by Jill Roe
30J. H. Williams, 25/6/1896, FP vol. 6, p. 335c, and E. W. O’Sullivan, 26/6/1896, FP vol. 51; Marcelle Leicht, ‘Miles Franklin’s Life in the Goulburn District’, in GRAGERP, 2001, p. 24.
31SMF to Charles Graham, 8/6/1936, FP vol. 49; ‘What Now, Eliza? The Chronicles of Lizzie (Kellett) Gunter, 1865–1971. Australian Bush Teacher’, as told to Jeanne Kellett Cox (unpub. ms., courtesy Jeanne Kellett Cox).
32SMF to Mrs Barnett, 23/9/1941, FP vol. 35, and SMF to Miss Shain, n.d. [c.1940], FP vol. 34; De Berg interview, 1977; Elizabeth Webby, Introduction, My Brilliant Career centenary edition. Johns’s Notable Australians (George Robertson & Co, Melbourne, 1906) gives SMF’s birth date as 3/10/1883, maintained in the successor publication Who’s Who in Australia in the 1940s (cf. artist Margaret Preston, who lowered her age by seven years when she married at age 45, Janet Hawley, ‘Thoroughly Modern Maggie’, SMH, Good Weekend, 4/6/2005, p. 27).
33‘Australian girl’: see Richard White, Inventing Australia: Images and Identity 1688–1980, Allen & Unwin, North Sydney, 1981, pp. 77–8. Charles Blyth to SMF, 24/4/1896, 9/5/1896, FP vol. 6, and Penny Post, 26/3/1896, p. 4, repr. A Gregarious Culture.
34Bettison and Roe, ‘Miles Franklin’s Topical Writings’; My Career Goes Bung, p. 218 mentions prose sketches for one of the big dailies, sometimes fetching 25 shillings, but that came later (see ch. 4, pp. 110–13).
35‘New Chums’, FP vol. 57; ‘For Sale . . .’, FP vol. 52; ‘Within a Footstep . . .’, FP vol. 53 (and see also FP vol. 54 for another version, subtitled ‘An Old, Old Story’, 1896).
36Charles Blyth to SMF, 27/9/1895, FP vol. 6. Angus & Robertson, established 1886, one of Australia’s most important book selling and publishing firms, operated from Castlereagh St, Sydney, from 1890 until the 1970s, when it moved to N. Ryde, Sydney, and later became an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia.
37Charles Blyth to SMF, 27/9/1896, FP vol. 6.
38‘Recollections of a Journalist’, Penny Post, 3/12/ 1921, p. 2. Thomas (Tom) John Hebblewhite (c.1857–1923), a Yorkshireman educated at Manchester Grammar School, first came to Sydney in late 1879, and in May 1885 joined the Penny Post, which he edited 1885–1900, continuing as an associate editor until retirement in 1920 (Bulletin, 25/1/1923, p. 44, and Kirkpatrick, Country Conscience, p. 215).
39T. J. Hebblewhite to SMF, 8/9/1896, FP vol. 6.*
40‘Lord Dunleve’s Ward’, ML MSS 445/15–16 (35 chs).
41Lynn Milne, ‘Lord Dunleve’s Ward’, unpub. conference paper, Macquarie Univ. 2004, p. 1, copy in my possession courtesy the author; T. J. Hebblewhite to SMF 8/9/1896, FP vol. 6.
42Tal Franklin to SMF, 10/10/1896, FP vol. 48; Charles Blyth to SMF, 21/11/1896, FP vol. 6; JMF to SMF, 7/12/1896, FP vol. 48; Miss (Lois) Adam to Colin Roderick, 10/6/1979, Guard Book 7, Roderick Papers; My Brilliant Career, p. 45. Re Herbert (Bertie) and Phillip Wilkinson, see Margaret Francis, Stella Vernon, Colin Wilkinson, Barbara Crichton (eds), The Buddong Flows On, vol. 1: The Old Hands, p. 416 (family photograph), and vol. 2: Genuine People, pp. 347ff. (Wilkinson family); Pamela Mathers, pers. comm.
