A short video taste of the launch of Passionate Friends by Sylvia Martin in Melbourne at the Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre on Thursday 3 March 2022. You will see samples of the expert performance by Peta Murray who declared the book 'airborn' with excerpts of readings by Sylvia Martin and Sara Hardy of poems by Mary Fullerton.
The launch was organised by Graham Willett who may be contacted with any enquiries about the book: Graham Willett: gwillett@unimelb.edu.au
'The book that was re-launched, 'Passionate Friends', tells the remarkable story of Mary Fullerton (1868-1946) and Mabel Singleton (1877-1965), who met in Melbourne as suffrage and peace activists in Vida Goldstein’s Women’s Political Association. They remained together for thirty-five years as loving friends, raising Mabel’s son born in 1911. Through her literary friendship with Miles Franklin (1879-1954), Mary Fullerton’s last two volumes of poetry were published in the 1940s. Rescued from near destruction, a box of Mary’s manuscripts eventually made its way to the Mitchell Library. It contained poems she never sent to Miles Franklin. These poignant poems, many dedicated to Mabel, trace a love story that sheds light on how women of the early twentieth century may have understood their love for each other. '
Sylvia Martin has also recently won a $7,500 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship for 2022 highly commended award for her proposed biography of Australian artists Eirene Mort and Nora Kate Weston.
