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y separately published work icon Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1950... 1950 Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This is a tale of corruption stretching from street corner SP bookmaking to the most influential men in the land - and the terrible personal cost of the power such corruption brings. John West rose from a Melbourne slum to dominate Australian politics with bribery, brutality and fear. His attractive wife and their children turned away from him in horror. Friends dropped away. At the peak of his power, surrounded by bootlickers, West faced a hate-filled nation - and the terrible loneliness of his life. Was John West a real figure? For months during the post-war years, an Australian court heard evidence in a sensational libel action brought by businessman John Wren's wife. After a national uproar which rocked the very foundations of the Commonwealth, Frank Hardy was acquitted. This is the novel which provoked such intense uproar and debate across the nation. The questions it poses remain unanswered…' (Publication summary)

Exhibitions

18005777
18005672
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Adaptations

form y separately published work icon Power Without Glory Sonia Borg , Cliff Green , Howard Griffiths , Tom Hegarty , John Martin , Roger Simpson , ABC Television (publisher), ( dir. John Gauci et. al. )agent Australia : Paradine Productions ABC Television , 1976 Z1690132 1976 series - publisher film/TV

Spanning the 1890s to the 1950s, Power Without Glory is the story of a man determined to make something of his life. Raised in a Melbourne slum area, John West later gains wealth and power, his influence extending into his business, his political ambitions, and his family life. The events of his life unfold against a backdrop of major historical events, including World War One and the beginnings of the Australian Labour Party.

Notes

  • Adapted for the 1976 television mini-series Power Without Glory directed by John Gauci. Screenplay by Sonia Borg and Cliff Green
  • Subtitle varies.
  • Dedication: Let fiction meant to please be very near to truth. - Horace.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Realist Printing and Publishing Company , 1950 .
      image of person or book cover 5294951724337510443.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 669p., [3]p.p.
      Edition info: 1st ed.
      Description: illus.
      Reprinted: 1950 , 1951
      Note/s:
      • Publisher Rob Blackmore, who published Hardy's Who Shot George Kirkland, has discovered slight textual differences between two editions of the novel both published by Realist Printing and Publishing in 1950, and with identical dust-jackets. He says, in conversation with James Cockington ('Staying True to Type') that the mystery of which of the two versions came first may never be solved as Hardy himself did not recall which was the first.
      • 'By Frank J. Hardy "Ross Franklyn"' (Title page)

      • Includes author's note, 3p. at end of text.

        UQ copy is signed by the author.

      • Unexpurgated (t.p. verso)
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Coronation Press , 1955 .
      Extent: 669p.
      Edition info: 6th ed.
      Description: illus.
      Note/s:
      • 'By Frank J. Hardy (Ross Franklyn)' (Title page).
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Werner Laurie ,       1962 .
      image of person or book cover 8563333250240378908.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 716p.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Sphere ,       1968 .
      image of person or book cover 7008919595799850996.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 671p.
      Note/s:
      • Introduction by Jack Lindsay.
    • St Alban's, Hertfordshire,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Panther ,       1975 .
      image of person or book cover 7383513473583312148.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 671p.
      Reprinted: 1976 , 1977
      Note/s:
      • Reprinted 1976 and 1977 by The Griffin Press, Netley South Australia.
      • Introduction by Jack Lindsay.
      ISBN: 0586043144
    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Minerva , 1995 .
      Extent: 1v.p.
      ISBN: 1863304649
    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Random House , 2000 .
      Extent: 660p.
      Edition info: 50th anniversary edition
      ISBN: 0091842069
    • North Sydney, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2008 .
      image of person or book cover 6899028397237802862.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 660p.p.
      ISBN: 9781741667615, 1741667615
Alternative title: Macht ohne Ruhm
Language: German
Notes:
A version of the German text was broadcast on DDR radio (the radio station of the German Democratic Republic) on 5 October 1954.
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Other Formats

  • Braille.
  • Sound recording.
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Related Works

Key to Power Without Glory Dave Nadel , 1976 single work index
— Appears in: The Battler , 4 August 1976;
— Appears in: Frank Hardy and the Literature of Commitment 2003; (p. 251-273) This list of the real names of people mentioned in the novel Power Without Glory was developed as a special lift-out for The Battler newspaper (4 August 1976) on the occasion of the first screening of the ABC Television series of Hardy's Power Without Glory. An amended version appears in Frank Hardy and the Literature of Commitment. (Editors' note, Frank Hardy and the Literature of Commitment.)
The Seduction of Nellie West (from Power Without Glory) Frank Hardy , 1982 extract novel (Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts)
— Appears in: A Frank Hardy Swag 1982; (p. 71-89)
Hardy's Guilty Secret May Be Unearthed Damien Murphy , 2005 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12-13 November 2005; (p. 4) Murphy reports on claims made by Jenny Hocking in her book, Frank Hardy : Politics Literature Life.
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (3)