43Charles Blyth to SMF, 4/2/1897, 29/3/1897, 18/4/1897, FP vol. 6; ‘Currer Bell’ [Charlotte Bronte], Jane Eyre, Smith, Elder, London, 1847.
44E. W. O’Sullivan to SMF, 10/5/1897, FP vol. 51; M. Gillespie, Application for Leave of Absence, 13/7/1897, 5/17831.3, letter 40555, NSW Dept School Education Archives.
45SF, Notebook, FP vol. 107 [p. 103] and FP vol. 51A, 24; Ruby Bridle, ms. notes on Childhood at Brindabella; Theodor Lampe to SMF, 20/1/1953, FP vol. 49; SMF to Angus & Robertson, 30/3/1899, ML MSS 314/31, Angus and Robertson Manuscript Register 1896–1937, ML MSS 269, Box 16, both.*
46Richard Coleman, ‘Surviving as a Career’, SMH (Good Weekend), 23/8/1980, p. 15 (Witcombe interview).
Chapter 3 — From Possum Gully to Penrith
1Annie Black to SMF, Balmain, 17/11/1901, FP vol. 7.
2Miss [Lois] Adam to Colin Roderick, 10/6/1979, Guard Book 7, Roderick Papers, and Gertrude Kinred (Mrs Adam, 1886–1967), FP vol. 49, p. 283. SMF requested the return of her mss (SMF to J. B. Pinker, 6/1/1901, FP vol. 80), and Henry Lawson promised to return the corrected proofs (Henry Lawson to SMF, 18/3/1902, Goulburn postmark, FP vol. 6).
3‘What Now, Eliza? The Chronicles of Lizzie (Kellett) Gunter, 1865–1971. Australian Bush Teacher’ as told to Jeanne Kellett Cox (unpub. ms., courtesy Jeanne Kellett Cox); SMF to E. M. Gunter, 22/11/1947, FP vol. 28.
4T. J. Hebblewhite, ‘Recollections of a Journalist’, Penny Post, 3/12/1921, p. 2.
5ibid., p. 2, and T. J. Hebblewhite to SMF, 13/9/1901, FP vol. 6.
6FP vol. 88, p. 81 (calendar); SMF to Angus & Robertson, 30/3/1899, ML MSS 314/31, Angus & Robertson Manuscript Register 1896–1937, ML MSS 3269, Box 16, both;* SMF to J. F. Archibald, 18/4/1899, FP vol. 80; Alex Montgomery to SMF, 11/2/1902, FP vol. 8; T. J. Hebblewhite to SMF, 30/7/1899, FP vol. 6; LN, FP vol. 3, p. 730. Jules Francois Archibald (1856–1919), ADB vol. 3; untitled talk on Australian literature, FP vol. 77, p. 27; SMF to J. F. Archibald, 5/9/1901, FP vol. 7.*
7T. J. Hebblewhite to SMF, 30/7/1899, FP vol. 6.
8ibid., 4/9/1899. Re ‘Within a Footstep of the Goal’ (see ch. 2, n. 60) pronounced ‘a fine picture of Australian bush life’ but needing revision; also T. J. Hebblewhite to SMF, 16/9/1899, FP vol. 6. ‘A Common Case’, an early sketch dated Jul. 1898, FP vol. 57, was first published (in part) in Kay Daniels and Mary Murnane (eds), Uphill All The Way: A Documentary History of Women in Australia, Univ. of Qld Press, St Lucia, Qld, 1980 (repr. 1989 as Australian Women: A Documentary History, pp. 118–19).
9SMF to Henry Lawson, 19/11/1899, FP vol. 6.* Henry Lawson (1867–1922), short story writer and balladist (ADB vol. 10).
10J. F. Archibald to SMF, 18/4/1899, FP vol. 80, and A. G. Stephens to SMF, 3/1/1900, FP vol. 80. Alfred George Stephens (1865–1933), b. Toowoomba, an influential literary critic, edited the Bulletin’s ‘Red Page’ 1894–1906 (ADB vol. 12).
11Henry Lawson to SMF, Wednesday [postmark 18/1/1900], FP vol. 6.
