Jane Mander
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Mary Jane Mander (April 9, 1877—December 20, 1949) was a New Zealand novelist and journalist.
Born in the small community of Ramarama, situated south of Auckland, she had little schooling, yet was teaching at primary school while being tutored for a high school education. Her father, the Hon. Francis Mander, was member for Marsden in the Parliament of New Zealand and a descendant of the Mander family of Midland England. He later purchased the Northern Advocate, a popular newspaper, and she was able to hone her skills as a journalist.
Mander went on to become editor of the Dargaville North Auckland Times in 1907. In 1910 she went to Sydney, where she met and became friends with W.A. Holman, who would go on to become premier of New South Wales. While there she worked as a freelance journalist, submitting articles to the Maoriland Worker under the pseudonym Manda Lloyd.
In 1912 she travelled to New York in order to study at the Columbia University, where she excelled in her studies despite having numerous part-time jobs. Her poor health forced her to abandon studying after just three years. She joined the suffrage movement in New York; campaigning for the state referendum on women's franchise. She worked for the Red Cross when the U.S. entered World War I. During this time she also worked on her most well-known and highly praised novel The Story of a New Zealand River (1920), which tells the story of an Englishwoman who has to adjust to living in an isolated timber-mill settlement. Despite being popular in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom, it received a somewhat hostile response back in New Zealand, where critics disapproved of the novel's unconventional themes. They also took offence at her alteration of geography and population to suit the story.
Her next two novels, The Passionate Puritan (1921) and the less popular The Strange Attraction (1922) were both set in New Zealand, and were based around her childhood experiences.
In 1923, Mander moved to London, where she worked for the Harrison Press of Paris. She wrote numerous essays and short stories, and acted as a London correspondent for multiple New Zealand newspapers. Her next novel, Allen Adair (1925), was the last to be set in New Zealand, which was set around the kauri gum-digging industry. It centered on the hero's struggle against the middle-class aspirations of his family. Her next two novels. The Besieging City (1926) and Pins and Pinnacles (1928), were set in New York and Paris respectively. She also completed another novel, but had it destroyed after it was rejected by a publisher.
Her health failing, she returned to New Zealand in 1932, where she looked after her elderly father. She attempted to write her seventh novel, but only managed a few articles and reviews until her death in Whangarei in 1949, at the age of 72.
