For the Term of His Natural Life
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Marcus Clarke (1846-1881) was an Australian novelist journalist poet and librarian. Born in London Clarke was educated at Highgate School where he was a classmate of poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins. Orphaned in 1862 Clarke emigrated to Australia the following year. After toiling as a bank clerk in Melbourne he moved to a remote station along the Wimmera River and learned the art of farming. In 1867 having published several stories for the Australian Magazine Clarke found steady work with The Argus and The Australasian back in Melbourne gaining a reputation as a popular journalist of urban life. In 1870 after taking a trip to Tasmania to report on the status of the nations penal colonies Clarke began publishing his novel For the Term of His Natural Life (1874) in serial installments in The Australian Journal. The work was quickly recognized as a classic of Australian literature earning its author comparisons to such literary titans as Charles Dickens Victor Hugo and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Towards the end of his life Clarke worked as an assistant librarian at the Melbourne Public Librarynow the State Library Victoriawhere many of his manuscripts notebooks letters and diaries are held today.