Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke (1846-1881) was an English-born journalist and author who achieved eminence in colonial Australia. He is noted for his novel of early-19th-century convict transportation.

Marcus Clarke was born on April 24, 1846, in Kensington, London. His mother died while he was an infant, and he was brought up by his father, a lawyer with literary interests. When he was 16 his father died and, seeing no future for him in London, relations persuaded the boy to try his fortunes in Australia, where he could be under the eye of an uncle who owned a sheep run and held a judgeship.

After trying and disliking work in a Melbourne bank, Clarke at 19 went into the backcountry to taste the rustic life and gain "colonial experience." He began writing sketches for the Australian Magazine and in 1867 returned to Melbourne as a newspaper reporter. Energetic, restless, and unable to settle...