The Australian Women's Register

Miles Franklin, the eldest child of John Maurice Franklin and Margaret Susannah Helena, nee Lampe, was educated at home and after 1889 at Thornford Public School, when the family moved to Stillwater. They later moved to Cranebrook near Penrith in 1902. After working as a governess in 1897, Miles Franklin, completed her first novel ‘My Brilliant Career’ in 1899. It was published in London in 1901 after being rejected for publication in Australia. Writing was her means to independence and she left for the United States of America in 1906. She spent nine years working in Chicago for the National Women’s Trade Union League with fellow Australian Alice Henry. She continued to pursue her writing career.

She moved to London in 1915, worked briefly at a creche run by Margaret McMillan in Deptford, as a cook, as a volunteer in Macedonia with the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service, and as a secretary. She remained in London until 1927, but visited Australia in 1923-1924 and again in 1927. She returned to London in 1930 in search of publishers, but settled in Australia permanently in 1932 after her father’s death in 1931. During this period she wrote under the pseudonym ‘Brent of Bin Bin’.

Despite the demands of her ageing mother, Miles Franklin became a major personality on the Sydney literary scene, supporting new publications and fellowships for Australian writers. She maintained her commitment to an Australian literature until her death.

Her published works include:
My Brilliant career (1901)
Some everyday folk and Dawn (Edinburgh,1909)
The net of circumstance ( London 1915)
Prelude to waking
Old Blastus of Bandicoot ( London 1931)
Bring that monkey
All that swagger
My career goes bung