Franklin was born at
Talbingo, New South Wales, and grew up in the
Brindabella Valley on a property called
Brindabella Station. who was the great-granddaughter of Edward Miles (or Moyle) who had arrived with the
First Fleet in the
Scarborough with a seven-year sentence for theft. Her best known novel,
My Brilliant Career, tells the story of an irrepressible teenage girl, Sybylla Melvyn, growing to womanhood in rural New South Wales. It was published in 1901 with the support of Australian writer,
Henry Lawson. After its publication, Franklin tried a career in nursing, and then as a housemaid in Sydney and Melbourne. While doing this she contributed pieces to
The Daily Telegraph and
The Sydney Morning Herald under the pseudonyms "An Old Bachelor" and "Vernacular." During this period she wrote
My Career Goes Bung in which Sybylla encounters the Sydney literary set, but it was not released to the public until 1946. An overtly anti-war play,
The Dead Must Not Return, was not published or performed but received a public reading in September 2009.
In the United States and England In 1906, Franklin moved to the US and undertook secretarial work for
Alice Henry, another Australian, at the
National Women's Trade Union League in Chicago, and co-edited the league's magazine,
Life and Labor. Her life in England in the 1920s gave rise to
Bring the Monkey (1933), a satire on the English country house mystery novel. The book reveals Franklin's views on nationality and class. However,
All That Swagger was published under her own name in 1936, winning the
S. H. Prior Memorial Prize. Franklin also won the
S. H. Prior Memorial Prize in 1939 together with
Kate Baker for their collaborative work 'Who Was Joseph Furphy?'. Throughout her life, Franklin actively supported
Australian literature. She joined the
Fellowship of Australian Writers in 1933 and the
Sydney PEN Club in 1935. She encouraged young writers such as
Jean Devanny,
Sumner Locke Elliott and
Ric Throssell and she supported the new literary journals,
Meanjin and
Southerly. and to write in the Waratah Book. In 1937, Franklin declined appointment as an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire having taken offence to the appointment of compatriot poet
Mary Gilmore to the higher honour of
Dame Commander within the same order. In this period of her life Franklin was a constant attendee and speaker at various cultural and literary events. Her message was centred on free speech and the championing of Australian literature. Franklin was staunchly anti-war and, traumatized by her WWI experiences, very much feared a war on Australian soil at this time. While Miles Franklin had many suitors, she never married. She died on 19 September 1954, aged 74 and her ashes were scattered in Jounama Creek, Talbingo close to where she was born. ==Collaborations==