12Sydney Hospital Nurses’ Register, Oct. 1898–Oct. 1907, p. 409, Sydney Hospital and Sydney Eye Hospital Museum Collection, Lucy Osburn-Nightingale Museum, Sydney.
13‘Henry Lawson’, Meanjin Papers, 1942, vol. 1, no. 1, repr. A Gregarious Culture.
14John Barnes, ‘Henry Lawson in London’, Quadrant, Jul. 1979; Henry Lawson, Preface, Apr. 1901, My Brilliant Career (1974 edn).
15Nurses’ Register (see n. 12 above), and Matron Rose Creal Diary (1896–1901), 29/1/1900, p. 44, ibid., re a letter of resignation, which does not survive; SF, Notebook, FP vol. 107 [pp. 85, 25, 103]; SMF, ‘Well Mervyn’, c.1945, PBC enclosure, ML MSS 3659/1; NSW BMD records, death certificate no. 03599 (transcript) and Tumut & Adelong Times 23/2/1900, p. 3. There does not seem to be any basis to the still current legend that Mervyn Franklin died under mysterious circumstances to do with the waterholes at ‘Stillwater’.
16Henry Lawson to George Robertson, n.d. [early Apr. 1900], cited Barker, Dear Robertson, p. 28, and Bertha Lawson to SMF, 13/3/1900, FP vol. 6.
17Fragment, ML MSS 445/39, p. 473; (Dame) Nellie Melba (1861–1931), ADB vol. 10.
18Henry Lawson to SMF, Wednesday [postmark 18/1/1900], and SMF draft to Henry Lawson, n.d. [Jan./Feb. 1900], FP vol. 6. All sketches, FP vol. 57; ‘Of Life’ (Steele Rudd’s Magazine, Mar. 1906, ‘by Miles Franklin’, repr. A Gregarious Culture); SMF to Jessie Paterson 3/6/1902 (list of sketches) and Jessie Paterson to SMF, 2/8/[1902], FP vol. 8 (mentions ‘No Man’s Land’).
19Bettison and Roe, ‘Miles Franklin’s Topical Writings’, publications for 1904, 1905, 1906; SMF to J. B. Pinker, 18/11/1901, FP vol. 80;* ‘Emotions’, Girlhood in America: An Encyclopedia, ed. Miriam Forman-Brunell, Santa Barbara, Calif., 2001, vol. 2, p. 258.
20Henry Lawson to SMF, 16/4/1900 and her letter of authorisation 19/4/1900, FP vol. 6; untitled talk on Australian literature, FP vol. 77, n.d. [probably 1940s]; Angus & Robertson to SMF, 1/5/1900, FP vol. 80, and Roderick, M
iles Franklin, p. 78. Caroline Viera Jones, ‘Australian Imprint’, PhD thesis. Louise Mack (1870–1935), ADB vol. 10.
21Henry Lawson to SMF, 6/9/1900, FP vol. 6 and reply 17/10/1900, ML Doc. 2211, FP vol. 80, p. 17.* William Blackwood (1836–1912) was managing director of the Scottish firm, founded in 1804 in the Tory interest credited with reviving the company’s lists in the late nineteenth century (ODNB). James Brand Pinker (1863–1922) opened for business in London in 1896 (ODNB); John Barnes, ‘Henry Lawson and the “Pinker of Agents”’, also Lucy Sussex, ‘“. . . Riotous Living among the Fleshpots of the West End”: Henry Lawson in London and as reported in Australia’, ASAL/Webby conference, Univ. of Sydney, Feb. 2006.
22William Blackwood to J. B. Pinker, 29/1/1900, cited Barnes, ‘Henry Lawson in London’, Quadrant, Jul. 1979, p. 32, and FP vol. 80; J. B. Pinker to SMF, 30/1/1901 and reply 6/2/1901 (possibly a misdating), FP vol. 80.*
23Henry Lawson to William Blackwood, 8/4/1901, repr. Harry T. Chaplin, Henry Lawson, Wentworth Press, Surry Hills, NSW, 1974, p. 69. William Blackwood to Henry Lawson, 12/4/1901, Blackwood Archive, National Library of Scotland, MS 30389 (Private Letter Book, 3/1–15/8/1901). Arthur Frank Maquarie (1874–1955), freelance writer, graduated Univ. of Sydney 1895, went to London (OCAL).
