by Jill Roe
12J. A. Hobson (1858–1940) wrote the classic critique Imperialism: A Study (1902), ODNB. Arthur Penty (see ch. 7, n. 6), who later veered to the far right, was another habitué; he gave a copy of his Old Worlds for New (1918) to SMF in 1923 (PBC, no. 771).
13Pat Thane, ‘Women, Liberalism and Citizenship, 1918–1930,’ in E. F. Biagini, Citizenship and Community: Liberals, Radical and Collective Identities in the British Isles, 1865– 1931, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1996, esp. pp. 88–91 (quotation, Margaret Wintringham, 1928).
14‘The Home-going of the Babies’ Kits’, SMH, 11/10/1919, repr. A Gregarious Culture. Sandra Stanley Holton’s important work on transatlantic liberal suffragism has yet to lead researchers to an Australian dimension.
15FP vols 14–15 contain the (often scrappy) corres. begun Apr. 1919 and lasting till Nov. 1926, with a few letters to mid-1927 in vols 16, 20; letters to Alice Henry are preserved at FP vol. 114; the postcards are at FP vol. 111 and the Lampe Family Album, NLA.
16Draft passport application, FP vol. 51, p. 167.
17ML MSS 445/39, p. 399.
18‘Sam Price from Chicago’, ML MSS 445/17, carbon ts., n.d.; A. P. Watt to G. Marriott, 24/7/1919, FP vol. 104 (invoice for typing).
19A. P. Watt to G. Marriott, Esq., 22/2/1922, FP vol. 84.
20Kay Daniels, ‘Emma Brooke’, Women’s Hist. Review, 2003; Dear Sir/The Writer, 15/6/1920 and 22/6/1920, FP vol. 84.
21‘Mrs Dysart Disappears’, ML MSS 445/10. ‘Hold Tight! Life on a London ’Bus’ (ML MSS 445/22) was rejected by at least five press outlets by 1921 (ML MSS 6035/3 and FP vol. 84).
22‘A Beauty Contest’, ML MSS 445/21; Bettison and Roe, ALS listing, 2001; Synopsis, ML MSS 445/28.
23Articles on Ireland, FP vol. 59, ten plus two items (nine in ML MSS 445/22); SMF to Eva O’Sullivan, 5/8/1919, ML MSS 544;* SMF to Alice Henry, 12/12/[1919], FP vol. 115.*
24PD 15/8–2/9/1919; BA,2/10/1919, p. 14 (SMF’s return from Ireland).
25SMF to Miss Lampe, 28/8/1919, Lampe Family Album, NLA; Irish Sketches, ‘Irishmen All!’, ML MSS 445/22, p. 1003; SMF to Desmond Fitzgerald, 6/2/1940, FP vol. 33. Gavan Duffy (1882–1951), Times (London), 11/6/1951, p. 6. For Desmond Fitzgerald, see ch. 12, n. 32.
26PD, and Irish Sketches, ML MSS 445/22, ‘At the Horse Show’ and ‘The Abbey Theatre’. John Bull’s Other Island was first published in 1904.
27Irish Sketches, ML MSS 445/22, ‘The Abbey Theatre’, p. 993.
28Drums Under the Windows (1946), and commentary, LN, FP vol. 3, pp. 749–50.
29Irish Sketches, ML MSS 445/22, ‘In the Shadow of the Church’, pp. 969–71.
30Irish Sketches, ML MSS 445/22, ‘In a Proclaimed Area’, p. 951. A similar thesis was later advanced in George Dangerfield’s The Strange Death of Liberal England (1936), which postulated an underlying similarity between the worker, Irish and women’s rebellions of the early twentieth century.
31Irish Sketches, ML MSS 445/22, ‘The Three Mutineers’, p. 1021.
32Francis Hackett (New Republic) to Rose Schneiderman, 28/10/1919, FP vol. 121.
