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Franklin, Miles (1879 - 1954)

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    Up the country : a tale of the early Australian squattocracy
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    Ten Creeks Run : a tale of the horse and cattle stations of the upper Murrumbidgee
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    Back to Bool Bool : a ramiparous novel with several prominent characters and a hantle of others disposed as the atolls of Oceania's archipelagoes
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Born
14 October 1879
Talbingo, New South Wales, Australia
Died
19 September 1954
Drummoyne, New South Wales, Australia
Alternative Names
  • Brent of Bin Bin (pseudonym)
  • Franklin, Stella Maria Sarah Miles (Birth name)

Summary

Franklin was born near Tumut, New South Wales, and grew up on her family's pastoral properties. In 1898 she wrote what became her best-known novel, My Brilliant Career, but failed to find a publisher until 1901. The sequel, My Career Goes Bung, was written in the early 1900s but remained unpublished until 1946. In 1905 Franklin travelled to America, where she remained for nearly a decade, working in the women's movement, before travelling to England and Macedonia, and volunteering during WW1. She published biographies and criticism as well as more than a dozen novels. She returned to Australia in 1927 and went on to become an influential promoter of Australian literature. After her death, funds from her properties were left toward establishing the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Published resources

Books

  • Brent of Bin Bin, Up the country : a tale of the early Australian squattocracy, Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1928, 400 pp. Details
  • Brent of Bin Bin, Ten Creeks Run : a tale of the horse and cattle stations of the upper Murrumbidgee, W. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, 1930, 365 pp. Details
  • Brent of Bin Bin, Back to Bool Bool : a ramiparous novel with several prominent characters and a hantle of others disposed as the atolls of Oceania's archipelagoes, William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, 1931, 408 pp. Details

See also

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

  • Miles Franklin - Papers, mainly literary manuscripts, 190- - 1954, - 1954, MLMSS 445; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • Papers 1877-1933 - Miles Franklin, 1877 - 1933, NLA MS 477; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
  • Papers of Miles Franklin 1887-[ca. 1931], 1887 - c. 1931, NLA MS 681; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

  • Diary - Mary E. Fullerton, 1938 - 1942, MS 12343; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Rachael Weaver