24J. B. Pinker to SMF, 15/4/1901, FP vol. 80; Henry Lawson, ‘Culled Contributors’, Bulletin, 14/2/1903, ‘Red Page’; Viera Jones, ‘Australian Imprint’, PhD thesis, p. 16; Arthur Maquarie to William Blackwood, 15/4/1901, cited John Barnes, ‘Henry Lawson in London’, Quadrant, Jul. 1979; Arthur Maquarie to SMF, 19/12/1901, FP vol. 7; F. D. Tredrey, The House of Blackwood 1804–1954: The History of a Publishing Firm, Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1954, p. 154.
25 Times (London), 8/7/1901, p. 6; J. B. Pinker to SMF, 9/7/1901, FP vol. 80; Edgar Vernon to SMF, 21/8/1901, FP vol. 50; inscription, My Brilliant Career, PBC no. 156; Linda Franklin to SMF, 16/9/1901, FP vol. 49 and SMF to J. F. Archibald, 5/9/1901, FP vol. 6, both;* Goulburn Herald, 13/9/1901, p. 5.
26Linda Franklin to SMF, 16/9/1901, FP vol. 49;* Maggie Bridle to SMF, 16/9/1901, FP vol. 47; Metta Lampe to SMF, 7/10/1901, FP vol. 49; PBC, no. 802. Re ‘the Lordly Phillip’, see ch. 2, n. 73. Maggie Bridle, née Wilkinson, was an older sister of Phillip and Bertie Wilkinson.
27Henry Lawson to SMF, n.d., FP vol. 6. See FP vol. 121A for collected press cuttings of reviews from London and for ts. (edited selection), ML MSS 445/40 (some paginations); The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff [c.1859–84], Virago, London, 1985, English trans. 1890; Academy, 13/7/1901; Manchester Guardian, 17/7/1901; Glasgow Herald, 1/8/1901; Times (London), 3/8/1901, p 4.
28S C––[?] to SMF, 5/10/1901, FP vol. 7; Charles Graham to SMF, 14/10/1901, FP vol. 49; Linda Franklin to SMF, 12/1/1902 and 3/3/1902, FP vol. 49.
29SMF to Dear Uncle, 21/10/01, FP vol. 50*; Herbert Wilkinson to SMF, 5/2/1902, FP vol. 50; Linda Franklin to SMF, 16/5/1903, FP vol. 49; Edward Bridle, possibly Edward John Bridle (1856–1943), a cousin of SF.
30 DT (Sydney), 7/9/1901, p. 6; Penny Post, 10/9/1901, p. 4 and 14/9/1903, p. 3.
31Penny Post, 13/5/1902, p. 4.
32George McAlister to SMF, Montague St, Goulburn, FP vol. 7; SMH, 28/9/1901, p. 4.
33Beverley Kingston, Macquarie University News, Sept. 2001, résumé. Publication dates in note, 1890, 1910.
34Bulletin, 28/9/1901, ‘Red Page’; SMF to A. G. Stephens, 10/10/1902, MA.
35Fred Maudsley to SMF, 7 and 8 /10/1901, FP vol. 7, and John Barnes, Socialist Champion: Portrait of the Gentleman Socialist, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2006, pp. 252, 262; Book Lover, Nov. 1901, pp. 122–3; Age, 30/11/1901, p. 4; Book Lover, Feb. 1902, p. 162, and Sun, 1/9/1902, FP vol. 121 (S. Ross to SMF, 26/1/1906, FP vol. 90, refers to his comparable response in the Barrier Truth, 22/9/1905 [p. 1]). Henry Hyde Champion (1859–1929), an erstwhile leading English radical who came to Melbourne in 1894, produced the Book Lover 1899–1921 (ADB vol. 7, ODNB); Elsie Belle Champion (1870–1953), owner/manager of the Book Lover’s Library, was also very supportive (Barnes, Socialist Champion: Portrait of the Gentleman Socialist, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2006, p. 300).
