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Frank Fowler
1833–1863
A sharp-eyed journalist and travel writer, he helped shape Australia’s early literary culture before dying young in 1863. He is best known for Southern Lights and Shadows and for launching The Month, an early Australian literary journal.
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About the author
Born in London in 1833, Francis Edmund Town Fowler wrote under the name Frank Fowler. He worked as a journalist in Britain, including reporting on Parliament, before traveling to New South Wales in the mid-1850s for his health.
His time in Australia strongly influenced his writing. He contributed to colonial newspapers, wrote about local life and politics, and published Southern Lights and Shadows in 1859, a book drawn from his Australian experiences. He is also remembered for founding and editing The Month, which is often described as Australia’s first literary journal.
Fowler returned to England, where he continued writing, but his life was brief: he died in 1863, only about thirty years old. Even so, his journalism and books left a lasting mark on 19th-century Australian literary history.