'This engrossing collection presents the letters between six Australian writers in the years 1930–1957. The women discuss their work as writers, their political views and activities and the turmoils and banalities of their personal lives, in letters that are funny, serious, often beautifully written and at times breathtakingly honest and moving. From the early notes of mutual support to the rich correspondence of long-held friendships, these letters offer a unique and intimate perspective on these extraordinary women. At the same time, the collection forms a narrative and commentary on the literary, social and political events of these turbulent years that witnessed the Depression, the Second World War and the beginnings of the Cold War. Annotated and complemented by Carole Ferrier's background information and careful editing, this collection will be fascinating to anyone with an interest in Australia's cultural history.' (Publication summary)
'Miles Franklin, as many scholars have suggested, was an inherently contradictory personality. Friends and colleagues have represented her as someone who rarely disclosed her private life. Marjory Barnard highlighted Franklin's privacy when she wrote in her biography of Franklin: 'Who knows exactly what Miles felt - even when she told you?' (1967, 49). In her collection of Australian women writers' diaries and letters from this era, Carole Ferrier writes: 'Franklin does not generally reveal a great deal about her personal life in her letters' (1992, 6). Jill Roe describes her as 'self-protective to a degree people still find incomprehensible' (2008, 345). This article has been developed from a larger project that set out to explore 'the dynamics of her interior life' (Roe 2004, 44) as expressed in Franklin'd manuscript diaries, held at the Mitchell Library in Sydney.' (p63)
'Miles Franklin, as many scholars have suggested, was an inherently contradictory personality. Friends and colleagues have represented her as someone who rarely disclosed her private life. Marjory Barnard highlighted Franklin's privacy when she wrote in her biography of Franklin: 'Who knows exactly what Miles felt - even when she told you?' (1967, 49). In her collection of Australian women writers' diaries and letters from this era, Carole Ferrier writes: 'Franklin does not generally reveal a great deal about her personal life in her letters' (1992, 6). Jill Roe describes her as 'self-protective to a degree people still find incomprehensible' (2008, 345). This article has been developed from a larger project that set out to explore 'the dynamics of her interior life' (Roe 2004, 44) as expressed in Franklin'd manuscript diaries, held at the Mitchell Library in Sydney.' (p63)
