author
Edric Glenfield
Remembered today for a rare late-19th-century Australian novel, this little-known writer tackled labor unrest and women's rights with unusual directness. The surviving record is slim, which makes the work feel like a small literary rediscovery.
1 Audiobook
On Strike, or, Where do the Girls come in?
by Edric Glenfield
About the author
Edric Glenfield is a little-documented author associated with On Strike, or, Where do the Girls come in?, a novel published in 1890 in Australia. Library and Project Gutenberg records confirm the book and its strong social focus, including its dedication "to all his Australian sisters."
That novel is set against the backdrop of labor conflict in Sydney and centers working women as part of the larger story of social reform. Even from the title alone, it is clear that Glenfield was interested in asking how women fit into public struggles that were often described mainly through men's work and politics.
Very little biographical information about Glenfield appears to be readily available in major public reference sources, so the author is best introduced through the surviving book itself. For modern listeners, that scarcity is part of the appeal: Glenfield comes across as a once-obscure voice from colonial Australia whose work still speaks to questions of fairness, work, and women's place in social change.