Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (14 October 187919 September 1954), known as Miles Franklin, was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel '' My Brilliant Career'', published by Blackwoods of Edinburgh in 1901. While she wrote throughout her life, her other major literary success, '' All That Swagger'', was not published until 1936. She was committed to the development of a uniquely Australian form of literature, and she actively pursued this goal by supporting writers, literary journals, and writers' organisations. She has had a long-lasting impact on Australian literary life through her endowment of a major annual prize for literature about "Australian Life in any of its phases", the

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the Will (law), will of Miles Franklin ...

. Her impact was further recognised in 2013 with the creation of the Stella Prize, awarded annually for the best work of literature by an Australian woman.

Life and career

SLNSW 822152 No 39 Suzannah F amp John Franklin parents of Stella Miles Franklin

Franklin was born at Talbingo, New South Wales, and grew up in the Brindabella Valley on a property called Brindabella Station. She was the eldest child of Australian-born parents, John Maurice Franklin and Susannah Margaret Eleanor Franklin, née Lampe, who was the great-granddaughter of Edward Miles (or Moyle) who had arrived with the

First Fleet The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the History of Australia (1788–1850), European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessel ...

in the ''

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

'' with a seven-year sentence for theft. Her family was a member of the squattocracy. She was educated at home until 1889 when she attended Thornford Public. During this period she was encouraged in her writing by her teacher, Mary Gillespie (1856–1938) and Tom Hebblewhite (1857–1923) editor of the local

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, approximately south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent by Queen Victor ...

newspaper. Her best known novel, '' My Brilliant Career'', tells the story of an irrepressible teenage girl, Sybylla Melvyn, growing to womanhood in rural New South Wales. It was published in 1901 with the support of Australian writer,

Henry Lawson Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period ...

.Roe (1981) After its publication, Franklin tried a career in nursing, and then as a housemaid in Sydney and Melbourne. While doing this she contributed pieces to ''

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'' and ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'' under the pseudonyms "An Old Bachelor" and "Vernacular." During this period she wrote ''My Career Goes Bung'' in which Sybylla encounters the Sydney literary set, but it was not released to the public until 1946. An overtly anti-war play, ''The Dead Must Not Return'', was not published or performed but received a public reading in September 2009.

In the United States and England

In 1906, Franklin moved to the US and undertook secretarial work for Alice Henry, another Australian, at the National Women's Trade Union League in Chicago, and co-edited the league's magazine, ''Life and Labor''. Her years in the US are reflected in '' On Dearborn Street'' (not published until 1981), a love story that uses American slang in a manner not dissimilar to the early work of

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett ( ; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the characters he created are Sam Spade ('' The Ma ...

. Also while in America she wrote ''Some Everyday Folk and Dawn'' (1909), the story of a small-town Australian family, which uses

purple prose In literary criticism, purple prose is overly ornate prose text that may disrupt a narrative flow by drawing undesirable attention to its own extravagant style of writing, thereby diminishing the appreciation of the prose overall. Purple prose i ...

for deliberate comic effect. She suffered regular bouts of ill health and entered a sanatorium for a period in 1912 In 1915, she travelled to England and worked as a cook and earned some money from journalism. In March 1917 Franklin volunteered for war work in the

Ostrovo Unit The Ostrovo Unit was a field hospital unit with Transport Column of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. It comprised approximately 200 beds and was situated near Lake Ostrovo (or Lake Vegoritida in the Greek region of Macedonia) during the First ...

of the Scottish Women's Hospitals during the Serbian campaigns of 1917–18. She served as a cook and later matron's orderly in a 200-bed tent hospital attached to the Serbian army near Lake Ostrovo in Macedonian Greece from July 1917 to February 1918. From 1919 to 1926 Franklin worked as Secretary with the National Housing and Town Planning Association in London. She organised a women's international housing convention in 1924. Her life in England in the 1920s gave rise to ''Bring the Monkey'' (1933), a satire on the English country house mystery novel. The book reveals Franklin's views on nationality and class. The book was a literary and commercial failure.

