Clarinda Sarah Parkes (23 July 1839 – 11 October 1915) was an Australian poet and writer. She was also known as Menie Parkes and wrote under that and a number of other pseudonyms, including Patty Parsley, Alethea, Ariel and C. S. P.

Biography

Parkes was the daughter of Clarinda (née Varney) and Henry Parkes, later five-time Premier of New South Wales. She was born on board the Strathfieldsaye, off the New South Wales coast, near Cape Howe. ^[1]

Her first poem appeared in print under her initials, C. S. P., in 1855 in the Empire, ^[2] a Sydney newspaper owned and edited by her father. ^[3] In 1859–1860, as Patty Parsley she wrote serialised stories for The Australian Home Companion and Band of Hope Journal. ^[4] Writing as Ariel, Bitter-Sweet–So Is the World was serialised over 30 weeks in The Sydney Mail in 1860–1861. ^[5]

On 30 March 1869 Parkes married William Thom, at Werrington. ^[6] He was a Presbyterian minister and they settled in Pambula, where their first two sons were born, ^{[7] [8]} before moving to Ballan, near Ballarat in Victoria.

Parkes's last known published work was a reflection, Sydney Sixty Years Since, published in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1910. ^[9]

Death and legacy

Parkes died at her home in Ashfield, New South Wales on 11 October 1915. ^{[1] [10]} She was buried in St Thomas' cemetery at Enfield. ^[11]

In 1983 A. W. Martin edited a collection of Thom's letters to her father, Letters from Menie : Sir Henry Parkes and his daughter. ^[12]

Works

• Parkes, Menie (1866), Poems, Sydney: E. Cunninghame

References