Rose Lindsay's memoirs
Ma and Pa: My Childhood Memories and Model Wife: My Life with Norman
Lindsay were first published in 1963 and 1967 respectively and
both are now rare books Here for the first time they are published
in one volume, Rose Lindsay: A Model Life.
In Ma and Pa, Rose, in effect, writes a history of the Sydney suburb
of Longueville during the 1890s and early 1900s. The book is peopled
with unforgettable real-life characters and illustrated with Rose's
own quirky pen and ink illustrations. Funny and touching, Ma and
Pa is the warm-hearted story of one family's life in Sydney, the
constant struggle for survival and the resilience of Ma who kept
an ever watchful eye on her brood of nine children.
Model Wife traces Rose through her early modelling days, her
meeting with Norman Lindsay, their life together in Sydney
and Springwood
and their travels to England and America. Apart from the intimate
details of Rose's life with Norman, this book is peppered with
the artistic and literary figures of the day: among others
Dame Nellie
Melba, Anna Pavlova, Fritz Kreisler, Julian Ashton, Elioth Gruner,
Hans Heysen, Miles Franklin, H. G. Wells, Fanny Hurst, Edna Ferber
and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Rose emerged from humble beginnings to become a woman of style
and substance with enormous strength of character. She was model
and
wife of Norman Lindsay (one of Australia's most controversial
and best known artists), master printmaker, business woman
and mother
of two. Rose Lindsay should rightfully be regarded as one of
the outstanding female personalities of twentieth century
Australia.
A Model Life is packed with wonderful stories from the past,
richly illustrated and written with Rose's dry sense of humour
and irrepressible
joie de vivre.
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