Return to Australia

Franklin resettled in Australia in 1932 after the death of her father in 1931. During that decade she wrote several historical novels of the Australian bush, most of which were published under the pseudonym "Brent of Bin Bin". New South Wales State Librarian, Dagmar Schmidmaier, said "Miles increasingly feared that nothing she wrote matched the success of ''My Brilliant Career'' and resorted to writing under different names, including the pseudonym Brent of Bin Bin, to protect herself from poor reviews." However, ''All That Swagger'' was published under her own name in 1936, winning the S. H. Prior Memorial Prize. Franklin also won the S. H. Prior Memorial Prize in 1939 together with Kate Baker for their collaborative work 'Who Was Joseph Furphy?'. Throughout her life, Franklin actively supported

Australian literature Australian literature is the literature, written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Australia, Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western culture, Western history, Australia was a ...

. She joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers in 1933 and the Sydney PEN Club in 1935. She encouraged young writers such as Jean Devanny, Sumner Locke Elliott and Ric Throssell and she supported the new literary journals, ''

Meanjin ''Meanjin'' (), formerly ''Meanjin Papers'' and ''Meanjin Quarterly'', is one of Australia's longest-running literary magazines. Established in 1940 in Brisbane, it moved to Melbourne in 1945 and as of 2008 is an editorially independent impri ...

'' and ''Southerly''. Miles entertained literary figures at her home in Carlton, NSW. An autograph book known as Miles Franklin's Waratah Book held by the State Library of NSW was used for autographs and inscriptions. Guests were encouraged to drink tea from the Waratah Cup and to write in the Waratah Book. In 1937, Franklin declined appointment as an Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

having taken offence to the appointment of compatriot poet Mary Gilmore to the higher honour of

Dame Commander ''Dame'' is a traditionally British honorific title given to women who have been admitted to certain orders of chivalry. It is the female equivalent of ''Sir'', the title used by knights. Baronetesses in their own right also use the title ''Da ...

within the same order.Roe (2004) In this period of her life Franklin was a constant attendee and speaker at various cultural and literary events. Her message was centred on free speech and the championing of Australian literature. Franklin was not a member of any political party, although her diaries reveal an interest in socialism and ASIO did have a file on Franklin during the Cold War. Franklin's literary friend P.R. ('Inky') Stephenson launched the pro-isolationist, anti-war

Australia First Movement The Australia First Movement (AFM) was an Extremism, extremist political movement founded in Sydney in October 1941, which advocated for isolationism and collaborationism during World War II and supported fascism and Nazism. It grew out of the ...

in late 1941, to which Franklin was vehemently opposed, as evidenced by her diary entries and correspondence at the time - "Reds or pinks or 'rightists' all showed their ignorance" she wrote after attending a AFM meeting, and of Stephenson "I could not have anything to do with his politics". Franklin was staunchly anti-war and, traumatized by her WWI experiences, very much feared a war on Australian soil at this time. While Miles Franklin had many suitors, she never married. She died on 19 September 1954, aged 74 and her ashes were scattered in Jounama Creek, Talbingo close to where she was born.

Collaborations

Miles Franklin engaged in a number of literary collaborations throughout her life. In addition to co-editing the journal ''Life and Labor'' with Alice Henry in the US, she also wrote ''Pioneers on Parade'' in collaboration with Dymphna Cusack and a biography of Joseph Furphy (1944) "in painful collaboration with Kate Baker". Previously, in 1939, she and Baker had won the Prior Memorial prize for an essay on Furphy. Dever writes that the letters between Dymphna Cusack and Miles Franklin that are published in ''Yarn Spinners'' "provide a see-sawing commentary on the delicate art of literary collaboration".

Legacy

In her will she made a bequest for her estate to establish an annual literary award known as The

. The first winner was Patrick White with ''

Voss Voss () is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality and a Districts of Norway, traditional district in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen. Other villages inclu ...

'' in 1957. The

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

suburb of Franklin and the nearby primary school Miles Franklin Primary School are named in her honour. The school holds an annual writing competition in her memory. Additionally the Franklin Public School in Tumut, NSW is also named in her honour. During her lifetime Miles Franklin donated several items to the Mitchell Library. Manuscript material was presented over the period 1937–1942. The various drafts of "Pioneers on Parade" were presented in 1940. She bequeathed her printed book collection, correspondence and notes as well as the poems of Mary Fullerton. 47 of Miles Franklin's diaries are in the

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establis ...

