Jean Devanny
Jean Devanny, born Jane Crook in 1894 in Ferntown, New Zealand, was a significant writer and political activist whose works often explored themes of socialism and women's equality. Leaving school at thirteen to care for her mother, she later adopted the name Jean, suggested by a teacher. Devanny's marriage to Francis Harold Devanny, a miner and union activist, deepened her involvement in labor movements and the Communist Party, which informed her literary perspective. Her novel *The Butcher Shop*, published in 1926, gained notoriety for its frank portrayal of farming conditions and faced bans in several countries.
Devanny was a founding member and first president of the Writers League, which evolved into the Writers Association. Throughout her career, she produced numerous works, including novels and nonfiction, and was recognized as a modernist writer ahead of her time. Despite her contributions, she had a tumultuous relationship with the Communist Party, ultimately resigning in 1949 following critiques of her work. Devanny's legacy remains as a visionary author whose political and social convictions deeply influenced her literary output.
Subject Terms
Jean Devanny
New Zealand-born Australian fiction novelist.
- Born: January 7, 1894
- Birthplace: Ferntown, New Zealand
- Died: March 8, 1962
- Place of death:Townsville, Australia
Biography
The writer Jean Devanny was born Jane Crook in Ferntown, New Zealand, in 1894. Devanny left school at age thirteen to take care of her mother. She changed her name to Jean at the suggestion of a schoolteacher. She married Francis Harold Devanny in 1911, and the couple had three children. Francis Harold Devanny was a miner who was deeply involved in union activities and Marxist studies. The Devannys joined the Communist Party, and Jean Devanny was able to learn quickly from her contacts with labor leaders and her wide reading. She also helped establish the Writers League in 1935 and served as its first president before it evolved into the Writers Association.
In 1926, Devanny’s novel The Butcher Shop was published in London and gained wide recognition. It was banned in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, and parts of the United States for its candid examination of farming conditions. Devanny believed a socialist state offered the only hope for equality for women. She pursued this conviction in her other works of fiction.
During the 1940s, Devanny battled with Communist Party leaders, who revoked her membership and later reinstated it. Devanny abandoned the party in 1949 after leaders critiqued elements of her novel Cindie: A Chronicle of the Canefields (1949). She would later state that her political preoccupations prevented her from realizing the full extent of her literary talents. Seen as a visionary whose modernist ways were ahead of her time, Devanny was called a romantic revolutionary by one of her biographers, Carole Ferrier.
Author Works
Long Fiction:
Lenore Divine, 1926
The Butcher Shop, 1926
Dawn Beloved, 1928
Riven, 1929
Devil Made Saint, 1930
Bushman Burke, 1930
Poor Swine, 1932
Out of Such Fires, 1934
The Ghost Wife, 1935
The Virtuous Courtesan, 1935
Sugar Heaven, 1936
Paradise Flow, 1938
The Killing of Jacqueline Love, 1942
Roll Back the Night, 1945
Cindie: A Chronicle of the Canefields, 1949
Short Fiction:
Old Savage and Other Stories, 1927
Nonfiction:
By Tropic Sea and Jungle: Adventures in North Queensland, 1944
Bird of Paradise, 1945
Travels in North Queensland, 1951
Point of Departure: The Autobiography of Jean Devanny, 1986
Bibliography
Devanny, Jean. Point of Departure: The Autobiography of Jean Devanny. U of Queensland P, 1986. Provides insight into Devanny's life and career.
Ferrier, Carole. Jean Devanny: Romantic Revolutionary. Melbourne UP, 1999. A principle full-length biography of Devanny, drawing on her unpublished archives and manuscripts as well as oral histories from those who knew her.
Griffith, Penny. "Jean Devanny." TheProw.org.nz, 18 Apr. 2015, www.theprow.org.nz/arts/jean-devanny/#.WVKkd-srJpg. Accessed 27 June 2017. Discusses Devanny as an important early writer in the Golden Bay/Mohua area of New Zealand, focusing on analysis of her novel Dawn Beloved.
Roberts, Heather. "Devanny, Jean." Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/4d13/devanny-jean. Accessed 27 June 2017. This biographical overview details both Devanny's political activism and her career as a writer.
Store, Ron. "Devanny, Jane (Jean) (1894–1962)." Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1981, adb.anu.edu.au/biography/devanny-jane-jean-5968/text10141. Accessed 27 June 2017. Provides a biographical overview of Devanny, including discussion of her contacts in the Australian literature scene and her involvement in political causes.