Marnie Bassett

Flora Marjorie (Marnie) Bassett (30 June 1889 – 3 February 1980) was an Australian historian, biographer and travel writer. Her writing focussed on women's and family history, with particular attention to people from Australia.

Early life Bassett was born in Melbourne to academic parents, Sir David Orme Masson, a professor of chemistry, and Mary Masson, née Struthers. Her brother was Sir James Irvine Orme Masson. She grew up in and around the University of Melbourne. During her childhood, she and her family went on three trips to Europe, which allowed for her love of history, literature and music to grow.

Bassett received most of her education at home from governesses, although when she was 17 she attended the Church of England Girls' Grammar School for twelve weeks. She attended shorthand and typing lessons, allowing for her to become her father's secretary. She assisted him in organising the 1914 Melbourne conference of the British Association for the Advancement of Science where she met renowned scientists, among them being her future brother-in-law, Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. However, she did maintain an active member of the Catalysts, a society of professional women, for over sixty years where she wrote some of her most vigorous and evocative writing. This was a very early entry in the field that became women's history. This was followed by The Hentys (1954), an account of the Henty family's trials along the Swan River, in Van Diemen's Land and finally in the Port Phillip District now in Victoria. This book has been praised as "combining diligent research, intelligent handling of historical evidence, and a prose style that is clear and harmonious." Bassett wrote many articles for the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Bassett also published two books on the voyages of discovery, entitled Realms and Islands (1962) and Behind the Picture (1966). She also described her travels in a volume entitled Letters from New Guinea, 1921 (1969). Her writings on Henry Gisborne (Henry Fyshe Gisborne and 'Once Upon a Time' (1985)) were published posthumously.

Awards 1968 Honorary Doctorate in Literature degree from Monash University 1969 Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities 1971 Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria 1974 Honorary Doctorate in Literature degree from the University of Melbourne