Frank Hardy was born at Southern Cross and grew up at Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Leaving school at thirteen, Hardy worked as a fruit-picker, road-construction worker, seaman, grocer and cartoonist. In 1938 Hardy moved to Melbourne and his cartoons appeared regularly in the Radio Times from 25 September 1937 until 5 March 1939. In 1939 he joined the Communist Party, responding to the suffering caused by the 1930s depression, and later became a member of the Realist Writers' group, editing the Realist Writer from 1958-1962. While serving in the army during World War II, Hardy established a camp newspaper, the Troppo Tribune, and later worked on the army magazine, Salt. After the war, he worked as a journalist in Melbourne and began writing his most well-known work, Power Without Glory (1950).
Power Without Glory received immediate attention through the charges of libel laid by Mrs Ellen Wren, who was allegedly the adulterous Nellie West of the novel. The novel is a semi-fictional account of the millionaire John Wren. John West, Hardy's character, achieves great public success, but suffers a wretched personal life, eventually dying a confused and bitter man. While critics acknowledge the novel's technical problems, it remains widely admired for its vivid descriptions of Melbourne life in the first half of the twentieth century.
Hardy wrote several more novels, most notably But the Dead Are Many (1975), and many collections of short stories. His stories often employ the form of the tall story, skilfully using the Australian idiom. The most carefully crafted stories are admired for their exploration of the Depression years in rural Victoria. From 1985 to 1993 Hardy wrote weekly columns for popular magazines, firstly for People and then for the Australasian Post.
In addition to his fiction, Hardy's plays, lectures, songs and television appearances made him a well-known public figure. This exposure was consolidated through his strong support of the Aboriginal people in their claims for land rights. Hardy continued to publish short stories in the 1980s and 1990s and saw several of his plays produced. He died in 1994.
