became interested in Henry’s work. They not only published his future works but also supported his writing into the 20th century.
In 1920, at the age of 72, Louisa died in Gladesville Mental Hospital from a long and painful mental illness. She was buried at Rookwood Cemetery. Henry, who died in 1922, two years after his mother, was buried at Waverley Cemetery.
Louisa Lawson spent her life working to improve the lives of working Australians with special focus on improving the lives of Australian women. She was a writer of stories and poetry for her magazine, and she encouraged Henry to write from an early age. She was a social reformer, and she had the ear of important and influential men at the time of the Federation of Australian States when the laws relating to the Australian Constitution were being written. She was the most influential person in the Suffrage Movement of NSW and was given the title of “Mother of Women’s Suffrage”. In 1975, the year proclaimed as International Women’s Year, Louisa Lawson’s work was finally acknowledged when she was featured on an issue of the 10c Australian stamp.
Janice Millard
NOTE: This is just one of the many books in our library that are available for members to borrow. Why not visit our museum and browse the collection. There’s sure to be something of interest to you.
