The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Praed, Mrs. Campbell
Praed, Mrs. Campbell (Rosa Caroline Murray-Prior), was born at Bromelton, on the Logan river, Queensland, on March 27th, 1851, and is the daughter of Hon. T. L. Murray-Prior, M.L.C., and Matilda his first wife, daughter of Thomas Harpur, of Cecil Hills, N.S.W. Miss Murray-Prior was educated mainly at Brisbane, and previous to her marriage saw a great deal of the social and political life of Queensland, which she has utilised so effectively in her various novels. On August 29th, 1872, she married Arthur Campbell Bulkley Mackworth Praed, son of a banker in Fleet Street, London, and nephew of the poet Winthrop Mackworth Praed. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell Praed lived at their station on Curtis Island, Qd., until 1876, when they came to London. In 1880 she published her first novel, "An Australian Heroine," which has been followed in rapid succession by a number of works of fiction, many of which are thoroughly Australian in character; such as "Policy and Passion," (or "Longleat of Kooralbyn"); "Moloch"; "The Head Station"; "Affinities"; "Australian Life"; "Black and White"; "Miss Jacobsen's Chance"; "The Bond of Wedlock" (subsequently dramatised by the author, and produced by Mrs. Bernard Beere, under the name of the heroine, Ariane); "The Brother of the Shadow," "The Soul of Countess Adrian." In addition Mrs. Campbell Praed has collaborated with Mr. Justin McCarthy, M.P., and produced a series of novels dealing mainly with English political and social life, but some parts of which are distinctly Australian, and evidently from her pen. These are "The Right Honourable"; "The Ladies' Gallery"; and the "Rival Princess." Mrs. Campbell Praed is generally recognised as the most brilliant and successful of Australian novelists. Her descriptions of the scenery of her native land are unsurpassed; and Australians cannot be blamed for thinking her work, which deals with the life, character and scenes of Queensland, to be of a higher and more enduring kind than the descriptions of London ephemeral fashions, social, political or religions, which she occasionally essays. Some few years ago Mrs. Campbell Praed paid a visit to the United States, and subsequently wrote a series of articles on her transatlantic experiences in Temple Bar. She has frequently written for the magazines, English and American, and has been a contributor to the series of short stories written by "Australians in London," from "Oak-Bough and Wattle-Blossom" (1888) to Cooëe" (1891).