33Postcard from Newport to SF, 1/7/1920, FP vol. 108; cutting, South Wales News, 23/7/1920, [n.p.], FP vol. 122; SMF to Alice Henry, 14/6/[1920], FP vol. 114 (a ‘magnificent congress’, with men, and one woman, from 26 countries).
34PD, Dec. 1918–Mar. 1919 (Mason), Jan. 1919 and Jul. 1922 (McDowell), Apr.–May 1919 (Anderson and Schneiderman), May–Jun. 1921 (Editha Phelps); SMF to Jane Addams, 6/8/1922.* Mary McDowell (1854–1936) was a social reformer in Chicago (NAW). Mary Anderson (1872–1964), Swedish-born union leader, was head of the US Women’s Bureau 1920–1944 (NAW).
35For Claude Kinred, see ch. 7, n. 12; Henry Stanley McKay (1877–1974), Australian War Memorial Nominal Roll, also Theatre Magazine, 1/9/1916, pp. 41–2 (ML); SMF to RS, 28/12/1919, RS Corres., ML (re Vida Goldstein);* Jack Lockyer, pers. comm., 21/10/1992.
36SMF to George Robertson, 16/4/1921, ML MSS 314.* Mary Booth’s evidence is in the Interim Report, Acting Govt Printer, Sydney, 1923, pp. 176–7. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie was published by Angus & Robertson in 1919. Emile Coué, d. 1926, Who Was Who 1926–1928.
37SMF to Alice Henry, 18/10/[1920], FP vol. 11;* PD 8/5/1918 (Brailsford). Henry Noel Brailsford (1873–1958) was a journalist and author (ODNB).
38SMF to Agnes Nestor, 20/6/1919, Nestor Papers, m/film series VII;* SMF to Alice Henry, 26/11/[1919] and 23/5/1922, FP vol. 114, both;* also SMF to RS, 28/12/1919, RS Corres.,* (‘the Empire seems to have gone mad’).
39SMF to Alice Henry, 10/7/[1920], FP vol. 114;* Jill Roe, ‘What Has Nationalism Offered Australian Women?’, in A. Burns and N. Grieve, eds, Australian Women: Contemporary Feminist Thought, Oxford Univ. Press, Melbourne, 1994; MDR to Dearest Dodo, 2/11/ [1921?], DD Papers; SMF to Isabella Goldstein, 13/10/1911, VG Papers.* Dale Spender, Time and Tide Wait for No Man, Virago, London, 1984 (Six Point Group). (Lady) Nancy Astor (1879–1964), American-born, was Conservative MP for Plymouth 1919–45.
4016/10/1920 Submission by Joint Author of The Net of Circumstance re Bennett’s disappointing remarks, FP vol. 90. ‘John Stuart Mill, Arnold Bennett and Time’, FP vol. 59; SMF to Alice Henry 23/5/1922, FP vol. 114.* PD, 2/1/1922: SMF consults Dr Burnett Rae, an advocate of cooperation between doctors and the clergy specialising in mental disorders (Times, London, 16/11/1960, p. 15); PD, 7/1/1922, hears lectures on ‘Psychoanalysis and its Limitations’ (Prof. John Adams, Times, London, 9/1/1922, p. 5).
41Fred K. [Post] to SMF, 30/7/1919, FP vol. 13, p. 265 and 15/11/1919, FP vol. 13, p. 67a and 4/5/192[0], FP vol. 13, p. 87; SMF to Alice Henry, 26/11/[1919], FP vol. 114;* John Varney to SMF, 30/6/1926, FP vol. 15. John Cushing Varney (1888–1967), poet and communist sympathiser, taught English at Washington Square College, New York Univ., c.1926–53 (NYT, 1/10/1967, p. 84), and Modern American Poetry, online journal, ‘Sol Funaroff: Apollinaire of the Proletariat’.
