{{Short description|Australian journalist, poet, writer and Catholic charity worker}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox writer | name = Marion Knowles | honorific_suffix = MBE | pseudonym = John Desmond, Aunt Patsy | birth_name = Marion Miller | birth_date = {{Birth date|1865|08|08|df=y}} | birth_place = Woods Point, Victoria, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|1949|09|16|1865|08|08|df=y}} | death_place = Camberwell, Victoria, Australia | resting_place = Brighton Cemetery | occupation = Novelist, poet, journalist | children = 2 sons | image = Marion Knowles.tif }}
'''Marion Miller Knowles''' {{post-nominals|country|AUS|MBE}} (1865–1949) was an Australian journalist, poet, writer and Catholic charity worker.
== Early life and education == Born on 8 August 1865 in the Victorian gold-mining town of Woods Point, Knowles was the daughter of James and Anne (née Bowen) Miller. Her father was a storekeeper.<ref>{{cite news|date=14 June 1910|title=Women's World.|page=3|newspaper=The Herald (Melbourne)|issue=10,803|location=Victoria, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242086755|access-date=26 August 2020|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Close|first=Cecily|title=Knowles, Marion (1865–1949)|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/knowles-marion-6988|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|place=Canberra|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=2020-08-26}}</ref>
== Career == She was a journalist for the Melbourne ''Advocate'' for 30 years and conducted the Women’s and Children’s pages until her retirement in 1927. She also was a charity worker for the Melbourne Catholic Orphanage and the Wattle Day appeals.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1927-07-15|title=Mrs. Marion Miller Knowles.|pages=8|work=Southern Cross (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1954)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167802944|access-date=2020-01-17}}</ref>
In 1893 her first poems appeared in ''The Australasian'' under the name "John Desmond".
In 1931 she received a pension from the Commonwealth Literary Fund.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1931-08-06|title=Commonwealth Literary Fund|pages=1292|work=Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (National : 1901 - 1973)|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232186875|access-date=2020-01-17}}</ref>
Knowles was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1938 Birthday Honours, being recognised as "a well-known Australian writer of books for girls".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34518/supplement/3685|title=The London Gazette|year=1938|pages=3703}}</ref>
== Works ==
=== Novels ===
* ''Barbara Halliday: A story of the hill country of Victoria'' (1896) * ''Corinne of Corall's Bluff'' (1912) * ''The Little Doctor'' (1919) * ''The House of Garden of Roses'' (1923) * ''Meg of Minadong'' (1926) * ''Pierce O'Grady's Daughter'' (1928) * ''Pretty Nan Hartigan'' (1928)
=== Poetry ===
* ''Songs from the Hills'' (1898) * ''Fronds from the Black's Spur'' (1911) * ''Roses on the Window Sill'' (1913) * ''A Christmas Bouquet'' (1915) * ''Shamrock Sprays'' (1916) * ''Songs from the Land of the Wattle'' (1916) * ''Love, Luck and Lavender'' (1919) * ''Christmas Bells'' (1919) * ''Ferns and Fancies'' (1923) * ''Selected Poems'' (1935), republished in two volumes: ** ''The Harp of the Hills'' (1937) ** ''Lyrics of Wind and Wave'' (1937)
=== Short stories ===
* ''Shamrock and Wattle Bloom: A series of short tales and sketches'' (1900)
== Personal == Knowles married Joseph Knowles at St Patrick’s Cathedral on 19 September 1901.<ref>{{cite news|date=12 October 1901|title=Family Notices|page=9|newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne)|issue=17,240|location=Victoria, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9611990|access-date=26 August 2020|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Her husband died on 18 June 1918 at a private hospital in Melbourne, aged 60.<ref>{{cite news|date=29 June 1918|title=Family Notices|volume=L|page=18|newspaper=Advocate|issue=2388|location=Victoria, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article152187387|access-date=26 August 2020|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Knowles died on 16 September 1949 and was survived by her two sons, Adrian and William. Following a requiem mass at the Sacred Heart Church in Kew, she was buried in Brighton Cemetery.<ref>{{cite news|date=17 September 1949|title=Family Notices|page=41|newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne)|issue=32,150|location=Victoria, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22779285|access-date=26 August 2020|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Knowles, Marion}} Category:1865 births Category:1949 deaths Category:20th-century Australian journalists Category:20th-century Australian poets Category:20th-century Australian women poets Category:20th-century Australian novelists Category:Australian women writers Category:20th-century Australian women Category:Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:Writers from Victoria (state) Category:19th-century Australian women Category:19th-century Australian poets Category:19th-century women poets Category:19th-century Australian journalists Category:19th-century Australian women writers