BJELKE-PETERSEN, MARIE CAROLINE (1874-1969), novelist, was born on 23 December
1874 at Jagtvejen near Copenhagen, only daughter of Georg Peter Bjelke-Petersen,
gardener and later master builder, and his wife Caroline Vilhelmine, née Hansen.
Marie attended schools in Denmark, Germany and London. When very young she was
taken on long walks by her father, who had spartan ideals and instructed his
children in subjects ranging from the Bible to Greek mythology and gymnastics. The
family migrated to Tasmania in the Doric, arriving in Hobart on 13 October 1891,
and settled at New Town. Next year Marie's brother Hans established the
Bjelke-Petersen Physical Culture School in Hobart; Marie joined as instructor in
charge of the women's section and also taught the subject in schools. In 1906 she
registered with the Australasian Massage Association and next year with the
Teachers and Schools Registration Board, Tasmania. Illness forced her to abandon
this career and she then began to write seriously. She was naturalized in
1915.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
Marie Bjelke-Petersen is best known as a writer, but as a young woman she enjoyed playing sport and was, it has been argued, instrumental in introducing the sport of netball to Tasmania.
She migrated with her family to Hobart, Tasmania in 1891, where her brother, Hans Christian, established the Bjelke-Peterson Physical Culture school in 1892. Marie joined as instructor in charge of the women's section; she also taught the subject in schools. It was during that time, it is suggested, that the Bjelke-Petersens learned about a new game called basketball that was being played in the United States. Marie introduced drills designed for the game in to the Physical Culture program that she taught in the schools.
Unfortunately, injuries prevented her from continuing with her teaching career much past 1910. At this point, she picked up her career as a writer. She published her first novel The Captive Singer, in 1917 to much aclaim; it sold 100,000 copies in English and 40,000 in Danish. In 1935 she won the King's Jubilee medal for services to literature.
In recent years, Bjelke-Petersen has become a gay and lesbian icon. She lived in an intimate relationship with Silvia Mills, who she met in 1898, and who, it is argued, The Captive Singer was about, for thirty years.
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1935
King's Jubilee Medal - For Services to Literature
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Australian Women's Register