42SMF to Eva O’Sullivan, 5/8/1919, ML MSS 544;* SMF to SF, 20/8/1919, FP vol. 108; SMF to Agnes Nestor, 20/6/1919, Nestor Papers, m/film series VII;* SMF to MDR, 7/5/1920, MDR Papers.*
43SF to SMF, 14/8/1923, FP vol. 48.*
44Jill Roe, ‘Forcing the Issue: Miles Franklin and National Identity’. SMF’s passport (a British passport, as for all Australians prior to the introduction of Australian citizenship in 1949) is at FP vol. 51. PD, 1944, Personal Memorandum: 5 feet 1½ inches.
45Maurice Smith, Short History of Dentistry, Wingate, London, 1958, pp. 74–5; SMF to MDR, 11/7/1923, MDR Papers; SMF to Mr Greening, 26/1/1932, Lothian Papers.
46NHTPC Records, Minute Books, 1923–26; F. G. Hamilton to SMF, 26/10/1923, FP vol. 15. Mrs Hamilton’s home address: 56 South Eaton Place, SW1.
47NHTPC Minute Book, 7/1/1921, 17/11/1921.
48SMF to George Robertson, 16/4/1921, ML MSS 314*.
49Olive Aldridge to SMF, 26/10/1923, FP vol. 14.* ‘Minnewaska’ may refer to Ina E. Wood Van Norman, Minnewaska: A Legend of Lake Mohawk, Sequel to Longfellow’s Hiawatha and other Lyrical Poems, Donohue & Henneberry, Chicago, 1897.
Chapter 9 — To Be a Pilgrim
1Nell Malone to Miles Franklin, c.Dec. 1925, FP vol. 15.
2 Back to Methuselah (1921); PD, 3/11/1923.
3Sigmund Freud, A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Boni & Liverbright, New York, 1922 (PBC no. 630, with inscription); RS to SMF, 3/11/1923, FP vol. 15.
4MDR to Mary E. Dreier, 17/11/1923, RR Papers Box 2.
5Bulletin, 22/11/1923, p. 26 (her impending departure).
6Sun, 18/12/1923, p. 10. Also, Evening News, 18/12/1923, p. 10; SMH, 19/12/1923, p. 10; Southern Morning Herald (Goulburn), 20/12/1923, p. 2.
7SMF to MDR, 13/3/1924, MDR Papers.
8PD, 11/1/1924.
9Penny Post, 19/1/1924 [p. 2], 11/1/1924, p. 4 and 17/1/1957, p. 2 (‘Timpy’ Hebblewhite).
10SMH, 18/12/1923, p. 8; ‘Henry Lawson’, Meanjin Papers, 1942, vol. 1, no.1, repr. A Gregarious Culture; SMF to RS, 2/2/1924, and Monday [1924], RS Corres. The Lawson statue by George Lambert,
near Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, was unveiled in 1931.
11SMF to Uncle Gus, 21/10/1953, FP vol. 49. Apparently Susannah stayed for part of the time with her cousin, Mrs Gertrude Adam, née Kinred (Lois Adam in Roderick, Guard Book 7, Roderick Papers). Press interviews recorded in PD, 22/2/1924, were not found in any of the main papers.
12De Berg interview; Henry Ernest Bridle was by then a building contractor, at 28 Campbell St, Wollongong. Dr Lawson practised in Goulburn in the 1890s. The children of Ruth Horwitz, née Lawson (1887–1972) were Stanley (b. 1921), who became a publisher, and Lillaine (SMH, 20/7/1972, p. 28, and Who’s Who in Australia, 1998).
13Mrs Black: Isabella Emily, née Watson (c.1851–1931), of Gippsland, painter of Australian flora and fauna (Argus, 12/3/1931, p. 1), was sister of P. S. Watson. Marion Mahony Griffin to SMF, 16/4/1924, FP vol. 15; SMF to George Robertson, 16/4/1924, ML MSS 314.* The Griffins divided their time between Sydney and Melbourne until 1924.
