- Born
- 27 September 1874
Fulham, London, England - Died
- 9 April 1953
Ruislip, Middlesex, England
Summary
Dorrington was born in London, and came to Australia aged 16, where he travelled widely through remote far northern and outback areas. He contributed short stories to the Bulletin in the 1890s, some of which were collected in Castro's Last Sacrament and Other Stories (1900). He co-wrote his first novel, The Lady Calphurnia Royal (1907), with Bulletin editor A G Stephens, which resulted in a rift between them. Bitter about a perceived lack of literary opportunity, Dorrington left Australia for London in 1907, and was later accuse d by Stephens and other colonial authors of inaccuracies and plagiarism. He continued publishing articles and stories in local journals and newspapers like the Bulletin, the Lone Hand, the North Queensland Register and Steele Rudd's Magazine into the mid-1930s as well as writing novels and becoming a noted contributor to the London press.