Biography
Miles Franklin was born at her grandmother Lampe’s property, Talbingo, in the highlands of southern New South Wales, on 14 October 1879, the eldest child of Australian-born parents, John Maurice Franklin and Susannah Margaret Eleanor Franklin, née Lampe (Roderick gives her mother’s names as Margaret Susannah Helena). Her christian names were Stella Maria Sarah Miles, and she was generally known as Stella. Her siblings were Ida Lampe (‘Linda’), Mervyn Gladstone, Una Vernon (died aged 6 months), Norman Rankin, Hume Talmage (‘Tal’) and Laurel.
Franklin was educated privately at the Franklin property, Brindabella from 1887-89 then at Thornford Public School, until she was 16 which was the end of her formal education. However, I know she attended summer school at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) in 1909 and I think it’s likely she took other courses at other times.
She died on 19 September 1954 at Seacombe Private Hospital, Drummoyne, NSW. The cause of death was given as heart attack, chronic myocarditis and pleurisy. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered at Jounama Creek, Talbingo, since submerged by the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme.
Miles Franklin Award
Franklin left the bulk of her estate to fund the Miles Franklin Literary Award for ‘the Novel for the year which is of the highest literary merit and which must present Australian Life in any of its phases …’. From its inception in 1957 the Miles Franklin has grown to be Australia’s most important literary award. In 2013 women writers and publishers instituted another annual award named after Franklin, the Stella Prize for writing by Australian women in all genres.
Fiction
My Brilliant Career (1901), Book Around the Corner, Booker Talk
The End of My Career (1902 – unpublished) see My Career Goes Bung
On the Outside Track (1903 – unpublished) see Cockatoos
Some Everyday Folk and Dawn (1909), TheAustralianLegend
The Net of Circumstance (1915) by Mr & Mrs Ogniblat L’Artsau
On Dearborn Street (1981), TheAustralianLegend
Merlin of the Empiah/Mervynda (1925 – unpublished) see Prelude to Waking
Up The Country (1928) by Brent of Bin Bin, TheAustralianLegend
Ten Creeks Run (1930) by Brent of Bin Bin, TheAustralianLegend
Gentlemen at Gyang Gyang (1956) by Brent of Bin Bin, TheAustralianLegend
Back to Bool Bool (1931) by Brent of Bin Bin, TheAustralianLegend
Old Blastus of Bandicoot (1931), TheAustralianLegend
Bring the Monkey (1933), TheAustralianLegend
All That Swagger (1936), TheAustralianLegend
Pioneers on Parade (1939) with Dymphna Cusack
My Career Goes Bung (1946), wadholloway
Prelude to Waking (1950) by Brent of Bin Bin, TheAustralianLegend
Cockatoos (1954) by Brent of Bin Bin, TheAustralianLegend
Short Stories
The Old Post, 1904, archives
Non-Fiction
Joseph Furphy: The Legend of a Man and His Book (1944) with Kate Baker, TheAustralianLegend
Laughter, Not for a Cage (1956), TheAustralianLegend
Childhood at Brindabella (1963)
Jill Roe ed., My Congenials, Miles Franklin & Friends in Letters (1993)
See ‘essays, sketches’ in the Index, Roe, 2008
Journalism –
Life and Labor (1911-15) Journal of NWTUL
How the Londoner Takes his War (1916) by Dissenting Diarist, here
Ne Mari Nishta: Six Months with the Serbs, 1918 (review, wadh)
Ne Mari Nishta: Six Months with the Serbs (extract)
Active Service Socks (article)
Scottish Womens Hospitals (essay, Debbie Robson)
Scottish Womens Hospitals (talk, Debbie Robson)
Plays
Roe lists 31 plays by Franklin. I won’t list them all here unless I start reading them. A couple of interesting ones: ‘By Far Kaimacktcthalan’ deals with her time in Serbia in WWI; and ‘The Ten Mile’ after a number of iterations became the novel Old Blastus of Bandicoot.
Biographies
Marjorie Barnard, Miles Franklin (1967), TheAustralianLegend
Verna Coleman, Miles Franklin in America: Her Unknown (Brilliant) Career (1981) TheAustralianLegend
Colin Roderick, Miles Franklin: Her Brilliant Career (1982), TheAustralianLegend
W. Blake, Miles Franklin: Novelist and Feminist (1991)
Sylvia Martin, Passionate Friends (2001), TheAustralianLegend
Jill Roe, Stella Miles Franklin: A Biography (2008), ANZLitLovers
Essays (about Franklin)
Colin Roderick, ‘Brent of Bin Bin’, The Australian Novel, Wm Brooks, Sydney, 1945
Henrietta Drake-Brockman, ‘Miles Franklin’, Australia Writes, T. Inglis Moore ed., Cheshire, Melbourne, 1953
Verna Coleman, Foreword, My Career Goes Bung, A&R, Sydney, 1980
Roy Duncan, Introduction, On Dearborn Street, UQP, Brisbane, 1981
Drusilla Modjeska, Miles Franklin: A Chapter of Her Own, Exiles at Home, Sirius, Sydney, 1981
Elizabeth Webby, Introduction, My Brilliant Career/My Career Goes Bung, A&R, Sydney, 1990
Matthew Higgins, Miles Franklin’s Mountain Country, Australian Geographic
Posts
Miles Franklin was angry about her schooling (14.06.15), TheAustralianLegend
Such is Life, Abridged! (03.02.16), TheAustralianLegend
Miles Franklin’s War (25.04.16), TheAustralianLegend
The Sorrow of Miles Franklin beneath Mount Kajmakčalan, Ivan Čapovski (03.09.20), TheAustralianLegend
Australians Working with Scottish Women’s Hospitals, Debbie Robson
The Scottish Women’s Hospitals and Australians talk, Debbie Robson
Brent of Bin Bin, Miles Franklin (02.09.16), wadholloway
Miles Franklin, Canberra, the Griffins (12.12.16), TheAustralianLegend
Miles Franklin’s Last Diary (16.03.18), TheAustralianLegend
Prior Prize Winners, All That Swagger (11.06.18), TheAustralianLegend
Melbourne and Sydney, TheAustralianLegend
Monday Musings: Literary Visitors in 1965 (13.05.19) Whispering Gums [Bruce Sutherland, more work required on his connection with MF]
Miles Franklin in America (21.10.22), wadHolloway
