Edith Searle Grossmann was a significant New Zealand literary voice in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her fiction connects to five key themes in early New Zealand literature: the place and position of women; the nature of a moral society; the importance of place; the shaping power of reading and education; and the increasing desire of New Zealanders to shape a national identity. In her life as well as her fiction Grossmann was a torchbearer for female education, female suffrage, and female work.
Edith Howitt Searle was born on 8 September 1863 in Beechworth, Victoria. She was the fourth child and third daughter of Mary Ann (née Beeby) and George Smales Searle. Her father was a newspaper editor and the family moved first to Melbourne and then New Zealand in 1877.
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Citation: Moffat, Kirstine. "Edith Searle Grossmann". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 September 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1896, accessed 19 April 2024.]
