Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke (1846-1881), journalist and novelist, was born on 24 April 1846 at 11 Leonard Place, Kensington, London, the only child of William Hislop Clarke, a Chancery lawyer, and his wife Amelia Elizabeth, née Matthews.
He arrived in Melbourne in 1863 and tried his hand at a number of occupations before starting his writing career at the Melbourne Argus. Soon outgrowing being a staff writer, he began work writing journalistic pieces for a variety of publications and columns, ending up at The Age. His writing career progressed through becoming an editor and an author, writing For the Term of His Natural Life in the early 1870s.
He died in St Kilda, Victoria in 1881.