14SMF to MDR, 13/3/1924, MDR Papers;* SMF to RS, Monday 1924, RS Corres.
15SF to SMF, 17/3/1924* and 14/4/1924,* FP vol. 48.
16PD, 14/1/1924.
17SMF to MDR, 13/3/1924, MDR Papers;* SMF to RS, Monday 1924, RS Corres.
18SMF to George Robertson, 16/4/1924, ML MSS 314.* ‘The Twin Screw “Chowder Bay” at Sea’, ML MSS 445/25 (Act 1) and draft to Nancy W––, FP vol. 46; ‘Maybe!’ ML MSS 445/7; SMF to Mary Fullerton, 10/6/1924, Fullerton Papers.*
19Henry R. Aldridge, Guide to the Administration of the Housing Acts, 1923, 1924, National Housing and Town Planning Council, London, 1924, PBC, Quarto 20.
20PD, 13/5/1924, and LN, FP vol. 3, pp. 733–5.
21‘Maybe!’, ML MSS 445/7.
22C. P. Gilman, His Religion and Hers: A Study of the Faith of our Fathers and the Work of our Mothers, Century, New York, 1923, PBC, no. 65, inscribed by Jessie Childs (Buhle, Feminism and its Discontents, pp. 39–49 provides context); SMF to Mary Fullerton, 10/6/1924, Fullerton Papers.*
23‘Maybe!’, ML MSS 445/7, p. 94; Susan Kingsley Kent, ‘Gender Reconstruction After the First World War’, in Harold L. Smith (ed.), British Feminism in the Twentieth Century, Elgar, Aldershot, England, 1990, p. 66.
24Buhle, Feminism and its Discontents, p. 88; Judith A. Allen, Sex and Secrets: Crimes Involving Australian Women Since 1880, Oxford Univ. Press Australia, Oxford and Melbourne, 1990, Part III.
25Ada Holman to SMF, 31/7/1924, ML MSS 3659/1, encl. 775, and BM book request, 29/7/1924, encl. 671; SMF to SF, postcards, 1/8/1924, 5/8/1924, FP vol. 108, and SMF to Miss Lampe, 5/8/1924, Lampe Family Album, NLA. There are two editions of William H. Prescott’s classic History of the Conquest of Peru, PBC, nos 774A and 772B.
26W. Hanson, The Pastoral Possessions of NSW, Gibb, Shallard & Co, Sydney, 1889, p. 16. There was also a Bimben West holding listed at that time, holders John McDonald, Joseph and William Webb, and John and James Wright.
27Kirkby, Alice Henry, pp. 187–90, and PD, Aug.–Dec. 1924, passim.
28SMF to SF, 14/11/1924, FP vol. 108. Gibbs, Bernard Shaw, p. 366. Dame Edith Evans (1888–1976), a famous London actress, appeared in plays by Shakespeare, Wilde and Shaw, and in films.
29SMF to JMF, 14/11/1924, FP vol. 113X. Noël Coward (1899–1973), Plays: One, Hay Fever, The Vortex, Fallen Angels, Easy Virtue, Methuen, London, 1979. The Vortex (1923), Coward’s first big success, was launched at Everyman Theatre, Hampstead, 23/11/1924, and moved to the West End 16/12/1924.
30FP vol. 107, p. 83; SF to SMF, 10/2/1925, FP vol. 48; SMH, 10/2/1925, p. 8 (death notice).
31SMF to Mary Fullerton, 10/6/1924, Fullerton Papers.* (Fullerton’s first extant communication with SMF is a postcard from the Lake District, from ‘the author of Bark House Days’, 12/11/1926, FP vol. 16.) The housing conference was held at Caxton Hall, 17–19/7/1924, Times (London), 17–19/7/1924, pp. 11 and 9, with Ada Holman in the chair on the final day. Martin, Passionate Friends, pp. 99, 110; ADB vol. 8, Fullerton entry; for Mabel Singleton (1877–1965) and Denis Singleton (1911–2008), Index, My Congenials, vol. 2; SMF to J. K. Moir, 15/4/1952, J. K. Moir Colln.
