Ellen Liston

David Liston was a wine and spirit merchant, listed as the landlord of the Dover Castle public house in London in 1848.

Liston resigned from teaching and worked as the first female telegraph operator in the GPO in Adelaide (possibly the first in Australia).

[3][5] In 1879 Liston won a prize offered by the Melbourne Leader for her serialised novel Auckland Marston, appearing in that newspaper from November 1879 to February 1880.

Liston's early work has been compared to the short fiction of Barbara Baynton and Henry Lawson, in their depiction of women alone in an Australian bush setting which is seen as threatening, dangerous and mysterious.

[6] Despite two offers of marriage, Liston remained single and much of her work features strong women who lead fulfilling lives.