Frank Atha Westbury facts for kids
Frank Atha Westbury (5 May 1838 – 24 September 1901), who wrote under the pen names of "Atha" and "Atha Westbury", was a popular and prolific author of mystery adventure novels, children's stories and poetry in late 19th century Australia and New Zealand. Most of his fiction was serialised in newspapers and journals between 1879 and 1905. His two major works were: The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook, A Romance of Maoriland (1896) and Australian Fairy Tales (1897), which won him a place as one of the better-known writers for children in Victorian-era Australia. Many of his novels were adventure romances set in New Zealand at the time of the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s, which the author experienced as a soldier in the British Army.
Biography
Frank Westbury was born under the name James Bleasby in Hunslet, an industrial suburb of Leeds, England on 5 May 1838. His mother was Martha Bleasby and his father was a weaver from Holbeck named Benjamin Atha. He grew up in the home of his grandfather, William Bleasby and might have attended Tadcaster Grammar School near Leeds, under a scholarship. At the age of 16, he enlisted in the British Army's 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot serving in the Crimea, Burma and New Zealand during the Second Taranaki War (1863–66). During this last deployment, he fought in the Battle of Gate Pa, which resulted in major losses for the British. He later claimed that he filed reports on the New Zealand Wars for The Manchester Guardian. After his discharge from the Army in 1866, he went to Melbourne, Australia where he adopted the name Frank Atha Westbury and continued honing his writing skills. There he fell in with a literary crowd that included the poets, Henry Kendall, George Gordon McCrae and Adam Lindsay Gordon, as well as Marcus Clarke, author of the Australian classic novel, For the Term of His Natural Life. He married three times in Australia and had six children, although three died in infancy.
Apart from his career as an author, Westbury also worked as a clerk in Sydney, a secretary for Melbourne's Homeopathic Hospital and as a land agent in Adelaide, where he became friends with George Loyau, the influential editor of The Pictorial Australian, who published much of his work. He spent the last decade of his life in Hawthorn, Melbourne and died of a stroke on 24 September 1901. He was 63.
Major published works
• Mater Familias. Poetry. Quiz, Adelaide, South Australia, 10 March 1905.
• The Prodigal of Glencourt. Novel. Serialised in The Camperdown Chronicle, Melbourne, Australia, July–September 1901.
• The Expiation of Claude Wingate. Novel. The Australian Journal, Melbourne. Published in serialised form, August 1899 – January 1900.
• Australian Fairy Tales. Collected stories. London, England. Ward, Lock & Co., 1897.
• The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook: A Romance of Maoriland. Novel. London, England Chatto & Windus, 1896; published in the United States by New Amsterdam Book Company, New York, 1902. (originally serialised as The Mystery of Fernbrook in Frearson's Monthly Illustrated Adelaide News and The Pictorial Australian 1884–1886)
• Fifty Lashes. Short Story. The West Australian Newspaper, Perth, March 1895.
• De Profundis. Short story. The Australian Journal, Melbourne, Vol.28 no.335, April 1893.
• Maoriland Ho. Nature’s Enchanting Wonder Isle. Novel. Serialised in The Camperdown Chronicle, Melbourne, 1893.
• Paul Cranbourne's Wedding: A Christmas Story. The Australian Journal, Melbourne, Vol.28 no.331 December 1892
• Fire. Short Story. Northern Territory Times and Gazette, Darwin, 29 December 1888
• 'Gainst Wind and Tide. Short Story. Published in serialised form in Once a Week, London, November 1887 – February 1888.
• Talbot Fane, Bachelor. Novel. Serialised in the literary supplement to the Pictorial Australian, Adelaide, Christmas 1885 – November 1886.
• At the Threshold. Short Story. Frearson's Monthly Illustrated Adelaide News, Adelaide, S.A., February 1884.
• Dawn and Noon. Poetry. Frearson's Monthly Illustrated Adelaide News, March 1884.
• Trust. Poetry. The Leader, Melbourne, 18 January 1879.
• In The Pictorial Australian, Adelaide "Atha" was also listed as the author of 'Living or Dead', 'Other People's Money', 'Brandon Westlake', 'Maoris and Pakehas', 'Australian Elves', 'Puck Piermont', 'Kiorani' and 'Gadabout Papers' (dates of publication uncertain).
- 1.For biographical information as well as listings of his work, see Frank Atha Westbury, from AustLit, the Australian Literature Resource. http://www.austlit.edu.au
- 2.The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook: A Romance of Maoriland. London, England, Chatto & Windus, 1896.
- 3.Review of The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook in The Advertiser, Adelaide, Sth. Australia, 1 January 1897, p. 6.
- 4.Review of The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook in The Advertiser, Adelaide, Sth. Australia, 1 January 1897, p. 6.
- 5.Review of Australian Fairy Tales from The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, Australia, 6 Nov. 1897, p. 4.
• Frank Atha Westbury from AustLit, the Australian Literature Resource. An online database of Australian authors created by researchers from Australian universities and the National Library of Australia. Access by subscription.
• The Country of Lost Children: An Australian Anxiety by Peter Pierce. Melbourne, Victoria. Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp 60–64.
• The Cult of the Fairy Story. The West Australian Newspaper. 21 January 1911, p. 10.
• Australian Children’s Literature 1830–1950. An anthology. www.australianchildrensliterature.com/
• Old Land – New Writers. Children's Literature Research Collection, State Library of South Australia. http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/clrc/oldland.htm
• Mr. Atha Westbury. From Local and General, The Evening Post, Wellington N.Z. Vol. LV, Issue 119, 21 May 1898, p. 4.
• A review of The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook. The Literary World, Vol LIII Jan.- June 1896. London, England. James Clark and Co. pp. 577–578.
• Recent Publications. Review of The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook. The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA: 1889–1931), 1 January 1897, p. 6.
• Australian Fairy Tales. Review from The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842–1954), 6 Nov. 1897, p. 4.
Images for kids
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Australian Fairy Tales, 1897
