Marcus Clarke
Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke was an English-born Australian novelist, journalist, poet, editor, librarian and playwright. He is best known for his 1874 novel For the Term of His Natural Life, widely regarded as a classic work about convictism in Australia, that has been adapted into many plays and films.
Biography
Background and early life
Marcus Clarke was born in 11 Leonard Place Kensington, London, the only son of London Barrister William Hislop Clarke and Amelia Elizabeth Matthews Clarke, who died when he was just four years old. He was the nephew of Col Clarke, a Governor of Western Australia and grandson of a retired military medical officer of Irish descent. Clarke was born with his left arm at least two inches shorter than the right which prevented him from joining the army, though he became an accomplished diver in his days at Highgate School.. Clarke also had a slight stammer which remained his whole life, perhaps a residue of childhood insecurity. On one hand he was considered charming and fortified with wit, but on the other hand spoilt, conceited and aimless which could be partially attributed to his Bohemian upbringing by this father, and the novels which he spent much of his time reading. In 1862, father William was sent to Northumberland House suffering a mental, physical and financial breakdown and died there a year later, leaving Clarke an orphan and without the means to live as a dilettante, which had been his expectation. Marcus Clarke had been educated at Highgate School, where his classmates included Gerard Manley Hopkins, Cyril Hopkins and E.H.Coleridge. At Highgate, Clarke attracted Hopkins' attention primarily due to his eloquence, leading Hopkins to describe him as a "kaleidoscopic, parti-coloured, harlequinesque, thaumatropic Being" Clarke had problems with applying himself to his schoolwork, and was deprived, in his senior year of the poetry prize as punishment. At age 17 Clarke emigrated to Australia, where his uncle, James Langton Clarke, was a county court judge. Writing from his journey to Australia, he sent Hopkins a letter describing a sunset he had witnessed; this letter probably figured as partial inspiration for Hopkins' poem "A Vision of the Mermaids". After arriving in Melbourne in June 1863, Clarke was at first a clerk in the Bank of Australia, but showed no business ability, and soon proceeded to learn farming at a station on the Wimmera River, near Glenorchy, Victoria.Writing career
Clarke was already writing stories for the Australian Magazine, when in 1867 he joined the staff of The Argus in Melbourne through the introduction of Dr. Robert Lewins. He was noted for his vivid descriptions of Melbourne's street scenes and city types, including the "low life" of opium dens, brothels and gambling houses. He always claimed he was interested in the "parti-coloured, patch-worked garment of life". He briefly visited Tasmania in 1870 at the request of The Argus to experience at first hand the settings of articles he was writing on the convict period. Old Stories Retold began to appear in The Australasian from February. The following month his great novel His Natural Life commenced serialization in the Australasian Journal, and was later published in book form in 1874. Clarke became secretary to the trustees of the Melbourne Public Library and later, sub librarian. In 1868 he founded the Yorick Club, which soon numbered among its members the chief Australian men of letters.The most famous of his books is For the Term of His Natural Life, a powerful tale of an Australian penal settlement, which Marcus Clarke originally referred to as "His Unnatural Life." One critic has claimed that Clarke's novel is "the book that more than any other, has defined our perception of the Australian convict experience." He also wrote The Peripatetic Philosopher, a series of amusing papers reprinted from The Australasian; Long Odds, a novel; and numerous comedies and pantomimes, the best of which was Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. In 1869 he married the actress Marian Dunn, with whom he had six children.
For the Term of His Natural Life is a "ripping yarn", which at times relies on unrealistic coincidences. The story follows the fortunes of Rufus Dawes, a young man transported for a theft that he did not commit,when rendering assistance to the victim of a mugging. The harsh and inhumane treatment meted out to the convicts, some of whom were transported for relatively minor crimes, is clearly conveyed. The conditions experienced by the convicts are graphically described. The novel was based on research by the author as well as a visit to the penal settlement of Port Arthur.
Clarke was an important literary figure in Australia, and was the centre of an important bohemian circle. Among the writers who were in contact with him were Victor Daley and George Gordon McCrae. For the Term of his Natural Life is considered a novel in the grand tradition, that places Clarke with Charles Reade, Victor Hugo and Dostoevsky among the great nineteenth-century visionaries who found in the problems of crime and punishment a new insight, especially relevant in the convict-founded Australian colonies, into the foundations of human worth.
The biography "Cyril Hopkins' Marcus Clarke" is the only first-hand account of Clarke's early life in London. It draws on first-hand experiences of both author and subject.
In spite of his popular success, Clarke was constantly involved in financial difficulties, which are said to have hastened his death at Melbourne on 2 August 1881 at the age of 35.
Commemorations
Clarke's contribution to Australian literature and heritage is recognised in several places, including a main street in Canberra City that bears his name.In 1973 he was honored on a postage stamp bearing his portrait issued by Australia Post and he is one of the writers commemorated with a plaque on the Sydney Writers Walk.