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Women Writers Fund

  • A copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein open to the front-pages, showing an engraving
  • A copy of Jane Austen's Emma, open to Chapter 1
  • A copy of The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World, by Margaret Cavendish, open to the title page
  • A copy of The Common Reader: Second Series by Virginia Woolf
  • A copy of the book 2002: Childlife One Hundred Years From Now
  • A book by artist Mary Gartside on the theory of colour

The Women Writers Fund is a pioneering initiative that seeks to redress the historical gender imbalance in State Library Victoria's collection by acquiring works by under-represented women writers.

Although State Library Victoria holds an extraordinarily rich collection, it's clear from consulting early library catalogues that patriarchal perspectives on collecting have resulted in the under-representation of women writers.

The work of the Women Writers Fund will give future generations access to more diverse and representative voices from different times, cultures and disciplines.

Rare books acquired through the Women Writers Fund are displayed at the Library's Salon After D'Arc event series. Supported by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, Salon After D'Arc aims to inform and inspire today's young people by shining a light on women's intellectual and creative endeavours from the past.   

To date, the fund has enabled the Library to purchase more than 180 significant texts by female authors, including:

  • a first edition of Institutions de physique (1740) by groundbreaking French Enlightenment physicist Émilie du Châtelet 
  • an extensive archive of 19th- and 20th-century Suffragette material, including rare ephemera and iconic newspapers such as Votes for Women
  • two of the three published works by artist Mary Gartside (c. 1755-1819), the first woman to publish a theory of colour
  • an Edo (early 17th-century) manuscript of the Tale of Genji, written by Lady Murasaki in the early 11th century and renowned as the world’s first novel
  • a first edition of The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World, one of the earliest examples of science fiction, published by Margaret Cavendish in 1666
  • first editions of great works of literature by Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Ursula Le Guin and Toni Morrison, and many other iconic authors 
  • works by lesser-known women authors, like 19th-century Irish-Canadian Mary Ann Sadlier, whose accessible novels were read widely by the global Irish diaspora, including here in Victoria. 

But there are hundreds more to pursue.

Your support will enable us to acquire a world-class collection of works by women writers and ensure that these voices aren't lost to history. For more information and to make a donation, contact the Philanthropic Programs team at donations@slv.vic.gov.au or on (03) 8664 7589.

The Women Writers Fund was co-founded by Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Helen Sykes and endowed by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust.

Donate now