Arthur Patchett Martin

Arthur Patchett Martin (18 February 1851 – 15 February 1902), was an Australian poe and prose writer.

London
Martin was born in Woolwich, Kent, England, the son of George Martin and his wife Eleanor, née Hill. The family migrated to Australia in 1852, arriving in Melbourne in December. Martin was educated at St Mark's School, Fitzroy and later matriculated at the University of Melbourne in February 1868.

Martin worked in the post office 1865 – 1883, however he was also a casual writer in this period. Having established the Melbourne Review with Henry Gyles Turner in 1876, Martin edited the publication for six years.

In 1883 Martin moved to London amid controversy in a divorce case; he became a journalist and wrote regularly for the Pall Mall Gazette. Martin was the satirist of the 'Australasian Group' - who regarded themselves as exiles - but retained an interest in Australian literature and other affairs. Martin married a widow, Harriette Anne Bullen (daughter of Dr John Moore Cookesley) on 11 January 1886 in London. Together they wrote verse and organised the publications of expatriate Australians in various periodicals.

Martin's health deteriorated and he moved to Tenerife, Canary Islands, where he died on 15 February 1902.

Publications

 * Sweet Girl Graduate (1876)
 * Lays of To-day: Verses in Jest and Earnest (1878)
 * Fernshawe: Sketches in Prose and Verse (1882)
 * Australia and the Empire (1889)
 * True Stories from Australasian History (1893)
 * Life and Letters of the Right Honourable Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke (1893)
 * The Withered Jester and Other Verses (1895)
 * The Beginnings of an Australian Literature (London, 1898)