Aileen Palmer - poet, translator, political activist, adventurer - was
the daughter of two writers prominent in Australian literature in the
first half of the twentieth century. Vance and Nettie Palmer were well
known as novelists, poets, critics and journalists, and Nettie suspected
that their eldest would grow up with 'ink in her veins'. Aileen
certainly inherited her parents' talents, publishing poetry, translating
the work of Ho Chi Minh, and recording what she referred to as
'semi-fictional bits of egocentric writing'. She also absorbed their
interest in leftist politics, joining the Communist Party at university.
This, combined with her bravery, led to participation in the Spanish
Civil War and the ambulance service in London during World War II. The
return to Australia was not easy, and Aileen never successfully
reintegrated into civilian life. In Ink in Her Veins Sylvia Martin
paints an honest and moving portrait in which we see a talented woman
slowly brought down by war, family expectations, and psychiatric illness
and the sometimes cruel 'treatments' common in the 20th century.
[Subject: Literary Criticism, Biography]