author
John Miller
1861–1917
A journalist, novelist, and labor activist, he wrote under the name John Miller while helping shape the early Australian labor movement. His fiction blends big political ideas with the everyday lives of working people.
1 Audiobook
The Workingman's Paradise: An Australian Labour Novel
by John Miller
About the author
Born in Bristol, England, in 1861, William Lane became a journalist, trade unionist, and influential voice in labor politics. Reliable biographical sources identify John Miller as one of his pseudonyms, the name under which The Workingman's Paradise was published.
Lane emigrated to Australia and became closely associated with the emerging labor movement there. He is remembered not only for his journalism and political activism, but also for writing fiction that explored social reform, class, and the hope of building a fairer society.
He later pursued his utopian ideas through settlement projects in Paraguay, and he died in New Zealand in 1917. Today, his work is often read as part of both Australian literary history and the history of radical political thought.