'The cover of this facsimile reprint of Miles Franklin’s 1944 biography of Joseph Furphy proclaims: “The man who wrote Such Is Life . . . by the woman who wrote My Brilliant Career.” Inside, Franklin tells us that “Furphy’s book has come to serve as the touchstone for the Australian literary intelligentsia because, by his feeling for it, any literary Australian betrays whether he lives in a state of Australian grace or in one of mental colonialism.” Today, a year after the centenary of My Brilliant Career and one before that of Such Is Life, Franklin and her novel are much better known in Australia and…' (Introduction)