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12. Clarke, Marcus, 1846-1881

Marcus Clarke, came to Australia in 1863, after his father had died and left the family unprovided. After trying work in a bank in Melbourne, and on a sheep station in the Wimmera, he returned to Melbourne and worked as a journalist. His first book, The peripatetic philosopher (1869) was a collection of columns from The Australasian. His first novel, Long odds (1870) has a horse-racing theme and first appeared in the Colonial Monthly, of which he was the editor. The editors of the Australian journal commissioned him to visit Tasmania to collect material for a series of stories on the convict days. The result was His natural life, a novel which ran as a serial in the magazine from March 1870 to June 1872. It appeared, heavily edited, in book form, published in Melbourne by George Robertson in 1874, then as a three-decker published by Bentley in London in 1875. Its first appearance with the more familiar title, For the term of his natural life was the colonial, or “Australian edition” published by Bentley and Robertson in 1885.

Clarke was from all accounts a charming person and wrote with much facility, producing journalism, novels, pamphlets and pantomimes. He also worked in the Melbourne Public Library, a post secured for him by his patron Redmond Barry. However he struggled to support his family. He went bankrupt twice, and died aged 35, leaving his wife destitute. In an attempt to alleviate her plight his friends arranged publication of The Marcus Clarke memorial volume (1884) and the Austral edition (1890) containing selections from his works.

His natural life was hailed as a powerful novel of Australia’s early convict days and has remained popular despite all its melodramatic flaws.

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