36SMF to J. B. Pinker, 18/11/1901, FP vol. 80;* Book Lover, Jan. 1902, pp. 221–2; Elsie Belle Champion to SMF, 6/8/1902, FP vol. 8.
37Sydney Stock and Station Journal, ‘Gossip’, n.d. (press cutting, FP vol. 121A); Worker, 22/11/1902, p. 1, also 21/2/1903, p. 1 and 29/6/1903, p. 1; Critic, 22/2/1902, p. 126. Ethel Curlewis (Turner) (1870–1958) author (ADB vol. 12).
38‘Fiction in the Australian Bush’, repr. Kanga Creek: Havelock Ellis in Australia, ed. Geoffrey Dutton, Picador, Sydney, 1989, p. 233; ‘Memoranda’ (by A. G. Stephens?), Bulletin, 29/10/1903, ‘Red Page’; A. G. Stephens to SMF, 29/7/1903, FP vol. 7;* Studies in the Psychology of Sex by (Henry) Havelock Ellis, Davis & Co., Philadelphia, 1904, pp. 67–8. (Henry) Havelock Ellis (1859–1939), writer and sexologist (ODNB).
39‘In Defence of Women by H. L. Mencken’, Vote, 7/12/1918; SMF to Alice Henry, 21/1/1920, FP vol. 114, and PBC no. 610; SMF to Mary Fullerton, 21/11/1940, FP vol. 19; Mathew, Miles Franklin, p. 8.
40A. G. Stephens to SMF, 13/9/1901, FP vol. 7; Arthur Maquarie to SMF, 19/12/1901 and following, FP vol. 7; Bruce Scates, ‘My Brilliant Career and Radicalism’, ALS, 2002; Katie Holmes, ‘Spinsters Indispensable: Feminists, Single Women and the Critique of Marriage 1890–1920’, Aust. Hist. Studies, Apr. 1998, vol. 29, no. 110; W. Blackwood to J. B. Pinker, 29/1/1901, FP vol. 80, and Henry Lawson to SMF [1902], FP vol. 6, also Henry Lawson, ‘Culled Contributors’, Bulletin, 14/2/1903, ‘Red Page’.
41Stephen Garton, ‘Contesting Enslavement: Marriage, Manhood, and My Brilliant Career’, in ALS, 2002; Quiz, 13/5/1904, p. 69, comment apparently by K. Partridge (copy FP vol. 121A); My Brilliant Career, p. 140; Childhood at Brindabella, p. 31; SMF to Freda Barrymore, 14/9/1936, FP vol. 27, re two whips, one from stockman W. G. Hoole (W. G. Hoole to SMF, 10/7/1947, FP vol. 10), possibly the one bequeathed to Joanie Lampe, photo in my possession courtesy her daughter, the late Susi Baldwin. See also Bulletin, 14/2/1903, ‘Red Page’, for a bizarre contemporary response to the issue of SMF and whips, and SMF to J. K. Moir, 6/9/1952, Moir Colln; SMF to W. Blackwood, Blackwood Archive, Incoming Corres. 1902, National Library of Scotland, MS 30084.
42The letters are at FP vols 7–9A.
43Kathleen Evesson, ‘Reactions of Young Female Readers to Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career’, unpub. BA (Hons) essay, Macquarie Univ., 2001; Pearl Wilson to SMF, 22/9/1902, Mary Dunster to SMF, 30/4/1902, Stella Simpson to SMF, 12/9/1901, all FP vol. 8; Ethel Lloyd to SMF, 10/11/1904, FP vol. 10.
44Rose Scott (1846–1925), ADB vol. 11; Agnes Brewster (1874–1957), ADB vol. 13; Caroline David (1856–1951), ADB vol. 13.
45‘A Book Full of Sunlight’, Bulletin, 28/9/1901, ‘Red Page’.
46Struan Robertson to SMF, 10/4/04, FP vol. 9A; Edith Twynam to SMF, 28/6/1902– 24/8/1903, FP vol. 8. Edith Twynam (c.1874–1956), Penny Post, 3/5/1956, p. 2; Edward Twynam (1832–1923), Surveyor-General of NSW 1887–90, SMH, 3/4/1923, p. 8; KSP to SMF, 1/6/1930, FP vol. 21, and Judith Wright, ed. Patricia Clarke, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 1999, pp. 53–4. Katharine Susannah Prichard (1883–1969), writer and political activist (ADB vol. 11). Judith Wright (1915–2000), writer and environmentalist (OCAL).
