Mabel Forrest - Infinite Women

Born: 6 March 1872, Australia
Died: 18 March 1935
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Helena Mabel Mills, Mabel Burkinshaw, Reca, Helena Mabel Checkley Forrest

The following is excerpted from The Dictionary of Australian Biography by Percival Searle, published in 1949 by Angus and Robertson and republished by Project Gutenberg.

FORREST, HELENA MABEL CHECKLEY (1872-1935), poet, novelist and journalist, daughter of James and Margaret Mills. was born near Yandilla, Queensland, on 6 March 1872. She began writing at an early age but did not publish her first book, The Rose of Forgiveness and other Stories, until 1904. She became well-known as a writer of verse following the publication of her first volume of poems, Alpha Centauri, which appeared in Melbourne in 1909. Her first novel A Bachelor’s Wife, was included in the Bookstall series in 1914. The Green Harper (prose and verse) followed in 1915, and Streets and Gardens, a small collection of verse, in 1922. In 1924 The Wild Moth, a novel, was published in London, and was followed by four other novels, Gaming Gods (1926), Hibiscus Heart (1927), Reaping Roses (1928), and White Witches (1929). Poems by M. Forrest, a collection of her verse contributions to Australian English and American magazines, was published at Sydney in 1927. She died at Brisbane after a long illness on 18 March 1935. Mrs Forrest was twice married and was survived by a daughter. Gaming Gods was dedicated to the memory of her second husband, John Forrest. In addition to her work in book form, for the last 30 years of her life Mrs Forrest poured out a constant stream of verse and short stories for newspapers and magazines. Probably no other woman in Australia ever maintained herself so long by free-lance journalism. Her verse, though excellent of its kind, was possibly too facile to be ranked highly as poetry, though she is represented in several anthologies. Her novels were perhaps little more than stories written to fulfil the demands of the circulating libraries, but Mrs Forrest was an admirable journalist who lived a life that had many misfortunes with great industry, ability and courage.