var s_account="msnportalencartaau"; ninemsn Home Hotmail My ninemsn Sign in ... More Additional Reference Thesaurus Bilingual Dictionaries Sidebar Primary Resources Homework Resources Foreign Language Help Times Archive Literature Guides ... Project Starters Support Encarta Products Encarta Answers Encarta Worldwide Help Encarta Search Search Encarta about Bruce, Mary Grant Bruce, Mary Grant Encyclopedia Article Find in this article View printer-friendly page E-mail Bruce, Mary Grant (1878-1958), Australian writer. Born and raised in Sale Victoria , she later became a journalist in Melbourne with The Age and The Leader newspapers, where her first children's novel, A Little Bush Maid appeared (it was published in book form in 1910). Between 1910 and 1946 she published 37 novels, most famously the 15 Billabong books, so-named after an invented sheep station in northern Victoria. These achieved immense success, running to sales of over two million and giving many city-bred children their first and sometimes only conception of the Australian Bush. Bruce idealized the Bush, seeing it as a repository of traditional and especially âmasculineâ Australian values such as independence and self-reliance, and frequently her plots hinged around city characters being straightened out by contact with the Bush and the sturdy Linton family with their large entourage. Through her books she painted scathing portraits of the Germans and Japanese (during World War II ), and also portrayed the prevailing Australian attitude of distaste for the | |
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