A Fortunate Life

Albert Barnett Facey was born in 1894 in Maidstone, Victoria & grew up on the Kalgoorlie goldfields & in the wheat-belt of Western Australia. His father died before he was two. He was deserted by his mother soon afterwards. He was looked after by his grandmother until he was eight, when he went out to work. His many jobs included droving, hammering spikes on the railway line from Merredin to Wickepin & boxing in a travelling troupe.
He was in the 11th Battalion at the Gallipoli landing. After the war, he became a farmer under the Soldier Settlement Scheme but was forced off the land during the Depression. He joined the tramways & was active in the Tramways Union. Having no formal education, he taught himself to read & write. He made the first notes of his life soon after WWI, filling notebooks with accounts of his experiences. Finally, on his children's urging, he submitted a hand-written manuscript to the Fremantle Arts Centre Press. He died in 1982, nine months after A Fortunate Life had been published to wide acclaim.
"I have lived a very good life, it has been very rich & full. I have been very fortunate & I am thrilled by it when I look back."--A.B. Facey