Barbara+Baynton+-+Boden+and+Dean

=**Barbara Baynton (1857 - 1929)**=

Barbara Baynton was born in 1857 at Scone, New South Wales. Her parents were immigrants from Ireland. She was educated at home and read the works of writers such as Charles Dickens. She got married in 1880 to Alexander Frater, and they moved to Coonable District, where they had two sons and a daughter. In 1887, her husband eloped with a servant and she took her children to Sydney, where she got a divorce.

Her first story, //The Tramp//, was published in December 1896, and she became close friends with Alfred Stephens, who was also a writer. After failing to find a publisher for her collection of 6 short stories, she visited London in 1902, where with the help of Edward Garnett, the critic, //Bush Studies// was published that year. //Bush Studies// included //A Dreamer, The Chosen Vessel, Scrammy// and //Squeaker's Mate.// Barbara returned to Sydney in 1903, where her husband died on 10 June, 1904. He left Barbara his entire estate, valued at £3871, a very large amount of money for the time. She also began to invest on the Australian Stock Exchange, investing heavily into the Law Book Co. of Australasia Ltd, in which she eventually became the chairwomen of directors. She also bought and sold antiques, and started a collection of black opals from Lightning Ridge. She contributed occasional strong-worded articles to the Sydney Morning Herald on women's issues as well. In 1907 she wrote her first and only novel, Human Toll, which met to lukewarm reviews from critics. During the first World War, she opened her home to British and Australian soldiers who had served the Commonwealth.

In 1921, Barbara married Rowland George Allanson-Winn (fifth baron Headley). In 1922 he went bankrupt, and refused the throne of Albania, so Barbara returned to Melbourne, scorned. She built a house near Toorak, and furnished it with lavish Queen Anne and Georgian pieces. She got bored with it, so she sold the furniture and art, and had another shipload brought from England.

Barbara Baynton died in her home of cerebral thrombosis on 28 May 1929 and was cremated. Her estate was valued at £160,621. She left behind her first and third husbands as well as two sons and a daughter from her first marriage.

List of Works: Barbara Baynton, c.1892 A copy of //Bush Studies//
 * Bush Studies - A collection of 6 short stories (1902):
 * //A Dreamer//
 * //Squeaker's Mate//
 * //Scrammy 'And//
 * //Billy Skywonkie//
 * //Bush Church//
 * //The Chosen Vessel//
 * Human Toll (her only novel)
 * Cobbers (1917 re-print of Bush Studies)
 * The Tramp (1894, first book)