author
Louis Stone
1871–1935
Best known for the Sydney novel Jonah, this English-born Australian writer and playwright brought street life, ambition, and sharp social observation onto the page. His work helped shape early Australian urban fiction and is still remembered for its vivid sense of place.
1 Audiobook
Jonah
by Louis Stone
About the author
Born in Leicester, England, on 21 October 1871, he migrated with his family to Brisbane in 1884 and later settled in Sydney. Writing under the name Louis Stone, he became known as an Australian novelist and playwright.
His best-known book is Jonah (1911), a novel set in Sydney that was praised for its lively picture of city life and the world of the larrikin "Push." He also wrote Betty Wayside and worked for the stage as well as fiction.
Stone died in 1935, but Jonah remained the work most closely linked with his name. Readers still return to it for its memorable characters and its energetic portrait of early twentieth-century Sydney.