Vance Palmer

Edward Vivian "Vance" Palmer (28 August 1885 - 15 July 1959) was a Australian novelist, dramatist, essayist and literary critic. He was married to poet, essayist, and critic Nettie Palmer.

Vance and Nettie Palmer were two of Australia's best-known literary figures from the 1920s to the 1950s. Between them they did more to promote Australian literature, particularly (in Nettie's case) literature by women, than anyone else of their generation.

Early life
Vance was born in Bundaberg, Queensland, on 28 August 1885 and attended the Ipswich Grammar School. With no university in Queensland at the time, he studied contemporary Australian writing at the intellectual hub in Brisbane at the time, the School of Arts, following the work of A.G. Stephens. Working in various jobs, he took a position as a tutor at Abbieglassie cattle station, 800 kilometres west of Brisbane in the 'back of beyond'. He also worked as a manager: at that time there was a large Aboriginal population with whom he both worked and celebrated, attending their frequent corroborrees. It was here his love of the land and environmental awareness was honed, so too his interest in white black relationships. From his early years he was determined to be a writer, and in 1905 and again in 1910 he went to London, then the centre of Australia's cultural universe, to learn his craft and advance his prospects. He was acknowledged as an expert on foreign affairs - in Mexico and Ireland. His association with Alfred Orage and his work for the New Age and other guild socialists greatly influenced his political outlook.

Vance and Nettie met in 1909 and married in London in 1914. When World War I broke out they returned to Australia, where their daughters Aileen and Helen were born in 1915 and 1917. In 1918 Vance joined the Australian Army, but the war ended before he saw service. Vance, Nettie and Esmonde all campaigned against the Hughes government's attempt to introduce conscription into Australia.

Writing career and later life
Both Vance and Nettie had begun to publish poetry, short stories, criticism and journalism before the war, but in the 1920s, living in the fishing village of Caloundra, Queensland, to save money, they dedicated themselves to literature full-time. Vance published his first novel in 1920, and a well-received play, The Black Horse, in 1924. His best novels of this period were The Man Hamilton 'Men Are Human'(1928), The Passage (1930) and The Swayne Family (1934).

In 1935 the Palmers travelled to Europe, and they were holidaying near Barcelona when the Spanish Civil War broke out. Aileen and Helen had both joined the Communist Party as students, and Aileen stayed behind to volunteer for service with the British Medical Unit in Spain when the rest of the family returned to Australia. On their return to Melbourne Nettie devoted herself to supporting the Spanish Republic.

During World War II Vance and Nettie were strongly opposed to the advent of fascism, whether in Australia or overseas. Because they had witnessed the loss of democratic rights during the Great War their work was to strength the Australian belief in egalitarianism. Vance published a series of historical and biographical works: National Portraits (1941), A G Stephens: His Life and Work (1941), Frank Wilmot (1942) and Louis Esson and the Australian Theatre (1948).

In the postwar years Vance wrote a trilogy - Golconda (1948), Seedtime (1957) and The Big Fellow (1959), based loosely on the life of the Queensland politician Ted Theodore. The trilogy met a poor critical reception. While today Vance's novels are out of print, many of his short stories are still read and reissued.

In 1954 Vance published The Legend of the Nineties, a critical study of the development of the nationalist tradition in Australian literature usually associated with The Bulletin. This is perhaps his best-remembered work. Nettie published Henry Handel Richardson: A Study, which did a great deal to establish the reputation of Henry Handel Richardson (the pen name of Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson) and her monumental trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony.

Vance and Nettie were remembered by those who knew them for their great compassion and generosity. They were instrumental in the recognition of Australian literature as a subject worthy of serious study and teaching in the academy. During the last decades of his life Vance is remembered for his regular radio broadcasts on books and writing.

A member of the advisory board for the early Australia Council Vance was attacked as a Communist “fellow traveller” (which to some extent he was) during the McCarthyist period of the 1950s, but his integrity was recognised by Menzies. Vance died from heart disease in 1959 probably hastened by his passion for cricket.

Recognition
The Victorian Premier's Literary Award for fiction is named the Vance Palmer Award, while the prize for non-fiction is the Nettie Palmer Prize.