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Miles Franklin Miles Franklin i(A2487 works by) (birth name: Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin) (a.k.a. Stella Franklin)
Also writes as: Brent of Bin Bin ; Mr and Mrs Ogniblat L'Artsau ; William Blake ; S M S ; Stella Lampe ; Vernacular ; Sarah Mills ; Sarah Miles ; An Old Bachelor ; The Glowworm ; Field Hospital Orderly
Born: Established: 14 Oct 1879 Talbingo, Tumut - Tumbarumba area, Southeastern NSW, New South Wales, ; Died: Ceased: 19 Sep 1954 Drummoyne, Drummoyne - Concord area, Sydney Inner West, Sydney, New South Wales,
Gender: Female
Departed from Australia: 1906
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BiographyHistory

Miles Franklin was born in 1879 near Tumut, New South Wales. A fifth-generation Australian, Franklin grew up on grazing properties run by her family in the Monaro region. A decline in profits and the increasingly poorer properties taken up by the Franklin family were a major influence on the young Miles, an influence that is reflected in her fiction. At nineteen she wrote My Brilliant Career, the novel for which she is most admired. But the novel remained unpublished until 1901 when Henry Lawson supported its publication in London by Blackwood. The novel was well received, but the strong autobiographical links brought distress to match Franklin's fame because some members of her family were hurt by its personal nature. Nevertheless, it is widely regarded as an important study of the opportunities and expectations faced by young Australian women in the 1890s.

In the first years of the twentieth century Franklin wrote a sequel to her successful first novel, but My Career Goes Bung did not find a publisher until 1946. Franklin worked as a governess, teacher and nurse. She left Australia in 1906, travelling first to America, where she was heavily involved in the Women's Movement, then to England. Here she worked as a cook and volunteered as a nurse in Macedonia during World War I. She worked as a secretary in London after the war and, during the 1920s, she began to write pseudonymously a series of six well-received novels. In 1932 Franklin returned to Australia permanently, beginning her important contributions to the promotion and development of Australian literature. This culminated in her Commonwealth Literary Fund lectures delivered at the University of Western Australia in 1950. She was also a founding member of the Australian Book Society. She won several prizes for her writing, including the Prior Memorial Prize for her biography (with Kate Baker) of Joseph Furphy.

After her death in 1954, a large amount of her estate was bequeathed to initiate an annual prize for work in Australian literature. The Miles Franklin Award has become one of the most prestigious prizes in Australian literature, offering novelists and playwrights high esteem and (in 2013) a prize of $60, 000.

Exhibitions

18005672
6607625

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Yarn Spinners : A Story in Letters : Dymphna Cusack, Florence James, Miles Franklin St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2001 Z899867 2001 anthology correspondence biography 'From the correspondence between Cusack, James and Franklin across the years 1928 to the death of Franklin in 1954, Yarn Spinners: A Story in Letters has been shaped by a process of selection, editing, weaving and providing narrative links in order to develop a continuous narrative of the friendship, collaborations and inter-related lives of these three Australian women writers. The Prologue gives a biographical overview of each of their lives. Each of the five narrative Parts is briefly prefaced with its socio-historical context.

'Part I:1928-1935 sets up the Cusack-James relationship as they write to each other as young women graduates: Cusack is teaching in remote rural NSW schools whilst James does the Grand Tour of Europe, finally settling down in London where she marries in 1933.

'Part II :1938-39 establishes the friendship of Cusack and Franklin which develops during their collaboration on the scandalous sesqui-centennial satire Pioneers on Parade. In Part III:1945-47, Cusack and James, both burnt out at the end of WWII, set up a writing retreat in the Blue Mountains and collaborate on their prizewinning bestseller expose of wartime Sydney, Come In Spinner.

In Part IV: 1947-49, James returns to London and Cusack follows through the revisions demanded by the Daily Telegraph before they will award the thousand pounds prize money. Cusack is also researching her "tuberculosis novel" Say No To Death. All That Swagger is published by Angus & Robertson whilst Franklin endures her nephew's war neurosis and makes her final Will, providing for an annual [Miles] Franklin Award. In mid-1949 Cusack leaves for Europe.

'In Part V:1950-55 the Cusack-Franklin-James friendships are now essentially carried through their correspondence; Come In Spinner is published to press acclaim in London, with Cusack's Say No To Death, Southern Steel and Caddie following in quick succession. Angus & Robertson finally began publishing the "Brent of Bin Bin" series. James, now divorced, rearing two daughters, begins work with London publisher Constable & Co as a reader and talent scout for Australian writers. Franklin and Cusack's friendship provides the emotional fulcrum for this final Part.

'The Chronology (1879-2001) provides the facts of the lives and works; the Biographical Notes provide an inventory of most of the cast of characters who appear in the letters.'(Publication summary)

2001 winner The Fellowship of Australian Writers Victoria Inc. National Literary Awards FAW Christina Stead Award Awarded to editor Marilla North.
y separately published work icon Call Up Your Ghosts 1945 (Manuscript version)x401062 Z499508 1945 single work drama satire
1945 joint winner New Theatre's One-act Play Competition First place shared with Sailor's Girl by Ric Throssell. Judges Nettie Palmer, Hilda Essen, Keith Macartney.
y separately published work icon All That Swagger Sydney : Bulletin , 1936 Z451516 1936 single work novel (taught in 2 units)
1936 winner S.H. Prior Memorial Prize
Last amended 25 Nov 2019 17:07:19
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