Eleanor Dark

Eleanor Dark (née O'Reilly) (26 August 1901 – 11 September 1985) was an Australian author whose novels included Prelude to Christopher (1934) and Return to Coolami (1936), both winners of the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for literature, and her best known work The Timeless Land (1941). Eleanor Dark was born in Sydney. She was the second of three children born to the poet, writer and parliamentarian, Dowell Philip O'Reilly and his wife, Eleanor McCulloch O'Reilly. On finishing school and unable to enter university, having failed mathematics, she learnt typing and took a secretarial job. In 1922 she married Dr Eric Payten Dark, a general practitioner who wrote books, articles and pamphlets on politics and medicine. Dr Eric...