Frank Hardy

Frank Hardy

Frank Hardy, novelist, political activist and campaigner for Aboriginal rights, died of a heart attack at his home in the Melbourne suburb of North Carlton on Friday, January 28, aged 76.

As a writer, Hardy was probably best known for his 1950 work, Power Without Glory, which was a forceful indictment of both the capitalist system and the corrupt internal politicking of the Labor Party.

A lifelong and outspoken rebel against injustice, he wrote several pointedly political novels and became arguably Australia's most noteworthy writer in the post-World War II period.

Hardy was something of a working class hero; he worked as a labourer and seaman. He joined the Communist Party of Australia in 1939, an affiliation he maintained until that party's disbanding in December 1989.

Hardy is survived by three children.

From GLW issue 129