For the Term of His Natural Life

‘Terrible and tragic, but seething with intense human life…A masterpiece.’ * Canberra Times *

Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke

Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke was born in London on April 24th, 1846. His mother died in infancy, and his father, William H. Clarke, a barrister and literary man known for his eccentric habits, showed little interest in his upbringing. Clarke grew up in the company of his father’s older friends, a social circle he later described as one “in which virtuous women were conspicuous by their absence.” This lack of parental guidance and emotional neglect contributed to an unstable temperament.

Despite receiving a good education at Chomley School, Highgate, and expecting a secure upper-class life, Clarke found himself orphaned and without resources upon his father’s sudden death in 1863. He emigrated to Australia, where his uncle, James Langton Clarke, a county court judge, secured him a clerkship at the Bank of Australasia in Melbourne.

Unsuited for an office career, Clarke left after a few months to pursue sheep-farming near Glenorchy on the Wimmera River. There, he encountered Indigenous Australian tribes and began submitting literary sketches to the Australian Magazine under the pseudonym ‘Mark Scrivener.’ In 1867, Dr. Lewins, whom he had met at the sheep station, helped him secure a position on the staff of the Melbourne Argus, marking the beginning of a distinguished journalistic career in Australia.

In addition to his reporting and editorial duties at the Argus, Clarke contributed to various journals and magazines. His series of critical essays, “The Peripatetic Philosophers,” examining men and manners, gained recognition as some of the finest writing of its kind in Australia.

While still with the Argus, Clarke acquired the Australian Magazine, renamed it the Colonial Monthly, and serialized his first novel, Long Odds. Some chapters of this work were written by his close friend G. A. Walstab. Long Odds was published in book form in 1869.

In 1868, Clarke began writing for Melbourne Punch. The following year, he launched a rival comic paper, Humbug, which unfortunately folded after only three months. In 1871, he contracted with the publishers of the Australian Journal to write a story about the British penal transportation system. Having received an advance, he traveled to Tasmania to recuperate and research the former convict settlements. This research culminated in For the Term of His Natural Life, his most celebrated work, which earned him international literary acclaim. The novel was first serialized in the Australian Journal from March 1871 to June 1872, and a revised, shortened version was published in book form in 1874. It was subsequently published in London, America, Germany, and other countries.

Clarke was appointed clerk to the trustees of the public library in Melbourne in 1870 and became sub-librarian in 1873. However, he dedicated much of his time to diverse literary pursuits, ranging from psychology to pantomime. He was deeply disappointed when he was not appointed librarian in 1880. A year later, the trustees requested his resignation due to his insolvency. His health had been in decline for some time, and this final setback eroded his spirit and will to live. Marcus Clarke died suddenly on August 2nd, 1881.

Over his fourteen-year literary career, Marcus Clarke produced approximately thirty short stories, a dozen plays (including dramas, comedies, burlesques, and adaptations), pantomimes, pamphlets, and numerous critical and satirical essays. Notable among his works are Plot, a successful drama staged at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne in 1873; an adaptation of Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme; the pantomime Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; and the story collection Holiday Peak.

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