Mollie Skinner

Mary Louisa (Mollie) Skinner (18761955) was a Western Australian author, best known for the novel The Boy in the Bush co-authored with D. H. Lawrence.

Biography Mollie Skinner was born on 19 September 1876 to a Western Australian family that had established itself during the early years of settlement, distinguishing her position an "ancient colonist" in the local society from the "t'othersiders" who arrived in Western Australia from the eastern states.

Two years after the publication of The Boy in the Bush, she met with Edward Garnett to discuss publishing Black Swans. His critique of the work as "so damn, damn bad" gave rise to Skinner's tears and cries, but he finished by declaring that it was also so "damn, damn good" that he intended to publish it. Skinner's autobiography, The Fifth Sparrow, was edited by Mary Durack and Marjorie Rees while Skinner's health was failing and published posthumously in 1972. Letters of a V.A.D. Published under the nom de plume R. E. Leake. London: Andrew Melrose, 1918. The Boy in the Bush. With D. H. Lawrence. London: Martin Secker, 1924. New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1924. Black Swans. London: Jonathan Cape, 1925. Men Are We. Aboriginal Stories. Perth: People's Publishing Co., 1927. Tucker Sees India. London: Secker and Warburg, 1937. W.X. - Corporal Smith. Perth: R. S. Sampson, 1941. When Skies are Blue. Introduction by J. K. Ewers. Perth: Imperial Printing Co, 1946. The Witch of Welleway. In The Bulletin, Sydney, 22 February 1956.

Legacy Skinner enjoyed moderate success during her lifetime, particularly for the association with D. H. Lawrence, but did not share the fame of contemporaries such as Katherine Susannah Prichard and Mary Durack. Her life story was adapted to a play, Sparrow, first performed in 2018.

Skinner Street in the Canberra suburb Cook was named in her honour.