Miles Franklin
Encyclopedia
Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, known as Miles Franklin (14 October 187919 September 1954) was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel My Brilliant Career
, published 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 literary award known as the Miles Franklin Award
.
, and grew up in the Brindabella Valley
. She was the eldest child of Australian-born parents, John Maurice Franklin and Susannah Margaret Eleanor Franklin, née Lampe Her family was a member of the squattocracy.
Her best known novel, My Brilliant Career
, tells the story of an irrepressible teenage feminist growing to womanhood in rural New South Wales. This heroine, Sybylla Melvyn, is one of the most endearing characters in Australian literature and obviously has much in common with Franklin herself, who wrote the novel while she was still a teenager. It was published in 1901 with the support of Australian writer, Henry Lawson
. After its publication, Franklin tried a career in nursing, and then as a housemaid in Sydney and Melbourne. Whilst doing this she contributed pieces to The Daily Telegraph
and The Sydney Morning Herald
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. The book proved too hot to publish and did not become available to the public until 1946.
, 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. Also while in America she wrote Some Everyday Folk and Dawn (1909), the story of a small-town Australian family, which uses purple prose
for deliberate comic effect.
In 1915, she travelled to England and worked in the Ostrovo Unit
of the Scottish Women's Hospitals during the Serbian campaigns of 1917–18. Her life in England in the 1920s gave rise to Bring the Monkey (1933), a spoof (but with dark undertones) on the English country house mystery novel. Unfortunately Franklin had no understanding of the genre and the book was a literary and commercial failure.
Throughout her life, Franklin actively supported literature in Australia. She joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers
in 1933 and the Sydney P.E.N. 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
and Southerly.
In 1937, Franklin declined appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire
.
in the US, she also wrote Pioneers on Parade in collaboration Dymphna Cusack
and 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".
While Miles Franklin had many suitors, she never married. She died in 1954, aged 74.
. The first winner was Patrick White
with Voss
in 1957.
The Canberra
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.
film My Brilliant Career
(1979), which won several international awards. This film has resulted in students studying the author and film about its feminist messages. Significant readership for Franklin's other novels remains restricted to Australia.
My Brilliant Career
My Brilliant Career is a 1901 novel written by Miles Franklin.It is the first of many novels by Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin , one of the major Australian writers of her time. It was written while she was still a teenager, as a romance to amuse her friends...
, published 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 literary award known as the Miles Franklin Award
Miles Franklin Award
The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize for the best Australian ‘published novel or play portraying Australian life in any of its phases’. The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin , who is best known for writing the Australian classic My Brilliant Career ...
.
Life and career
Franklin was born at Talbingo, New South WalesNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, and grew up in the Brindabella Valley
Brindabella Ranges
The Brindabella Range is a mountain range located on the border between New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The ranges rise to the west of Canberra, the capital city of Australia, and include the Namadgi National Park in the A.C.T. and Bimberi Nature Reserve and...
. She was the eldest child of Australian-born parents, John Maurice Franklin and Susannah Margaret Eleanor Franklin, née Lampe Her family was a member of the squattocracy.
Her best known novel, My Brilliant Career
My Brilliant Career
My Brilliant Career is a 1901 novel written by Miles Franklin.It is the first of many novels by Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin , one of the major Australian writers of her time. It was written while she was still a teenager, as a romance to amuse her friends...
, tells the story of an irrepressible teenage feminist growing to womanhood in rural New South Wales. This heroine, Sybylla Melvyn, is one of the most endearing characters in Australian literature and obviously has much in common with Franklin herself, who wrote the novel while she was still a teenager. It was published in 1901 with the support of Australian writer, Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
. After its publication, Franklin tried a career in nursing, and then as a housemaid in Sydney and Melbourne. Whilst doing this she contributed pieces to The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...
and The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
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. The book proved too hot to publish and did not become available to the public until 1946.
In the USA and England
In 1906, Franklin moved to the US and undertook secretarial work for Alice HenryAlice Henry
Alice Henry , was an Australian suffragist, journalist and trade unionist who also became prominent in the American trade union movement as a member of the Women's Trade Union League....
, 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. Also while in America she wrote Some Everyday Folk and Dawn (1909), the story of a small-town Australian family, which uses purple prose
Purple prose
Purple prose is a term of literary criticism used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context...
for deliberate comic effect.
In 1915, she travelled to England and worked in the Ostrovo Unit
Ostrovo Unit
The Ostrovo Unit was a hospital unit of 200 tents situated near Lake Ostrovo during the First World War under the command of the Serbian Army.It was often called The America Unit as the money to fund it came from America....
of the Scottish Women's Hospitals during the Serbian campaigns of 1917–18. Her life in England in the 1920s gave rise to Bring the Monkey (1933), a spoof (but with dark undertones) on the English country house mystery novel. Unfortunately Franklin had no understanding of the genre and 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. Although most of these were published under the pseudonym "Brent of Bin Bin," her masterpiece All That Swagger (1936) – a family chronicle novel packed with memorable characters – was published under her own name. New South Wales State Librarian, Dagmar Schmidmaier, said that "Miles increasingly feared that nothing she wrote matched the success of My Brilliant Career and resorted to writing under different names, including the bizarre pseudonym Brent of Bin Bin, to protect herself from poor reviews."Throughout her life, Franklin actively supported literature in Australia. She joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers
Fellowship of Australian Writers
The Fellowship of Australian Writers, also known as FAW, was established in Sydney in 1928. Its aim is to bring writers together and promote their interests...
in 1933 and the Sydney P.E.N. Club in 1935. She encouraged young writers such as Jean Devanny
Jean Devanny
Jane Devanny was an Australian writer and Communist. Born in Ferntown, New Zealand, she migrated to Australia in 1929, eventually moving to Townsville in northern Queensland, where she died at the age of 68....
