Henry Handel Richardson

Henry Handel Richardson, the pseudonym used by Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, was an Australian author. She took the name "Henry Handel" because at that time, many people did not take women's writing seriously. Born in East Melbourne into a prosperous family that later fell on hard times, Ethel Florence was the elder daughter of Walter Lindesay Richardson MD and his wife Mary . The family lived in various towns across Victoria during Richardson's childhood and youth. These included Chiltern, Queenscliff, Koroit and, most happily, Maldon, where Richardson's mother was postmistress .... The Richardsons' home in Chiltern, 'Lake View', is now owned by the National Trust and open to visitors. Richardson left Maldon to become a boarder at Presbyterian Ladies' College in Melbourne in 1883 and attended from the ages of 13 to 17. This experience was the basis for The Getting of Wisdom, a coming-of-age novel admired by H. G. Wells.
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