Frank Hardy: A Political Biography

by Jenny Hocking

Genres: Politics, Biography

310 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 2005

About the author

Jenny Hocking FASSA is emeritus professor at Monash University and the inaugural distinguished Whitlam fellow with the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University. She is the author of three biographies, including the award-winning two-volume biography of Gough Whitlam, Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History (MUP, 2008) and Gough Whitlam: His Time (MUP, 2012). Her latest book is The Dismissal Dossier: The Palace Connection (MUP, 2017).

Reviews

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, which took me to many events and places that I didn’t anticipate. Hocking draws heavily on Frank Hardy’s own papers, but also Hardy’s autobiographical writing, newspapers spanning some 40 years, correspondence and papers of a slew of contacts and interviews. You don’t need to have read Hardy’s works (I’ve only read Power without Glory) because Hocking gives a good taste of their flavour, and her list of Hardy’s works at the end of the book highlights how prolific he was as a playwright, journalist and writer of both short stories and full length novels. The book is painstakingly researched but easy to read.

But -oh- he was a slippery character. He was a great ‘yarner’ and gave the appearance of being open, while boiling inside with secrets. His carefreeness barely cloaked carelessness and irresponsibility.

See my complete review at:https://residentjudge.wordpress.com/2...

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have heard the name and a bit of the activities of Frank Hardy in various other history books and exhibitions of Australia. So when I saw this book on the shelf of a friend, I asked if I could borrow it. I have read a couple of Ms Hocking's other books and she is nothing, if not thorough in her research, drawing from a huge variety of sources to piece together the life of this pivotal figure in Australia's history. Born into a poor family in regional Victoria, Frank Hardy was brought up in a large Catholic family during the Depression, so he understood what it meant to be poor. As he got older, like many of his generation, was drawn to the Communist Party and it's ideals. Over the years, he also, like many, got disillusioned on how its practice often divulged from its ideals. One of the first incidents that got him interested was being given a newspaper by one of the many people walking the country looking for any kind of work: "The Worker's Voice" where he read about what was happening in Europe in the mid 1930's, which lead to a lifetime of reading including such authors as Upton Sinclair, Charles Dickens, Eric Remarque, Egon Kisch among others. When Kirch came to speak in Australia, the conservative government at the time tried to keep him out due to his anti-fascist views. At the time, the Australian government looked very favourably on Mussolini and Hitler. In fact after a trip to Germany in 1938, the then Attorney General, Robert Menzies impressed by 'German industrial effeciency', wrote that he "thought it was a great thing for Germany to have arms."
Mr Hardy took to writing and drawing cartoons while in the Army and continued doing so after his discharge. He wrote and illustrated for a variety of publications while working on his first novel: Power Without Glory, based on the life of the Wren family, a power broker in Victorian politics. While the book sold reasonably well despite mainstream book sellers wouldn't carry it, and the mainstream press giving it lackluster reviews if at all, he eventually got sued for libel from Ms Wren. After being found guilty many working class folks rallied to him and helped out however they could.
Later criticism of his writing was that his mix of politics and literature are incompatible, something he fought against, writing that 'books about evil capitalists, become non-literatureand should not be taught - or if taught, attacked.'
But Mr Hardy was starting to get influential supporters including Clement Semmler, an important producer for the fledgling ABC television network. Mr Semmler hired Mr Hardy to write serialization of Power Without Glory, which was quite successful.
Later, while working in the Northern Territory, he got involved with the Gurindji people and rallied support for their claim of land rights and began work on a highly structured mix of documentary and fictionalised representation of their plight called The Unlucky Australians in the late 1960's.
Overall I found this book totally engaging and a mini people's history of the working classes of Australia.

[Dulcie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man from another time and place, written with Professor Hocking's customary attention to fact.