Works about this Work

Sedition as Realism : Frank Hardy's Power without Glory Parts the Iron Curtain Nicole Moore , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literature in the German Democratic Republic : Reading through the Iron Curtain 2016; (p. 93-116)
The Trials of Robert Close Dennis Bryans , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Script and Print , vol. 35 no. 4 2011; (p. 197-218) 'In October 1951, the Argus noted that Australia's censorship had "On occasion, when the more modern statutes [were] felt to be inadequate," called "antiquated laws ... into life such as the 'obscene libel' law invoked in the case of Robert Close's novel, Love Me Sailor, and the 'malicious libel' law used ... against Frank Hardy, author, of Power Without Glory'..." At the time Australia's censorship laws were regarded as being among the most narrow minded and repressive imposed by a democratic government anywhere...(Author's introduction)
The Silver Age of Fiction Peter Pierce , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 70 no. 4 2011; (p. 110-115)

‘In human reckoning, Golden Ages are always already in the past. The Greek poet Hesiod, in Works and Days, posited Five Ages of Mankind: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Heroic and Iron (Ovid made do with four). Writing in the Romantic period, Thomas Love Peacock (author of such now almost forgotten novels as Nightmare Abbey, 1818) defined The Four Ages of Poetry (1820) in which their order was Iron, Gold, Silver and Bronze. To the Golden Age, in their archaic greatness, belonged Homer and Aeschylus. The Silver Age, following it, was less original, but nevertheless 'the age of civilised life'. The main issue of Peacock's thesis was the famous response that he elicited from his friend Shelley - Defence of Poetry (1821).’ (Publication abstract)
Staying True to Type James Cockington , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 30 March 2011; (p. 13) James Cockington reports on the discovery of two slightly different 'first' editions of Frank Hardy's Power Without Glory. Both are published by The Realist Printing and Publishing Company and are dated April 1950. Publisher Rob Blackmore, who published Hardy's Who Shot George Kirkland, told Cockington that the mystery of which of the two versions came first may never be solved.
Wren-Hardy Stoush Exposes Sectarian Bigotry Juliette Peers , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Eureka Street , 13 August vol. 20 no. 15 2010;
Novel About Corruption More Topical than Ever Mark Thomas , 1992 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 February 1992; (p. C8)
— Review of The Hard Way : The Story Behind Power Without Glory Frank Hardy , 1961 single work autobiography ; Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts Frank Hardy , 1950 single work novel
Bastardry, Bastardry, Bastardry Flora Eldershaw , 1950 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 9 no. 3 1950; (p. 222-225)
— Review of Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts Frank Hardy , 1950 single work novel
Novels of Politics D. S. , 1950 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 27 September vol. 71 no. 3685 1950; (p. 2,35)
— Review of Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts Frank Hardy , 1950 single work novel
Untitled Ray Williams , 1968 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Left Review , no. 5 1968; (p. 77-79)
— Review of Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts Frank Hardy , 1950 single work novel
Would You Believe? Gerard Henderson , 1976 single work review
— Appears in: Quadrant , December vol. 20 no. 12 1976; (p. 31-33)
— Review of Power Without Glory : A Novel in Three Parts Frank Hardy , 1950 single work novel
y separately published work icon Marxism and Literary History John Frow , Oxford : Blackwell , 1986 Z998650 1986 single work criticism Focusing on Marxist literary theory and literary history in general, the book includes readings of texts by various international authors, among them Australian author Frank Hardy.
Frank Hardy and Communist Cultural Institutions Allan Gardiner , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Frank Hardy and the Literature of Commitment 2003; (p. 35-52)
'These Girls Are on the Right Track' : Hardy, Devanny and Hewett Carole Ferrier , 2003 single work criticism
— Appears in: Frank Hardy and the Literature of Commitment 2003; (p. 71-87) 'Frank Hardy, Jean Devanny and Dorothy Hewett were all significantly influenced as writers by their membership of the Communist Party, and the views of art and culture dominant in or debated around the Party; expectations in particular of what the 'social realist' novel should or might be impacted upon the work of all three. This essay addresses some issues of politics, committed writing and sexual politics, with particular reference to how these were played out for writers who were communists in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.' (p.71)
y separately published work icon John Wren : A Life Reconsidered James Griffin , Carlton North : Scribe , 2004 Z1101494 2004 single work biography James Griffin argues that John Wren was not Australia's Al Capone as portrayed in Frank Hardy's novel Power Without Glory, but the victim of Australia's culture wars. Griffin contends that Frank Hardy's research was flawed and 'fuelled by political objectives and personal ambition.'
A Gangster Redeemed David Humphries , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 6-7 March 2004; (p. 6-7)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (99)
Last amended 23 Jul 2021 13:28:55
Subjects:
  • Melbourne, Victoria,
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