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.