47SMF to William Blackwood, 31/8/1902, also figures in an entry for My Brilliant Career under ‘Melvyn’ in Blackwood’s Publication Ledger (National Library of Scotland MS 30864) which vary slightly, but are difficult to interpret; Linda Franklin to SMF, n.d. [Jan. 1902], FP vol. 49; J. B. Pinker to SMF, 7/4/1904, FP vol. 80; Jill Roe and Margaret Bettison, ‘How Did Writers Earn a Living: Miles Franklin’, History of the Book in Australia, vol. 2, eds Martyn Lyons and John Arnold, Univ. of Qld Press, St Lucia, Qld, 2001; Official Year Book, 1908 (women’s wages, 1897); Laughter, Not for a Cage, p. 119.
48Jane Hunt, ‘Unrelaxing Fortitude’, ALS, 2002; Linda Franklin to SMF, 12/1/1902, FP vol. 49.
49FP vol. 5/16, p. 16; Edith Tw
ynam to SMF, 16/2/1902, FP vol. 6 et seq.; SMF to My Dear Sir [maybe Henry Lawson, but more likely A. G. Stephens], n.d. [1902], FP vol. 6, p. 405 (b), (c); A. B. Paterson to SMF, 25/3/1902, 2/4/1902, FP vol. 7. Phoebe Twynam (1871–1950) married Gordon Wesche (Supt. of P&O Australia in 1912) in 1901 (ADB vol. 12). Andrew Barton Paterson (1864–1941), was a poet, journalist and solicitor (ADB vol. 11).
50‘Women’s Suffrage League’, Penny Post, 31/10/1901, p. 4; RS to SMF, 31/3/1902 (Scott’s postscript acknowledges faults in My Brilliant Career) and 22/6/1902, FP vol. 8.
51A. B. Paterson to SMF, 7/4/1902, and 12/4/1902, FP vol. 7.
52A. G. Stephens to SMF, 11/4/1901[2], FP vol. 7; PBC nos Q17 and 357; Norman Lindsay, Bohemians of the Bulletin, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1965, p. 143, and Norman Lindsay, ‘Meeting on the Stairs’, Bulletin, 18/9/1946, p. 2; Jill Roe, ‘What Has Nationalism Offered Australian Women?’, in Australian Women: Contemporary Feminist Thought, eds Norma Grieve and Ailsa Burns, Oxford Univ. Press, Melbourne, Vic, 1994. Norman Lindsay (1879–1969), artist and writer (ADB vol. 10). Will (W. H.) Ogilvie (1869–1963), poet and journalist (ADB vol. 11).
53Book Lover, Dec. 1901, p. 139, and SMF to Ethel Curlewis (Turner), n.d. [1902], ML MSS 667, and Ethel Curlewis to SMF, 17/5/1902, FP vol. 8, both;* SMF to Margaret Windeyer, 19/7/1937, FP vol. 25; SMF to J. K. Moir, 17/6/1953, FP vol. 34; SMF to Tossie O’Sullivan, 28/5/1902, ML Af 64/8, and Sunday Times 20/4/1904. Margaret Windeyer (1866–1939), ADB vol. 12. Laurence Foley (1849–1917), ADB vol. 4.
54A. B. Paterson to George Robertson, 14/4/1902, cited Barker, Dear Robertson, p. 33; A. B. Paterson to SMF, 12/4/1902, 29/4/1902 and 2/5/1902, FP vol. 7, and draft letter SMF to Dear Sir, n.d., FP vol. 6, p. 405 (d); SMF, Oct. 1943, LN, FP vol. 3, pp. 34–5, repr. Diaries, p. 146. Alfred Cecil Rowlandson (1865–1922) became the owner of the NSW Book Stall Company in 1897, one of Australia’s most successful book publishing and selling ventures (OCAL).