ROBERTS, Morley (1857-1942)

novelist and miscellaneous writer

son of H. Roberts, a superintending inspector of income tax, was born at London on 29 December 1857, and was educated at Bedford school, and Owens College, Manchester. Towards the end of 1876 he took a steerage passage to Australia and landed at Melbourne in January 1877. The next three years were spent in obtaining colonial experience, mostly on sheep stations in New South Wales, and Roberts then returned to London. For a time he worked in the war office and other government departments, but again went on his travels and had varied occupations in the United States and Canada between 1884 and 1886. He subsequently travelled in the South Seas, Australia, South Africa, and many other parts of the world. He used his experiences freely in his books, the first of which, The Western Avernus, appeared in 1887 and in 1890 he began his long series of novels and short stories. Of his novels, Rachel Marr, published in 1903 was highly praised by W. H. Hudson, and The Private Life of Henry Maitland, based on the life of George Gissing the novelist, was possibly his best known book. Roberts also wrote essays, biography, drama and verse, and did some competent work in biology. He married Alice, daughter of A. R. Selous, and died in London in his 85th year on 8 June 1942.

Roberts was a voluminous and able writer, about 80 of his books are recorded in Miller's Australian Literature. He was only a comparatively short time in Australia, but there are many Australian references both in his novels and his short stories.

The Times, 9 June 1942; The Times Literary Supplement, 13 June 1942; Who's Who, 1941; E. Morris Miller, Australian Literature; M. Roberts, Land-Travel and Sea-Faring; The Age, Melbourne, 4 June, 1894.