Guide to the Papers of Miles Franklin

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MS 681

National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record

Collection Summary

Creator
Franklin, Miles (Stella Maria Sarah Miles)
Miles Franklin
Title
Papers of Miles Franklin
Date Range
1887-ca. 1931
Collection Number
MS 681
Extent
0.72 metres (4 archive boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Repository
National Library of Australia

Introduction

Scope and Contents

1. Six exercise books containing a handwritten draft of the novel 'Old Blastus of Bandicoot'. 2. Typewritten draft of 'Old Blastus of Bandicoot: a play in three acts'. 3. Photocopies of press cuttings concerning early settlers of the Monaro District. Also includes photographs, Brindabella Visitors' Book, 1887; publications (2 boxes) including mostly works by and about Miles Franklin, some are autograph copies and some contain newsclippings and correspondence."Ten Creeks Run: a tale of the horse and cattle stations of the upper Murrumbidgee" by Brent of Bin Bin, author of 'Up the Country'": Typed ms with typed and ink corrections by Franklin and pencilled annotations by the printer. It was bound for the collector Harry Chaplin in about 1960.

Conditions Governing Access

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1427993).

Conditions Governing Use

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred Citation

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Miles Franklin, National Library of Australia, MS 681, [box number and series and/or file number]'.

Biographical / Historical

Miles Franklin, the eldest child of John Franklin of Brindabella station and his wife Margaret, was born at Talbingo, New South Wales, in 1879, and given the name Stella Maria Sarah Miles. The family moved to Stillwater near Goulburn in 1879 and after several more farming enterprises near Penrith and Chesterfield they gave up the land and moved to the Sydney suburb of Carlton, where Stella Franklin became the writer Miles Franklin with the publication of My Brilliant Career in 1901. In 1906 Miles Franklin embarked for San Francisco , arriving in a city destroyed by the recent earthquake, and by the end of 1906 she had crossed the United States and reached Chicago where she stayed until 1915, working during this time as a secretary to the president of the National Women's Trade Union League of America, Margaret Dreier Robins, and as a co-editor and briefly, editor, on the League's monthly journal, Life and Labor.

With the declaration of war in Europe Franklin took leave from the League and sailed for England in October, 1915. She resigned from the League and worked in various jobs in London. In June 1917 she undertook volunteer work with the 'American' Unit of the Scottish Women's Hospital for Foreign Service stationed at Ostrova, Macedonia, where she remained until February 1918, when she returned, in poor health, to London. She remained in London for another eight years, visiting Ireland in 1919 and 1926, and Australia, via America, in 1923-24. During this time Franklin worked as a secretary, while continuing to write. She completed Prelude to waking in December 1925. Theis was published in 1950, but was the first work written under her new pseudonym, 'Brent of Bin Bin'.

Miles Franklin returned to Australia in 1927, and between 1928 and 1931, three of a projected nine volume pastoral saga by 'Brent of Bin Bin' were published by Blackwoods. By late 1930 Franklin was dissatisfied with home and Australian literary life and left for London via America in pursuit of publishers, returning late 1932. Her father had died in 1931 and her finances dipped alarmingly. Old Blastus of Bandicoot (London 1931) appeared under her own name, and in 1933 she published Bring the monkey and completed the six 'Brent' novels. All that swagger was published by the Bulletin and won the S.H. Prior Memorial Prize in 1936.

Franklin joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers in 1933 and the Sydney P.E.N. Club in 1935, and supported young writers as Jean Devanny (q.v.), Sumner Locke Elliot, Ian Mudie, and Ric Throssell. She supported new literary journals such as Meanjin and Southerly, and fellowship schemes to nurture Australian writers. Her contributions to Australian literary life culminated in lectures at the University of Western Australian in 1950; these were published posthumously as Laughter not for a cage.

Miles Franklin died on the 19th September 1954 in hospital in Drummoyne. Her vision survives in the annual Miles Franklin award, her published work, the international success of My Brilliant Career, and in her voluminous papers, willed to the Mitchell Library, Sydney.

