MARRIAGE ‘AMONG THE MURKANS’

Abstract

Abstract Stella Miles Franklin (1879–1954) is best known for contributions to a uniquely Australian literary tradition. However, during her American years (1906–1915) when she worked in Chicago with the National Women's Trade Union League, Franklin wrote much unpublished fiction in the New Woman literary genre common to early-twentieth-century US women's traditions. This paper focuses on two such little-known unpublished stories: ‘Uncle Robert's Wedding Present’ (1908) and ‘Teaching Him’ (1909), discussing ways their entanglements with questions of marriage and economics are grounded in Franklin's work and personal life and in the intellectual influences that shaped her writing.

Notes

1. At a later date, as Franklin was wont to do with her unpublished manuscripts, she recycled this story, called it ‘Uncle's Wedding Present’ and set it in London right after World War I. Although only a few fragments of these pages survive, the plot seems almost identical (MLMSS 445/21 last 4 manuscript pages).

2. The page references used here and for other material quoted from ‘Uncle Robert's Wedding Present’ and ‘Teaching Him’ refer to the original typed manuscripts held in the State Library of NSW (respectively:1908 MLMSS 445/21 and 1909 MLMSS 445/22).