Brent of Bin Bin [Miles Franklin], 1879-1954.

Up the Country (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1928).

In a diary entry of 24 March 1927, Franklin wrote of visiting Fullerton and discussing the possibilities of writing an “epic of Australia never done before”. That year, she started her Brent of Bin Bin series, with Up the Country appearing in 1928. Mary wrote to Franklin on 27 March 1928 that “Women are the next top dogs” of Australian literature, which had a special attraction: “Such a field: consider its virginity, its scope”.

On 13 February 1929, Franklin wrote gleefully to Fullerton after the reviews of Up the Country came out, “Yes they all think me a man”. When Ten Creeks Run was to be published, Mary wrote to Franklin:

How chucklesome when this new book of yours gets into the reviewers’ hands here and there, the guesses—all at sea again. It will make them to think furiously this time for ‘ho, ho, here is a strong man, the man at last and who the deuce is it?’

The identity of Brent of Bin Bin continued to be a local literary mystery. Marjorie Barnard wrote to Nettie Palmer in 1931 that, “I shall be very surprised if Brent is not an elderly man — probably a bachelor”. Although Franklin’s All That Swagger won The Bulletin’s Memorial Prize in 1936, she was disappointed by its reception:

It has been acclaimed by the Sydney Morning Herald, by the Bishop of Goulburn and the communists so must have a wide appeal…Melbourne has been rather piffling and patronising…Nettie and Vance [Palmer] politely congratulate me on prize—but otherwise silent or they fall back on saying I am a wonderful woman

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