Coogee Media

Early Life in Coogee
Catherine Gaskin was born in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland on 2nd April 1929. She came with her family to Sydney as a three month old infant. The family settled in Coogee. She was the daughter of James and Mary (nee Harrington). Catherine (nicknamed "Barney") was the youngest of six children with sisters Eva, Violet, Moira (nicknamed "Pip") and brothers Jack and Jim.

According to a web post by her nephew George K. Mitchell, the family home was at 328 Arden Street Coogee. Catherine's father became a state public servant with the Department of Main Roads. Growing up near Coogee Beach, she had no interest in water sports such as surfing and could barely swim, but did have an interest in music and had lessons at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Her ambition was to be an pianist until her father would send her to the local paid subscription library to borrow and return books sparked an interest in literature. At the age of 15, she made the fateful decision to become a writer and a published author.

Begins Career as Author
Catherine was attending the Holy Cross High School at nearby Woollahra and would get up each morning at 4am each day to write. Her family seemed to have been quite supportive of her efforts. By the end of the Christmas holidays at the age of just 16 she had completed her first novel. She sent the manuscript to four publishers and was disappointed to have the first three reject it, and finally, was thrilled to receive an invitation from Collins to see them about its publication. When she and her mother went to the publisher's office, their representative asked "Which one of you wrote it?" He was surprised to see such a young, slight woman of just 152 centimeters tall, claim authorship.

Catherine took leave for a couple of months from her high school to revise the manuscript which was soon published titled This Other Eden. It sold 50,000 copies making her a best selling author at just 17. She never went back to the Holy Cross College.

This Other Eden has been classed a historical romance, and is about a rich and brilliant American woman, Nicole Rainard, travels to resolve to find a place Society, and to humble an Englishman of an aristocratic family who had jilted her mother in the past. A second novel, With Every Year followed in 1948.

Moira and Catherine Gaskin, 1951

In 1948 she left for England with her mother Mary, sister Moira and her 9 year old nephew, George Mitchell (who was the son of older sister Violet). Moira suffered from a debilitating condition known as Frederich's ataxia and needed constant care. Part of the reason for traveling to England was that the family had heard that there was a specialist doctor there who could treat Moia's condition. Eventually, Mary and George returned to Australia, leaving Catherine and Moira ensconced in a London flat. Moira needed a lot of care and assistance and was in and out of hospital. Catherine was often quoted as saying she saw writing as a job and not the main theme of her life, and though she continued to maintain the self-discipline to maintain her early morning writing habits, took an interest in the cultural life of London. As a cat lover, she was also a prolific collector of cat figurines.

Catherine Gaskin - covers from This Other Eden, Sara Dane and Charmed Circle

Successful Novelist
Catherine produced another three successful novels: Dust in Sunlight (1950), All Else Is Folly (1951) and Daughter of the House (1952). Then in 1954 she produced the blockbuster effort of Sara Dane, a hugely successful publication that would sell well over two million copies, and the work she is best remembered for. It is a rags to riches story loosely based on the life of pioneering colonial Australian business woman Mary Reibey (1777-1855). Eventually, the novel would be turned into a television mini-series in the early 1980s and which was filmed in Australia and distributed around the world.

In 1955 Catherine returned to Australia by air via San Francisco. She noted on an entry card that she had come home to visit relatives and for "business". She stayed for six weeks, and gave her address as 4 Havelock Avenue, Coogee. The "business" part of the trip was to visit places like Ballarat, Victoria and Tasmania to gather material for future novels.

Marries
In London she met her future husband, Sol Cornberg, on a blind date. He had asked a friend of his if she knew anyone who would like to go and see the film Moby Dick with him. Catherine was the one person the friend knew who did, and eventually they married. Sol Cornberg, 19 years her senior, was an American television producer who worked for NBC in the US, and also wrote about technical television production. He had come to London to design television studios.

Moira Gaskin
Despite her illness, Moira also penned a novel called Heaven Knows Where based on her experience observing hospitals and medicos she saw during her medical treatments which was published by Collins in 1951. Later she wrote another called A Village Whispered which was published in London by Collins in 1959.

Moira returned to Sydney by air via the US and Hawaii in March 1958. National Archives of Australia records show that she gave her occupation as "Novelist" and that, despite still having Irish nationality on her passport, was "returning home" to live, her address then being 23 Mermaid Avenue, Lurline Bay, the next seaside suburb south of Coogee. Moria Enid Gaskin died on the 27th January, 1979, "late of Our Lady of Consolation Home, Rooty Hill" according to her death notice.

Living Around the World
Catherine and Sol lived for ten years in Manhattan, on Central Park South and Broadway. They spent summers in Dutchess County, New York. After a shorter stay at St Vincent in the Virgin Islands (1965-67), and a brief return to the US, Catherine and Sol moved to Bellymachara, Ireland., where they created a garden, Catherine told Roy Plomley during her Desert Island Discs interview (1980), that she had held an ambition to go back to live in Ireland. At the time she returned, the Irish government was keen to encourage writers, artists and composers to live in the country.

Catherine Gaskin, c1980

In 1981, Catherine and Sol made their home on the Isle of Mann, where they created another garden.

Retires
Catherine retired from writing in 1988 with the publication of her last novel The Charmed Circle The couple wanted to travel unhindered by everyday concerns, and spent the next decade until Sol died in 1999. In 2000, Catherine returned permanently to Australia, making a home in Mosman on Sydney's north shore. Catherine had returned to Australia for a few brief visits since her 1955 sojourn, but said she always had an ambition to live back in Australia. I was born in Ireland" she said "but think like an Australian".

She lived in a villa in a retirement village in Mosman, she enjoyed the opera, concerts and the theatre while catching up with old friends and family. She died there on September 6, 2009.

Legacy
Critics have placed Catherine Gaskin's work in the historical romance genre and she never claimed to be producing great literature. However, her novels were always well received by her audience who often commented that they were great reads, and difficult to put down. Well written, and well researched, they were produced in many editions and formats and translated in other languages. Her fans around the world mourned her passing.

Catherine Gaskin's signature

References