Track 4: Joseph Furphy & His Champion

This is a letter written by Nettie Palmer regarding the Joseph Furphy memorial. At a Melbourne Book Week in 1927, Kate Baker – Joseph Furphy's literary assistant, friend and posthumous champion – suggested that a memorial plaque to Joseph Furphy be placed in Shepparton, where Furphy wrote Such is Life. A bronze portrait plaque was eventually erected in 1934 near Furphy's birthplace in Yarra Glen. Nettie Palmer's letter to Kate Baker – displayed here – refers to a proposed pilgrimage to the site of Furphy's birth the following year.

Kate Baker first met Joseph Furphy in 1887 and was immediately attracted to Furphy's intellect, wit, and his literary interests. Their ideas dovetailed, and 20 years his junior, she was flattered by his attention. Their friendship flourished through regular letters and Furphy’s annual visits to Melbourne. She assisted with research on literary matters and – even though Furphy maintained their relationship was platonic – a flirtatious banter pervades his affectionate letters to her. In 1888 the strength of his reliance on Miss Baker was borne out, when in opposition to his wife, mother and siblings, he refused to give up their friendship. In 1889 on completion of Such is Life Furphy sent the manuscript to Baker, writing ‘if it hadn’t been for you, there would have been no opus at all.’

Baker's devotion to the author is unquestionable and, upon his death in 1912 she became, in the words of AG Stephens of the Bulletin, 'Furphy's gallant standard bearer'. Her advocacy of Furphy's work was unstinting and acknowledged by Furphy's family and the broader community. She was awarded an OBE in 1937 for her efforts to publicise his work, and that of other local authors. In addition Joseph Furphy's collected correspondence was given to Baker by his mother Judith, and these letters formed the basis of Miles Franklin's biography of the writer, Joseph Furphy, the Legend of a Man and his Book.