George Egerton

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GE (born Mary Chavelita Dunne), writer of New Woman short stories, has been called the first English writer to present female sexual drives explicitly as existing independently of and differently from male sexuality.
Bjørhovde, Gerd. Rebellious Structures. Norwegian University Press.
129-30
Her stories (five volumes) challenged convention not only in their frank treatment of female sexuality, but also in breaking with the conventions of Victorian realism. Often elliptical and impressionistic, they anticipate twentieth-century modernism in their focus on their characters' inner lives. GE tried her hand at drama, but none of her three plays succeeded and only one made it to print. She also published a novel, a volume of love letters, and two translations. She left unpublished an incomplete autobiography, a journal, and another work. A selection of her letters appeared in 1958. Her heroines struggle to balance the desire for personal and professional freedom with the instinctual longing for love, both romantic and maternal.
Vicinus, Martha. “Rediscovering the ’New Woman’ of the 1890s: The Stories of ’George Egerton’”. Feminist Re-Visions: What Has Been and What Might Be, edited by Vivian Patraka and Louise Tilly, University of Michigan Press, pp. 12-25.
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Milestones

14 December 1859

Mary Chavelita Dunne (later GE) was born in Melbourne, Australia.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1893

GE published her first book, Keynotes (six stories in a striking cover by Aubrey Beardsley ), to make much-needed money. The volume achieved instant success, establishing her as what was soon to be called a New Woman writer.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Egerton, George. A Leaf from the Yellow Book. Editor White, Terence de Vere, Richards Press.
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12 August 1945

GE died in a nursing home at Crawley in Sussex: having presumably fallen, she was found . . . dead at the bottom of the stairs.
Egerton, George. A Leaf from the Yellow Book. Editor White, Terence de Vere, Richards Press.
177
She had probably suffered a minor stroke weeks or months before this.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

She used her pseudonym, chosen soon after her first marriage in recognition of both her mother and her husband, in private letters as well as published work.

Birth and Background