32Kent, A Certain Style, p. 124 (‘Beatrice allowed friendship to overrule literary judgement’). Beatrice Davis (1909–92), was the first fulltime general editor at Angus & Robertson, serving in that capacity for 36 years (OCAL).
33Dominion women’s conference: Miles was among those suggested as a delegate but not apparently endorsed (Conference Minutes of the Australian Federation of Women’s Societies, Adelaide, 1924, AFWS Papers, MS 2818, Box 9, p. 2); ML MSS 445/39, p. 379 (unemployment); PD, 25/7/1925; SMF to Mary Fullerton, 27/3/1928, FP vol. 16. Ruth First and Ann Scott, Olive Schreiner, Schocken Books, New York, 1980, Introduction.
34Her work appreciated: F. Elgood to SMF, 12/2/1925, and F. G. Hamilton to SMF, 25/5/1925, vol. 15.
35NHTPC Records, Minutes, Nov. 1925; SMF to F. G. Hamilton, 20/10/1925, FP vol. 15 and SMF to Eva O’Sullivan, 5/4/1926, ML MSS 544*. LN, FP vol. 3, p. 536 describes Mr A. as a gargoyle, typically English, with horrifying teeth and encroaching baldness.
36SMF to Frank Elgood, 23/1/1925, FP vol. 15; Nell Malone to SMF, n.d., FP vol. 15. Mr A.’s earlier address in Paris was Cercle Artistique and Litteraire, 7 Rue Volney (H. Reilding to SMF, 12/3/1925, FP vol. 15).
37John Martin to SMF, 29/1/1926, FP vol. 15; SMF to Helene Scheu-Reisz, 30/9/1952, FP vol. 20.*
38FP vol. 23, p. 311 (subtitle given in listing of the Brent chronicle to C. H. Grattan); ‘Merlin of the Empiah by Brent of Bin Bin’, ML MSS 6035/34/1, gives Miles’s forwarding address in New York, 1931; H. F. Malone [SMF] to Cape, 19/1/1926, FP vol. 86,* and following items.
39Among those whom Miles approached were actors Margaret Bannerman (1896–1976) and Robert Loraine (1876–1935), a friend of George Bernard Shaw (Gibbs, Bernard Shaw).
40‘Bouquets’, ML 445/26; Margery Furbank to SMF, 22/4/1939, FP vol. 26, re Baker. ‘H. M. Baker’ is listed as a tax consultant, London Telephone Directory, 1926. Alban Limpus (1878?–1941) produced Hay Fever and other successful plays, Times (London), 25/3/1941, p. 7.
41Nell Malone to SMF, 28/2/1926, FP vol. 15.
42SMF to A. G. Stephens, Sunday [18/4/1926], FP vol. 7; and SF to SMF, 19/9/1926, FP vol. 48.
43NHTPC Records, Minutes, 13/12/1926, and F. G. Hamilton to SMF, 13/12/1926, FP vol. 15.
44Mary Fullerton to SMF, 3/3/1927, from 35 Stratford Rd, W8, FP vol. 16.*
45‘Up the Country’: sketch, repr. Graeme Davison et al., Australians, 1888, Fairfax, Syme and Weldon, Sydney, 1987, p. 112.
46Mary Fullerton to SMF, 3/3/1927, FP vol. 16.*
47‘Up the Country’, ts., Miles Franklin — Further Papers 1908–c.1950, ML MSS 6035/40, purchased from Sydney antiquarian bookseller Berkelouw, 1994. Re the purchase see Christopher Niesche, ‘A Brilliant Collection’, SMH (Good Weekend), 12/11/1994. Berkelouw’s catalogue (1962) is at ML MSS 6035/41.
