Miles Stella Franklin

Born Oct. 14, 1879, on a farm in Talbingo, New South Wales; died Sept. 19, 1954, in Sydney. Australian writer.

Franklin was born into a family of squatters and pioneers. Her first novel, My Brilliant Career (1901), was one of the first works of Australian literature to be written in the genre of the family chronicle. She continued this trend with the novels Old Blastus of Bandicoot (1931), All That Swagger (1936), and the cycle published under the pseudonym Brent of Bin Bin. This cycle includes the novels Up the Country (1928), Ten Creeks Run (1930), Back to Bool Bool (1931), Prelude to Waking (1950), Cockatoos (1954), and Gentlemen in Gyang Gyang (1956). Her other works include the satirical novel Pioneers on Parade (1939; with E. D. Cusack), the book of essays on the history of the Australian novel Laughter, Not for a Cage (1956), and a biography of T. Collins.