John Thompson

She was born in 1879 at Talbingo in New South Wales.

Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, the Australian novelist, was a farmer's daughter, perhaps I should say a grazier's daughter.

Fresh winds and crystal streams, iced by the snowy mountains, sang round her when she was young.

and her writing till the end of her life breathed of the Australian countryside.

Everybody believed that Miles was exceedingly poor.

She lived with the utmost frugality.

After her death it was revealed that she had hoarded up thousands of pounds and the entire sum was bequeathed in perpetuity

to provide an annual literary prize of at least £500 for the encouragement of Australian writing.

And even with this magnificent gesture, which is far and away the most generous that has ever been made to our literature, we have not yet heard the last of Stella, Maria, Sarah, Miles, Franklin.