48Covering letter, preserved in William Blackwood & Sons, Publishing file for Miles Franklin’s ‘Brent of Bin Bin’ novels, 1927–48, ML MSS 6329/1; also FP vol. 85. Special note on Blackwood’s ‘Brent of Bin Bin’ publishing file: This file was purchased by the State Library of NSW from New Century Antiquarian Books, Melbourne in 1997. It contains over 200 letters written between 26/5/1927 and 22/2/1948, almost half of which are new to Franklin studies. A breakdown of contents discloses that 82 of the letters were written by Miles Franklin, the first as noted from the northern hemisphere as ‘S. Miles’, then as ‘S[arah] Mills’ (a play on her last two given names, Sarah Miles), and from Australia, as ‘William Blake’; 52 are from other correspondents, including Agnes Murphy, still operating as a publicist in 1930; and there are 76 (s. only) by Blackwood. Estimate from Offer of Sale, Corres. of Miles Franklin and others 1927–48, ts. I am grateful to Paul Brunton for access to this document.
49Mollye Menken to SMF, 21/5/1928, FP vol. 20; S. A. Byles to SMF, 28/10/[1929] FP vol. 6.*
50Copy of Memorandum of Agreement, 17/6/1927, signed for Blackwood, but not by Ms Sarah Miles fo
r William Blake, FP vol. 85; Blackwood & Sons to Miss Sarah Miles, 17/6/1927 (transcript) and S. Mills to Blackwood & Sons, 18/6/1927, ML MSS 6329.
Chapter 10 — Enter Brent of Bin Bin
1SMF to MDR, 30/10/1930, MDR Papers.*
2Eric Martin, a Sydney draughtsman, recalled her conversation as delighting fellow passengers (Eric Martin to SMF, 18/9/1927, FP vol. 20). Brent of Bin Bin, Back to Bool Bool, Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, 1931, pp. 20–1 (a Cape Town stopover).
3Age, 12/8/1927 (Shipping News); A. B. Champion to SMF, 5/10/1927, FP vol. 15; Kate Baker to SMF, 11/8/1927, FP vol. 9A.*
4DT (Sydney), 17/8/1927, p. 10 (the only press reference re arrival); PD, 23/8/1927. Helena Lampe Diary, 16/8/1927, FP vol. 104/112. Re JMF’s health: according to SF’s records (FP vol. 109X), p. 285, he suffered a nervous collapse in Apr. 1927.
5W. B. to Blackwood & Sons, 18/10/1927, ML MSS 6329. Some letters in the Blackwood file are preserved in SMF’s own Brent file (FP vol. 85).
6ML MSS 6035/40; Mutch Index, ML m/films, reel CY 572. The collar came from Hine, Parker and Co., a long-established clothing firm in central London.
7SMF to J. B. Pinker, 6/2/1901, FP vol. 80 (‘I do not wish it to be known that I am a young girl’); Elaine Showalter, A Literature of their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton N.J., 1977, pp. 57–9; Roe and Bettison, A Gregarious Culture, p. xxii, ALS listing, 2001.
8Heilbrun, Writing a Woman’s Life, pp. 113, 116; W. Blake to Blackwood, 30/11/1928, ML MSS 6329. Nigel Muir, ‘Miles Franklin Confesses’, SMH, 16/7/1966 (Weekend Magazine).
9W. Blake to Blackwood, 24/10/1927, ML MSS 6329; John Varney to SMF, 17/9/1927, FP vol. 15.
10Argus, 10/8/1927, p. 19, and 22/8/1927, p. 1; PD, 20/9/1927.
11A ms. and a ts. of Ten Creeks Run dated 1927 are preserved at ML MSS 6035/37–38, also two tss dated 1928. The earliest version of Cockatoos is a ts. at ML MSS 6035/30 dated 1927–28, and a carbon ts. entitled ‘Cockatoos, a Story of Youth and Exodists’ by Brent of Bin Bin, c.1927, is at ML MSS 445/8.