, Sumner Locke Elliott
Sumner Locke Elliott
Sumner Locke Elliott was an Australian novelist.-Biography:Elliott was born in Sydney to the writer Helena Sumner Locke and the journalist Henry Logan Elliott. His mother died of eclampsia one day after his birth...
and Ric Throssell and she supported the new literary journals, Meanjin
Meanjin
Meanjin is an Australian literary journal. The name - pronounced Mee-AN-jin - is derived from an Aboriginal word for the land where the city Brisbane is located.It was founded in December 1940, in Brisbane, by Clem Christesen...
and Southerly.
In 1937, Franklin declined appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
.
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 HenryAlice Henry
Alice Henry , was an Australian suffragist, journalist and trade unionist who also became prominent in the American trade union movement as a member of the Women's Trade Union League....
in the US, she also wrote Pioneers on Parade in collaboration Dymphna Cusack
Dymphna Cusack
Dymphna Cusack AM was an Australian author.Born in West Wyalong, New South Wales, Dymphna Cusack was educated at St Ursula's College, and graduated from Sydney University with an honours degree in Arts and a diploma in Education...
and 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".
While Miles Franklin had many suitors, she never married. She died in 1954, aged 74.
Legacy
In her will she made a bequest for her estate to establish an annual literary award known as The Miles Franklin AwardMiles Franklin Award
The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize for the best Australian ‘published novel or play portraying Australian life in any of its phases’. The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin , who is best known for writing the Australian classic My Brilliant Career ...
. The first winner was Patrick White
Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
with Voss
Voss (novel)
Voss is the fifth published novel of Patrick White. It is based upon the life of the nineteenth-century Prussian explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt who disappeared whilst on an expedition into the Australian outback.-Plot summary:...
in 1957.
The Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
suburb of Franklin
Franklin, Australian Capital Territory
Franklin is a suburb of Canberra, Australia in the district of Gungahlin. It is named after the novelist Miles Franklin. The streets in Franklin are named after writers. It comprises an area of approximately 256 hectares...
and the nearby primary school Miles Franklin Primary School
Miles Franklin Primary School
Miles Franklin Primary School is a primary school in Evatt, Canberra. The school is named after Australian author Miles Franklin and was opened in 1980; as Franklin's novel My Brilliant Career had received public acclaim in 1979, it seemed right for the school to be named after her..Each year the...
are named in her honour. The school holds an annual writing competition in her memory.
Revival
A revival of interest in Franklin occurred in the wake of the Australian New WaveAustralian New Wave
The Australian New Wave was an era of resurgence in worldwide popularity of Australian cinema...
film My Brilliant Career
My Brilliant Career (film)
My Brilliant Career is a 1979 Australian drama film directed by Gillian Armstrong and based on the book of the same name by Miles Franklin....
(1979), which won several international awards. This film has resulted in students studying the author and film about its feminist messages. Significant readership for Franklin's other novels remains restricted to Australia.
Awards
- 1936: S. H. Prior Memorial Prize awarded by The BulletinThe BulletinThe Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
for All that Swagger - 1939: S. H. Prior Memorial Prize for Joseph Furphy: The Legend of a Man and His Book
Novels
- My Brilliant CareerMy Brilliant CareerMy Brilliant Career is a 1901 novel written by Miles Franklin.It is the first of many novels by Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin , one of the major Australian writers of her time. It was written while she was still a teenager, as a romance to amuse her friends...
(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 CusackDymphna CusackDymphna Cusack AM was an Australian author.Born in West Wyalong, New South Wales, Dymphna Cusack was educated at St Ursula's College, and graduated from Sydney University with an honours degree in Arts and a diploma in Education...
- My Career Goes Bung (1946)
- 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 (1955)
- 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)
External links
- Works by Miles Franklin at Project Gutenberg Australia
- Great Rural Speeches: Miles Franklin
- Miles Franklin: A Brilliant Career? : State Library of New South Wales exhibition guide
- http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2419875.htm Interview with biographer Jill Roe, author of Stella Miles Franklin: A Biography, with Ramona KovalRamona KovalRamona Koval is an Australian broadcaster, writer and journalist.Her parents were Yiddish-speaking survivors of the Holocaust who arrived in Melbourne from Poland in 1950....
, The Book ShowThe Book ShowThe Book Show is an Australian ABC radio program for the discussion of everything relating to the written word. It is broadcast live around Australia on Radio National with a daily weekday morning show which is then replayed nightly and also has a Sunday evening show. The show is hosted by Ramona...
, ABC Radio National, 20/11/08. - MP3 audiobook of My Brilliant Career from LibriVox
Further reading
- Barnard, Marjorie (1967) Miles Franklin: The Story of a Famous Australian
- Brunton, Paul (ed) (2004) The diaries of Miles Franklin, Allen and Unwin
- Coleman, Verna (1981) "Her Unknown (Brilliant) Career: Miles Franklin in America" Angus and Robertson
- Martin, Sylvia (2001) Passionate Friends: Mary Fullerton, Mabel Singleton, Miles Franklin, Only Women Press
- North, Marilla (ed) (2001) Yarn Spinners: A Story in Letters - Dymphna Cusack, Florence James, Miles Franklin, University of Queensland Press
- Roe, Jill (ed) (1993) Congenials: Miles Franklin and Friends in Letters, Vol. 1 & 2, Angus and Robertson