, including one copy discovered in 2018. A revival of interest in Franklin occurred in the wake of the Australian New Wave film '' My Brilliant Career'' (1979), which won several international awards. In 2014,

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celebrated her 135th birthday. In her 2022 novel, ''Salonika Burning'', The Australian writer Gail Jones fictionalises Miles Franklin (as 'Stella'), and her experiences in Macedonia, as a central character, along with British painters Grace Pailthorpe and

Stanley Spencer Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE Royal Academy of Arts, RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if ...

, and Australian adventurer Olive King.

Awards

* 1936: S. H. Prior Memorial Prize awarded by The Bulletin for ''All that Swagger'' * 1939: S. H. Prior Memorial Prize for ''Joseph Furphy: The Legend of a Man and His Book'' * 2001: Posthumously inducted onto Victorian Honour Roll of Women

Selected works

Novels

* '' My Brilliant Career'' (1901) * '' Some Everyday Folk and Dawn'' (1909) * '' Old Blastus of Bandicoot'' (1931) * '' Bring the Monkey'' (1933) * '' All That Swagger'' (1936) * '' Pioneers on Parade'' (1939) – with Dymphna Cusack * '' My Career Goes Bung'' (1946) * ''The Thorny Rose'' (1947) * '' On Dearborn Street'' (1981)

Under the pseudonym of "Brent of Bin Bin"

* '' Up the Country'' (1928) * '' Ten Creeks Run'' (1930) * '' Back to Bool Bool'' (1931) * '' Prelude to Waking'' (1950) * '' Cockatoos'' (1954) * ''Gentleman at Gyang Gyang'' (1956)

Non-fiction

*''Joseph Furphy: The Legend of a Man and His Book'' (1944) *''Laughter, Not for a Cage'' (1956) *''Childhood at Brindabella'' (1963)

References

Bibliography

* Accessed: 2007-09-01
Dever, Maryanne (2001?) ''The Complexities of Female Friendship: Review of "Yarn Spinners' and "Passionate Friends"''
Accessed: 2007-09-01
''Miles Franklin: Her Brilliant Yet Troubled Life Revealed'' (Media Release for State Library of New South Wales exhibition, Miles Franklin: A brilliant career?), 26 February 2004
Accessed: 2007-09-01

Accessed: 2007-09-01 * ttp://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/10/1078594424707.html?from=storyrhs Roe, Jill (2004) "The diaries of Miles Franklin" in ''theage.com.au'', 13 March 2004Accessed: 2007-09-01 *Spender, Dale (1988) ''Writing a New World: Two Centuries of Australian Women Writers'', London: Pandora
State Library of New South Wales ''Australian Feminist Manuscripts: Miles Franklin (1879–1954)''
Accessed: 2007-09-01 *Roe, Jill (2008) ''Stella Miles Franklin: a biography'', Harper Collins, Australia

Archives At

*Miles Franklin - Papers, 1841-1954, bequeathed 1954, State Library of New South Wales
MLMSS 364

External links

* *

at

Project Gutenberg Australia Project Gutenberg Australia, abbreviated as PGA, is an Internet site which was founded in 2001 by Colin Choat. It is a sister site of Project Gutenberg, though there is no formal relationship between the two organizations. The site hosts free ebo ...

* * *
Great Rural Speeches: Miles Franklin

Miles Franklin: A Brilliant Career? : State Library of New South Wales exhibition guide

Interview with biographer Jill Roe, author of Stella Miles Franklin: A Biography, with Ramona Koval, The Book Show, ABC Radio National, 20/11/08.
MP3 audiobook of My Brilliant Career
fro
LibriVox
*
Miles Franklin diary, 5 January 1917 – 16 February 1918
images and transcript at State Library of New South Wales
Miles Franklin diary, 17 February-29 December 1918
images and transcript at State Library of New South Wales

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franklin, Miles 1879 births 1954 deaths Australian women novelists Australian non-fiction writers Writers from New South Wales People from the Riverina Australian crime writers Australian satirists Australian satirical novelists Australian women satirists Child writers 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian women writers Australian feminist writers Australian women mystery writers Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service volunteers 19th-century Australian women 19th-century Australian writers 19th-century Australian women writers Australian women of World War I