Bitter Honeymoon front coverMelbourne author Jean Campbell (1901-1984) was the writer of five novels for William Hutchinson, publishers, in London, and also produced magazine style romance novels for New Century Press, 3 North York St., Sydney. These booklets, sold for 4d, were distributed through newsagents and booksellers and boasted "A new title every month." So, while the novels were serious writing, Bitter Honeymoon, Passion from Peking and Her Fate in the Stars were clearly produced for light reading, though given the continuing popularity of Mills and Boon even today, may well have made their author a good deal of money. Many were published during World War 2. On the back page of Passion from Peking is an inscription: "This book has been reduced in pages to reflect the War Time Economy".
Jean Campbell lived in East Melbourne and was clearly a member of a literary/artistic set. Her portrait, by Lina Bryans, hangs in the National Gallery at Federation Square. Titled "The Babe is Wise", from the title of one of her most popular books. It shows a young, fashionably dressed woman who exudes independence and self assurance. The State Library has a photographic portrait of her by Wolfgang Sievers, better known for his architectural photos, especially of the ICI building. There is a third, autographed photograph held in the National Gallery of Canberra, described as "prepared for a luncheon given by Hutchinson representative George Sutton when Brass and Cymbals was published". Hutchinsons obviously saw her as a promising author and were prepared to spend to promote her image.
But where did she live in East Melbourne? The Sievers photograph, dated 1950, catches her in her East Melbourne flat, and the electoral roll has her living at 17 Powlett Street at that time. However this flat, tucked behind the house at that address, was quite small – a single bedroom, with bathroom attached, a small kitchen and sitting room – somewhere perhaps she moved to in her later years.
Clues may, perhaps, be found in her work. One of her greatest strengths as a writer was in the detail of landscapes and buildings that she described. She loved Melbourne, it is clear, and at least two of her novels are set there. East Melbourne, with its "curiously mixed charm" features strongly in The Babe is Wise and she writes that from the house "you could look across to the city, and in the evenings, when the electric signs sprang into life, it was rich, not gaudy with colour." This could be either Jolimont or East Melbourne proper, but another passage fxes her location clearly in Jolimont:
Then there was the other entrancing aspect of the locality. If it hadn't been for the electric trains and trams thundering by at intervals … you might have thought you were living in a sylvan retreat … there were the gardens over the way and the park at the back … and a bridge over the Yarra that brought you to some more gardens, the Botanical.
So where did she live? The description of the cottage in the novel is quite specific:
She saw it for the first time cuddling in between two tall old brick houses for all the world like a small fat child toddling out between a couple of maiden aunts. She was certain that it must have been the identical cottage made by the witch to lure Hansel and Gretel.
157 Wellington Parade South, Jolimont: Could this be Jean Campbell's house?Perhaps it wasn't her house at all, but that of a friend whom she visited often, because she describes the inside of the cottage and the layout of the rooms quite specifically. But there is something so personal about her knowledge, so loving, that she seems to be describing a house in which she lived.
Can any of our readers help us with information about Jean Campbell or about the house in which she lived? And if any of our members is visiting Canberra and has some free time, perhaps he or she could look through the collection of Jean Campbell"s papers held there and help us in our quest.
See also, Victorian's Book Accepted: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203812827