From 1898 until 1901, Mack wrote "A Woman's Letter" for
The Bulletin. Her first novel was published in 1896 and her only collection of poetry in 1901. Following this she travelled to England and Europe and did not return to Australia until 1916. Mack wrote sixteen novels over nearly 40 years.
The Spectator wrote in 1903 about her third novel,
Girls Together, a companion piece to
Teens: A Story of Australian School Girls, that "the narrative is distinctly interesting. The study of character is excellent".
War correspondent In 1914, when war broke out Louise Mack was in Belgium where she continued to work as the first woman war correspondent for the
Evening News and the London
Daily Mail. Her eye-witness account of the German invasion of Antwerp and her adventures—''A Woman's Experiences in the Great War''—was published in 1915. She was not only the first woman to be a war correspondent but she was also the first Australian to study the Germans this closely during this time. She was under shell-fire for thirty-six hours in
Antwerp, and at one point went right through German lines to the
city of Brussels.
Returning to Australia Returning to Australia in 1916, Mack gave a series of lectures about her war experiences. She frequently wrote for
The Sydney Morning Herald, the
Bulletin and other newspapers and magazines. While back in Australia, in 1917–1918, she used her lectures on her war experiences to raise money for the
Australian Red Cross Society. On 1 September 1924, Mack married 33-year-old Allen Illingworth Leyland (d. 1932). In the 1930s, she wrote a series of humorous but helpful articles for the ''
Australian Women's Weekly'', titled "Louise Mack advises". Mack died in
Mosman, New South Wales on 23 November 1935. ==Bibliography==