Item Descriptions

Class MS 681. Original Consignment

Six notebooks containing a handwritten draft of the novel 'Old Blastus of Bandicoot' (File 1) - Box 1

Type written draft of 'Old Blastus of Bandicoot'; photo copies of press cuttings concerning early settlers of the Monaro District (File 2) - Box 1

Family photographs added, 20/12/79 (File 3) - Box 1

Photographs; typewritten notes and other material relating to Back to Bool Bool and Ten Creeks Run (File 4) - Box 1

Typescript manuscript of 'Ten Creeks Run' bound (Item 1) - Box 1

Brindabella Visitors' Book, 1907 (Item 2) - Box 1

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin first edition Edinburgh, 1901 (Item 3) - Box 2

Some Everyday Folk and Dawn by Miles Franklin first edition, 1901 (Item 4) - Box 2

Old Blastus of Bandicoot by Miles Franklin first edition with cuttings of 'first British reviews' and personal note by Franklin (Item 5) - Box 2

Ten Creeks Run by Brent of Bin Bin (Item 6) - Box 2

All That Swagger by Miles Franklin first Australian edition with personal dedication by the author (Item 7) - Box 2

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin 4th edition, 1979 (Item 8) - Box 2

Pioneers on Parade by Miles Franklin and Dymphna Cusack first edition 1939 with personal annotation by the author (Item 9) - Box 2

Gentlemen at Gyang Gyang by Brent of Bin Bin first edition 1956 with enclosed review from The Bulletin and The Daily Telegraph (Item 10) - Box 2

Laughter Not for a Cage by Miles Franklin first edition 1956 with enclosed review from The Bulletin (Item 11) - Box 2

Miles Franklin: a Tribute by Some of Her Friends 1955 with enclosed cutting from The Sydney Morning Herald hand written note by P.R. Stephensen and Alan D. Mickle and photograph of John Moir (Item 12) - Box 2

Miles Franklin: a Tribute by Some of Her Friends signed by R.F. Bridle (Item 13) - Box 2

Miles Franklin: a Tribute by Some of her Friends signed by A.M. Bridle (Item 14) - Box 2

Miles Franklin: a Tribute by Some of her Friends with cutting from The Sydney Morning Herald, Nov.12, 1955 (Item 15) - Box 2

Australian Writers and their Work: Miles Franklin by Ray Matthew (Item 16) - Box 2

Catalogue No.47 Mesrs. Berkolouw Sydney: Miles Franklin's Manuscripts and Typescripts (Item 17) - Box 2

Moles Do So Little With Their Privacy Poems by 'E' Angus and Robertson, 1942 (Item 18) - Box 2

Back to Bool Bool by Brent of Bin Bin first edition 1931 enclosed newspaper cutting and letter (Item 19) - Box 2

Cockatoos by Brent of Bin Bin first edition, 1954 (Item 20) - Box 2

Australian Writers Speak, 1943 (Item 21) - Box 2

Old Blastus of Bandicoot by Miles Franklin, 1945 (Item 22) - Box 2

Meanjin Quarterly, 3/1970 (Item 23) - Box 2

Southerly number two, 1955 (Item 24) - Box 2

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin (Item 25) - Box 3

All That Swagger by Miles Franklin first edition1936 with cutting from The Sydney Morning Herald July 9 1955 and inscription 'To Leslie ...... Stella', 1936 (Item 26) - Box 3

All That Swagger by Miles Franklin first edition 1936 with cutting from The Sydney Morning Herald July 9 1955 and inscription 'To Ruby ....... Stella, 1936 (Item 27) - Box 3

Back to Bool Bool by Brent of Bin Bin second edition, 1956 (Item 28) - Box 3

Arcana; or the museum of natural history vol 1 London, 1811 (Item 29) - Box 3

Pillar to Post by Harley Matthews (Item 30) - Box 3

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin with enclosed notes and cutting (Item 31) - Box 3

Catalogue No.47 Messrs. Berkelouw ... Sydney: Miles Franklin's Manuscripts and typescripts ... issued to commemorate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the firm MESSRS. BERKELOUW, 1812-1962 (Item 32) - Box 3

Joseph Furphy The Legend of a man and his Books by Miles Franklin 1944 with enclosed notes and cuttings and an inscription by Joseph Furphy (Item 33) - Box 3

Prelude to Waking by Brent of Bin Bin (Item 34) - Box 3

Australian New Writing 3 February, 1945 (Item 35) - Box 3

My Career Goes Bung by Miles Franklin first edition 1946 with enclosed cutting (Item 36) - Box 3

Bring the Monkey by Miles Franklin with inscription ' from Stella' and cutting (Item 37) - Box 3

Up the Country by Brent of Bin Bin first edition, 1930 (Item 38) - Box 3

Childhood at Brindabella by Miles Franklin with enclosed cuttings (Item 39) - Box 3

Pioneer Women of Australia, 1938 (Item 40) - Box 3

Material selectively digitised from the collection

Miles Franklin [picture]
Stella Miles Franklin [picture].

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