Joseph Furphy
Joseph Furphy was an Australian author born on September 26, 1843, in Yering, Victoria, to Irish immigrant parents. He received informal education at home and showed a keen interest in literature from a young age, with early influences including the Bible and Shakespeare. Furphy's early career involved various occupations, including working with a threshing machine, homesteading, and transporting wool. In the 1880s, he began to pursue writing in earnest while working at his brother's foundry. His most notable work, *Such Is Life*, published in 1903, presents a fictionalized account of his experiences in Australia and is considered a significant contribution to Australian literature, although it initially sold slowly. Furphy also wrote under pseudonyms for publications like the *Sydney Bulletin*. He lived in Western Australia with his family from 1905 until his death in 1912. Furphy's literary legacy includes additional works, both fiction and poetry, that reflect his deep engagement with Australian life and culture.
Subject Terms
Joseph Furphy
Australian novelist and poet.
- Born: September 26, 1843
- Birthplace: Yering, Victoria, Australia
- Died: September 13, 1912
- Place of death:Claremont, Western Australia, Australia
Biography
Joseph Furphy was born in Yering, Australia, in 1843. His parents emigrated from Ireland in 1841. Young Furphy attended a small school in Kyneton and was also educated at home. The Bible and the works of William Shakespeare were rumored to be some of his earliest learning tools. At age twenty-three, Furphy bought a threshing machine and began working. Things were going rather well for him, and in 1867 he married a French-woman, Leonie Germaine. The following year, Furphy became a homesteader, a job he held for the next five years.
Furphy fell on some hard times and took up a job as a wool carrier. He transported wool and other items, and in his spare time he tried his hand at mining gold. Facing more troubles, in 1883 Furphy got a job at his brother John’s foundry. While working at the foundry, Furphy began to write in his spare time. Around 1889, he began to submit stories for publication under a number of pseudonyms. In 1903, Furphy wrote Such Is Life, his most famous work. The original manuscript originally contained over one thousand pages. Editors convinced Furphy to trim it down, and the parts of the manuscript that were removed were later made into two additional novels, neither of which were ever published. Such Is Life was a fictional account of Furphy’s life in Australia, and it provided people with insight into life on the continent. In spite of the book’s eventual literary importance, however, it was a slow seller. In 1905, Furphy moved to West Australia with his family, and he passed away in 1912.
Author Works
Long Fiction:
Such Is Life, 1903
Rigby's Romance, 1921
The Buln-Buln and the Brolga, 1948
Nonfiction:
Bushman and Bookworm: Letters of Joseph Furphy, 1995
Poetry:
Poems of Joseph Furphy, 1916
Bibliography
Bird, Delys. "The End of the Road: Joseph Furphy and Tom Collins in Western Australia." Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, vol. 13, no. 1, 2013, pp. 1–15. An essay that discusses Furphy's transition to Western Australia in his later years and the formation of his reputation.
Cameron, Anson. "Such Is Filmmaking." The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 Apr. 2012, www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/such-is-filmmaking-20120420-1xbxl.html. Accessed 21 June 2017. Describes a filmmaker's attempt to adapt part of Such Is Life for the screen, in part as an effort to revive interest in the classic book.
Clark, Manning. "Furphy, Joseph (1843–1912)." Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1981, adb.anu.edu.au/biography/furphy-joseph-6261. Accessed 21 June 2017. Provides an overview of Furphy's life and work.
Lever, Susan. "'Double Line to the Terminus': Marriage, Sex, Romance and Joseph Furphy." Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, vol. 13, no. 1, 2013, pp. 1–10. Examines the treatment of love and marriage in Furphy's novels while considering the background of Furphy's own marriage.
Martin, Susan K. "'One Week in Each Opening': Furphy and the Use of the Diary Form." Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, vol. 13, no. 1, 2013, pp. 1–13. Offers an analysis of Furphy's choice to write Such Is Life in the diary format.