James Francis Dwyer was born on April 22, 1874 in Camden, New South Wales, Australia. He was the fifth son of Michael and Margaret (Mahoney) Dwyer. The family moved to Menangle in 1883 and next year to Campbelltown. James and his seven brothers used to work on the family farm.
Education
Dwyer was educated in public schools in Campbelltown till 14.
Career
When Dwyer was 14, James was sent to relatives in Sydney, where he worked as a publisher's clerk. He became a letter-carrier at Rockdale, New South Wales, in May 1892. In 1895 he became a postal assistant at the Oxford Street post office branch. On June 16, 1899 Dwyer received a seven year prison sentence. While he was in prison, he started writing, publishing a poem and two short stories. After he was released, he worked as a salesman, clerk, compositor, pigeon-buyer and signwriter. He turned to journalism, freelancing for Truth and Sydney Sportsman. In 1906, after his parole completed, he left for London. Lacking a college education, and without any references, he could not get a job. He decided to immigrate to the United States. In the United States he was not successful in finding a job, but got a job as a tram conductor. Likewise he wrote a story about how the tram company was endangering passenger safety by ignoring regulations and sold it. After winning a contest, he received a commission to write for the Black Cat magazine. After that, his stories were published in Harper's Bazaar, Collier's, The American Magazine, The Ladies’ Home Journal and other popular magazines and proved very profitable.In 1912 he wrote his first novel “The White Waterfall”. To gather information about the locations for his stories, he traveled extensively in the United States and Europe; and revisited Australia in 1913. But then he continued traveling across Europe, Asia and North Africa until 1920. In 1921 he founded (with Galbraith Welch Dwyer) the Dwyer Travel letters. In 1949 he published his autobiography "Leg-Irons on Wings" (published only in Australia, not in the US and UK). James Francis Dwyer died in Pau, France on 11 November 1952.
James Francis Dwyer married Selina Cassandra Stewart, November 7, 1893, they had children, but divorced in December 1919. Thereafter he married his agent Catherine (Galbraith) Welch on December 30, 1919.