Main site navigation

Nisbet, Hume (1849 - 1923)

Gallery

Born
8 August 1849
Stirling, Scotland
Died
4 June 1923
Eastbourne, Sussex, England

Summary

Nisbet was born in Stirling, Scotland, arriving in Melbourne at the age of sixteen where he became involved in theatrical life. He returned to Britain to study art, and went on to teach and exhibit in Edinburgh. He became a prolific book illustrator, and was later commissioned by Cassell and Co. to visit Australia and New Guinea, contributing articles and sketches for Cassell's Picturesque Australasia (1887-89). Nisbet published seventeen novels, many of which were set in and around Australia and the Pacific. The first, The Land of the Hibiscus Blossom: a yarn of the Papuan Gulf, was published in 1888 and then republished ten years later as part of Heinemann's Colonial Library of Popular Fiction. Nisbet's fiction in fact covered a range of popular genres, including romance, colonial adventure and crime. His autobiographical writings included A Colonial Tramp: Travels and Adventures in Australia and New Guinea (1891) and Reminiscences of Early Australian Life (1893).

Published resources

Books

  • Nisbet, Hume, The land of the hibiscus blossom : a yarn of the Papuan Gulf, Ward and Downey, London, 1888, 340 pp. Details
  • Nisbet, Hume, Ashes : a tale of two spheres, Author's Co-operative Pub. Co., London, 1890, 404 pp. Details
  • Nisbet, Hume, A singular crime : a novel, R. E. King & Co., London, 1890s, 102 pp. Details
  • Nisbet, Hume, The Savage Queen : a romance of the natives of Van Dieman's Land, F. V. White, London, 1891, 324 pp. Details
  • Nisbet, Hume, Bail up! : a romance of bushrangers and blacks, Chatto & Windus, London, 1891, 319 pp. Details
  • Nisbet, Hume, The bushranger's sweetheart : an Australian romance, F. V. White, London, 1893, 312 pp. Details
  • Nisbet, Hume, The swampers : a romance of the Westralian goldfields, F. V. White, London, 1897, 312 pp. Details

Short Stories

  • Nisbet, Hume, 'My Friend the Cannibals', in Fisher, Lala (ed.), By creek and gully : stories and sketches mostly of bush life, told in prose and rhyme, by Australian writers in England, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1899, pp. 119-144. Details

See also

Rachael Weaver